In December 1988, Arlan Rosenbloom arrived in Quito, Ecuador, to treat a handful of patients. For the past decade, the endocrinologist had treated several Ecuadorian children with growth hormone deficiency, a common type of dwarfism, at his clinic at the University of Florida. Now, for the first time, he had flown down to South America to treat them at home. The plan was to give six patients their biannual dose of growth hormone, saving them the expense of visiting Rosenbloom in the States.
Once he arrived, the director of the local children’s hospital, who had previously trained under Rosenbloom, referred patients en masse, and by the end of his stay, Rosenbloom had seen 100 patients, many with growth problems. Out of the stream of patients, the ones that struck him…