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Their technology was cutting-edge and their clinical skills irreproachable. At first, however, they were too busy trying to save Lia’s life to focus on a great deal besides her pathology. [The doctor], for example, who worked on Lia for more than twelve hours straight, failed to notice her sex. “His metabolic acidosis was decreased after initial bolus of bicarbonate,” he wrote. “His peripheral perfusion improved and pulse oximetry started reading a value that correlated with saturation on the arterial blood samples.” Here was American medicine at its worst and its best: the patient was reduced from a girl to an analyzable collection of symptoms, and the physician, thereby able to husband his energies, succeeded in keeping her alive.

Explanation and Analysis:

This passages describes Lia’s final urgent hospitalization, in which she almost died but ultimately emerged with her life (though not her brain functions) intact. The last sentence of this paragraph is worth analyzing because of Fadiman’s tacit...

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Original

Romeo

(aside) She speaks.
O, speak again, bright angel! For thou art
As glorious to this night, being o’er my head,
As is a winged messenger of heaven
Unto the white, upturnèd, wondering eyes
Of mortals that fall back to gaze on him
When he bestrides the lazy-puffing clouds
And sails upon the bosom of the air.

Juliet

O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art though Romeo?
Deny they father and refuse they name.
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.

Modern

Romeo

(to himself) She speaks. Speak again, bright angel! For tonight you are as glorious, there up above me, as a winged messenger of heaven who makes mortals fall onto their backs to gaze up with awestruck eyes as he strides across the lazy clouds and sails through the air.

Juliet

O Romeo, Romeo! Why must you be Romeo? Deny your father and give up your name. Or, if you won’t change your name, just swear your love to me and I’ll give up being a Capulet.

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