[And now she gives a wry smile.] Before we had Chopper, I was the only one with any real medical expertise on ship. So when I became sick, Luffy didn't really have much choice other than to put into port in search of a doctor.

And then, of course, we managed to find the only island that had a shortage of doctors at the time. There were only two. Chopper was one of them.

He's really young, but he's really talented. Turned out I'd got bitten by a rare kind of insect and it tends to be fatal. So ...he saved my life.