Moncton — While scrolling through your Facebook newsfeed this past week, you may have come across a video entitled “Dumbass asks kid-doctor to look at his feet.” The short clip has gone viral, and features a man in the pediatrics wing of the Moncton Hospital asking doctors if they can help him “cure” his feet, then yelling in frustration after they refuse.
That man was 62-year-old Moncton resident Charles Gaudin, who spoke exclusively with Manatee reporters last Friday.
“It felt like I was walking with a rock in my shoe, right along here,” he said, gesturing from his heel to his big toe. “It was killing me, y’know, so I decided I had to get it checked out by a doctor.”
Gaudin explained that he thought that a pediatric doctor would provide him with the best treatment possible for his foot. “I remember hearing somebody say that pediatricians were really good doctors for feet. After all, their name is in Latin, so they have to be smart, right?”
It was clear that Gaudin had confused pediatricians with the field of podiatry; but, as of yet, nobody has revealed this fact to him.
Gaudin was unaware of the recent attention surrounding him, and seemed to have no idea why he was being visited by reporters. Nevertheless, he remained a gracious host, offering Triscuits and cheese slices to the news crew, and politely answering every question we had for him.
Moncton Mayor George LeBlanc has said that the event had led the city to become “disgraced” on social media, and that he places the blame squarely on the education system. “Education has been my first priority since the moment I entered into office,” he wrote in an online statement. “I’ve led the fight to have Latin reinstated in the classroom. I feel that, if anything, Mr. Gaudin is a victim in all of this.”
Following that, the mayor issued an executive request that the pediatric doctors who had previously refused Gaudin provide him with the podiatric treatment he desired. They reluctantly agreed.
Through it all, Gaudin remained oblivious to the fact that the pediatricians were not specialists in podiatry. When asked about the effect of pediatric care on his feet, he had this to say: “I’m totally convinced — I can’t even describe how much better it feels,” he said, rubbing oil onto his toes. “I guess you could say that I’ve since become something of a ‘pedophile.'” He chuckled quietly to himself. Then suddenly, his brow furrowed. “Wait …”
The same thing that is done with his and her washroom symbols on the appropriate doors, then all these doctor ego names should be accompanied by an image of what the doctor does. Symbols for urologists and gynecologists may be a bit tricky but the podiatrist one would be a shoe-in.