Postmortem Sanford J.Brown(著)

    Coming out of my exam room on a Monday morning, I saw two overweight police officers standing in my waiting room. From past experience, I knew that they were there to tell me that one of my patients had died and to collect information for the coroner’s report. Even as I geared up to hear the impending bad news, the doctor in me couldn’t help wondering how they’d passed their department physicals.

    "Do I need to call a lawyer?" I joked, trying to guess which of my patients it could be.

    "Michael Freund died on Saturday," said Dalia, my office manager.

    It was a shot to my gut. Mike was seventy-three years old, but one of my healthiest patients for his age. He neither smoked nor drank, took no medicines except for the occasional Viagra and played tennis with a passion. He was fit and trim, and I couldn’t imagine what had done him in.

    I hadn’t seen Mike in the months since he’d come in for his annual exam, which had raised no red flags. Then I remembered that he had called me the previous Thursday with some vague complaint that I couldn’t recall. I’d set him up for an appointment the next day, but he’d called to cancel, telling Dalia he was feeling better. ......