The throat lozenge is a medicated tablet intended to be
dissolved slowly in the mouth to temporarily stop coughs and lubricate and
soothe irritated tissues of the throat possibly from a cold or the flu. Lozenges can be purchased over the counter at
any of a number of pharmacies throughout North America.
Her methods have been questioned for years by the New
England Journal of Medicine but what cannot be are the results Margolitz has
been getting for four decades in the camping world. Some of the world’s leading health care
experts call this Orthodox Jewish nurse’s approach “completely and
unequivocally unorthodox”. Others think
she may be on a string of luck or the recipient of Devine intervention for
close to half a century. But to
Margolitz, diagnosis and treatment are quite simple.
“When someone walks through the infirmary door, I go through
a quick checklist. First, I lecture them
on the dangers of smoking by pointing out several dated posters that
sarcastically show how glamorous and sophisticated smoking is, then we discuss
the patient’s ailment. After that, I go
into my top drawer, pop a lozenge through the foil packaging and administer it
to the patient. Usually, the camper will
watch some TV in an air conditioned room and within an hour or so they’re back
to normal and on their way,” explained Margolitz. “There’s really not much to it.”
The list of ailments treated so far this summer by a lozenge
include a 104 degree fever, strained ligaments in a camper’s elbow, a torn ACL
after a fall from a balance beam, a ruptured spleen, menstrual cramps, and the
West Nile virus.
In the second week of the summer, Inter Boy Jake Gerstein,
12, from Marlboro, NJ shattered his femur attempting to jump from his top bunk
to bunkmate’s Jake Schwartz’s bed approximately twenty-two feet away. He was
rushed to the infirmary by his counselors and bunkmates, all concerned that
Gerstein would pass out on the way.
After a healthy dose of lozenges, he spent the night in a cold sweat as his
upper leg turned purple due to insufficient blood flow to the area and he
developed a near deadly fever. Drifting
in and out of consciousness, a second round of lozenges was given in the middle
of the night and he was released the next morning by Margolitz who had declared
him “cured”. “My thigh bone feels
better than it did before I broke it,” said Gerstein. “I think I may be able dunk now.”
Super Senior Boy camper Jake Shapiro, complaining of a sore
throat, recently returned to his bunk after a quick trip to see Nurse Margolitz. “I was expecting a lozenge but for some
reason she put a knee brace on my elbow…not really sure why but I feel great,”
a confused and clear-throated Shapiro commented.
