How to Crash
April 21, 2026 at 04:30PMWe’ve all gotten a bump on the head. Fewer of us have fallen out of a moving minibus and directly onto our heads. Fewer of us still are doctors who have experienced such an event, and the fewest of all are also, in addition to the other three things, very funny writers. Thankfully, that sub-sub-sub-sub category contains Adam Boggon, whose Pangyrus essay about [see above] made my dreary Monday afternoon much more enjoyable.
I lay on my back in the scanner. It is sometimes observed that there are two types of doctors: those who study every disease and conclude that they have it, and those who assume that because they know pathology, they are invulnerable to it. Both positions are insane. I incline toward the latter. This is in part because I’ve admitted patients to hospital for years and know that most hospital doctors are defensive and risk-averse, so request large numbers of tests even when the prior probability of a positive finding is low. As a consequence I have seen hundreds of CT scans ordered after head injuries, and barely a fistful of major bleeds. Admittedly I had never seen a patient ejected sideways out of a retro camper van. I chose not to dwell on that.
from Longreads https://longreads.com/2026/04/21/how-to-crash/
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