He looks sick to me. Really sick.
The worried tone in the resident’s voice, even amid the hubbub of a busy emergency room, caught my attention like a shout. I quickly finished with the chart I was writing and made myself available.
What’s the story? I asked her.
Twenty-year-old Chinese male came in last night complaining of headaches and fevers. The night team thought it might be meningitis, so they did a spinal tap. But the lab just called, and the fluid’s clear, so there’s no meningitis. And now his temperature is back up to 103.
Before Barbara, the resident, had found me, she had mentioned the case to the staff neurologist, who was in the emergency room to examine someone else. A quick detour into our patient’s room was enough to plant a worried frown on his owlish features.
