It all started when I was a child. I had a bad cold, and our family physician, a rather uncouth middle-aged matron, auscultated my heart. “Oh,” she exclaimed, “oh-oh, we are having a heart murmur. We should have a cardiac catheterization done. You know, my brother, the cardiologist, does them all the time. However, when I think of it, the last patient he did died of the procedure, so I think we had better forget about the catheterization and treat your infection.” For reasons known only to her, the well-meaning physician never mentioned the issue again. But she did manage to instill in me, early on, an ill-defined fear of heart catheters, heart murmurs, and heart doctors.