Also known as: EVALI
A 13-year-old honor student presents with symptoms mimicking a heart attack but is diagnosed with EVALI, a newly identified disease causing chemical burns to the lungs from vaping. His condition deteriorates to lung failure requiring heart-lung bypass, representing one of only hundreds of known cases of this emerging epidemic.
Also known as: Coma
A patient who has been in a persistent vegetative state for 14 years with no cerebral cortical function. His wife believes he is waking up due to reflexive eye movements and hand squeezing, creating a central conflict about whether to continue life support or remove his feeding tube.
Also known as: Morbid obesity
A patient who successfully lost significant weight (from 375 pounds) through medication but is left with extensive loose skin causing physical infections and severe psychological distress. Insurance denies coverage for reconstructive surgery, prompting creative medical coding to get her treatment approved.
Also known as: Skin infection
Skin infection resulting from Louise wrapping her excess skin with pantyhose, causing abrasion and bacterial infection at multiple sites on her arms.
A construction worker presents with chest pain and labored breathing. Through collaborative diagnosis using paper charts during a computer outage, staff identify nephrotic syndrome based on swollen neck, numb feet, and foul-smelling urine, requiring dialysis treatment.
Also known as: Suicide attempt
Louise expresses desire to use garden shears to remove her excess skin, indicating suicidal ideation and self-harm thoughts related to her body image and untreated surgical need.
An emergency department patient presents with sudden loss of vision in the right eye during the computer system outage, requiring urgent ophthalmology consultation and CT scan with contrast.