Clairvoyants

Abstract

Breathing hard and afraidthe fat man catalogues his pain in short phrases.He sweats.We circle the stretcher pretending what we do is meaningful.We make reassuring commentsto the family.When the tests are completewe still don’t know what to call it.But we know it when we see it.ED physician’s blink response;highly accurate:This patient is trying to die.The man is put in the hospital.Days later a diagnosis:“Splenic artery aneurysm rupture.”We don’t know about that ….But we despise our clairvoyance: he died.