He was at Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford, and fortunately for him, a small team of doctors led by a Dr. Howard Florey had managed to synthesize a very small amount of penicillin, a drug that had been discovered 12 years before by Alexander Fleming but had never actually been  used to treat a human, and indeed no one even  knew if the drug would work, if it was full of impurities  that would kill the patient, but Florey and his team figured if they had to use it,  they might as well use it on someone who was going to die anyway.
Estava na enfermaria Radcliffe em Oxford. Felizmente para ele, uma pequena equipa de médicos dirigida pelo Dr. Howard Florey tinha conseguido sintetizar uma pequeníssima quantidade de penicilina, um fármaco que tinha sido descoberto há 12 anos por Alexander Fleming, mas que nunca tinha sido usado para tratar pessoas. Ninguém sabia se essa droga funcionava, se estava cheio de impurezas que matariam o paciente. Mas Florey e a sua equipa aperceberam-se de que, se tinham de a usar mais valia usá-la em alguém  cuja morte fosse certa.