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In the novel The Hollow, Mrs Crabtree is a patient of John Christow's at St. Christopher's Hospital.

According to Henrietta Savernake, John Christow considered Mrs Crabtree as "his prize patient". She has Ridgeway's disease, which is incurable but John wanted to experiment with a cure and Mrs Crabtree has agreed to try out his experimental treatments. To Henrietta, Christow's work with Mrs Crabtree demonstrated the kind of doctor he really is, all consumed with "intense scientific curiosity and achievement". "Ridgeway's Disease and Mrs. Crabtree is what has been uppermost in John's mind for months - night and day - nothing else really counted." Henrietta describes Mrs Crabtree as "an old woman - ugly, dirty, wrinkled, quite indomitable." John was fond of Mrs Crabtree because "she's got guts, she wants to live".

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