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Death and Disbelief

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 June 2020

Extract

A middle-aged woman had a massive stroke and would be dead within hours. The husband was in the ER waiting room. I took him aside and explained the grim prognosis. He paused, his expression blank, his lips searching for something to say. Finally, he blurted out, “I think I’ll go home and take a shower.”

Type
Departments and Columns
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2020

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Footnotes

Symptoms of Consciousness: Where Science and Story Meet In this series of short essays, stories, poems, and personal observations, Robert A. Burton, neurologist and writer, uses both fiction and non-fiction to explore the many paradoxes and contradictions inherent in scientific inquiry. A novelist as well as author, Burton brings story to science and science to story.