FREE NEJM E-TOC    HOME   |   SUBSCRIBE   |   CURRENT ISSUE   |   PAST ISSUES   |   COLLECTIONS   |   Search Term  Advanced Search

Sign in | Get NEJM's E-Mail Table of Contents — Free | Subscribe

Previous Volume 358:1092-1095 March 13, 2008 Number 11 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

	Full Text PDF PDA Full Text Add to Personal Archive Add to Citation Manager Notify a Friend E-mail When Cited E-mail When Letters Appear PubMed Citation

I know the color of that blood; it is arterial blood. I cannot be deceived in that color. That drop of blood is my death warrant. I must die.

The British Romantic poet John Keats, trained as a physician and licensed by the Society of Apothecaries, gave himself this accurate prognosis in 1820 after an episode of hemoptysis. He realized that he had contracted tuberculosis, and tragically, he died soon afterward at the age of 25.

Less eloquent and portentous were the words of a patient I saw at Temple University Hospital's emergency department in 2007. "I coughed into my . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Source Information

Dr. Paralkar is a resident in internal medicine at Temple University Hospital, Philadelphia.

HOME  |  SUBSCRIBE  |  SEARCH  |  CURRENT ISSUE  |  PAST ISSUES  |  COLLECTIONS  |  PRIVACY  |  HELP  |  beta.nejm.org Comments and questions? Please contact us. The New England Journal of Medicine is owned, published, and copyrighted © 2008 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved.