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.
Ele estava na enfermaria do Radcliffe, em Oxford, e felizmente para ele, uma pequena equipe de médicos liderada pelo Dr. Howard Florey havia conseguido sintetizar uma pequeníssima quantidade de penicilina uma droga que havia sido descoberta 12 anos antes por Alexander Fleming mas nunca havia sido realmente usada  para tratar um humano, e ninguém sabia se a droga funcionaria, se estava cheia de impurezas que matariam o paciente. Mas, Florey e sua equipe pensavam que se era para usá-la, que fosse em alguém à beira da morte.