11.   Cooper said he was not surprised that the group of very sick patients in the federal study were not helped by the operation.

12.   Even being able to examine sick patients is not enough, he said.

13.   Except for a handful of patients too sick to run away, the hospital was almost abandoned when the experts arrived.

14.   Few studies have examined the mental capacity of sick patients.

15.   Four times, the authorities said, Mrs. Ferri injected her husband, a real estate investor, with needles that had already been used on sick patients.

16.   He believes that the drug-resistant bugs originate elsewhere but arrive here with sick patients, then quickly spread.

17.   He makes the analogy that Jewish law also obligates a doctor to help a sick patient in such circumstances.

18.   HMOs deny that they avoid sick patients.

19.   HMO executives deny that the organizations shun sick patients.

20.   I only see the sick patients.