Real Life Medical Emergencies Caught Just in Time

Not so Quiet in the Library

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At the library one evening, I watched a man massage his left arm for a moment, then stretch out his hand. I noticed that it was bright red. All the veins in his arm were dilated, without corresponding dilation on the other arm. I walked up to him and asked if that happened to him a lot.

“Every now and then,” he said. I told him that I was a doctor and asked if I could do a simple test with his wrists (Adson’s sign). I did it, and my face immediately went flush. His radial pulse was obliterated. I told him to talk with his doctor about Thoracic Outlet Syndrome.

Boom: three weeks later, he was scheduling a rib removal for TOS from a cardiothoracic surgeon. The plot twist? I didn’t tell him that I am actually a dentist. But I still saved him, so what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him, right? Story Credit: Reddit/Doctor_Watson

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