Mr. Clark worked in a newspaper, and he did a lot of important and difficult work, but then he began to forget things, and this made his work very difficult. One day he said to himself, "I'm going to go and see Dr. Martin about this." He waited in the doctor's waiting room with the other patients, and then the nurse said to him, "You can go in and see Dr. Martin now". "Oh, doctor," said Mr. Clark, 'it's terrible, I can't remember anything for longer than half a minute, and it's making my work very difficult. What can I do? Can you help me?" The doctor said, "When did this start, Mr. Clark?" "When did what start?" Mr. Clark said. A patient is   _   .
a person who will die soon a person who is ill a doctor' s helper a doctor's friend