Upper respiratory infection triggers complications in a healthy college student.

A number of diagnostic possibilities are raised, including allergy, asthma, postnasal drip, and reflux.

As a nurse, the patient had access to many informal opinions. Would a proper evaluation have led to a quicker diagnosis?

It was a typical Friday afternoon, and I was about to leave the hospital when a senior medical resident asked me to see Mrs. J , who had just been admitted to the floor from the emergency department.

"If this cowboy were a cowgirl, I'd say he had morning sickness," Dr. K, the patient's primary-care physician, said. "He's a tough 22-year-old and so stoic I honestly didn't appreciate that the vomiting was going to be a big deal.

"It's actually my Dad you need to see." That was the greeting of one of our asthmatic patients returning for an interval visit. "I just came along for the ride," protested his father. I guessed that to be unlikely because Mr. W was a wheat farmer, and we were meeting in the middle of harvest season.

A physically fit young woman seeks medical care when she develops increasing dyspnea and signs of a circulatory disorder.

Perhaps the patient had a viral infection or metabolic disorder. But her symptoms pointed to something more urgent.

The vesicular rash spread rapidly from the face and mouth to cover the chest, back, arms, legs, and feet.

A once-robust man, in the habit of exercising regularly, suddenly finds himself too weak to climb the stairs.