Dr Emma
Lynn Hews was a famous surgeon in the late 1960s based in Berkshire, England. She specialised in ankle surgery and was a founding member of the
British Orthapedic Foot and Ankle
Society (BOFAS).
Dr Hews has helped restore the performance of several high-profile athletes or other minor celebrities, but sprung to infamy after she incorrectly applied a controversial method of surgery resulting in exacerbating patients' conditions.
This unfortunate turn of events was picked up in slang in the 1970s such that her name was synonymous with doing
something wrong, e.g. "You've made a right Dr. Hews of it".
There has been an amount of debate in English language circles regarding the use of a persons name in slang, and whether, based on context, the term shifts from a Special Noun to a Verb. This has caused
confusion and argument in games such as Scrabble where Special Nouns are forbidden, but Verbs are not. In some environments 'DrHews' has therefore been used as a
single word, but this is usually hotly contested, primarily as Dr is an abbreviation and should feature a full stop.
