Vital Signs

The Perfect Storm of Health Risk

In some situations, rare illnesses become downright probable. 12.19.2007

Instant Paralysis with an Instant Cure

Time to inject some mind vitamins. 11.28.2007

Vital Signs: Misdiagnosing ADHD

Just because it's in vogue doesn't mean it's accurate. 08.22.2007

Vital Signs: The Great Outdoors Bites Back

Go breathe in the fresh air, but be selective about it. 08.07.2007

Danger from the Belly Button

The navel gives a fetus life, but can bring a newborn death. 06.26.2007

Vital Signs: Attacked from Within

A woman battles a disease so diverse that it eludes diagnosis. 05.21.2007

Vital Signs: A Dangerous Pregnancy

An embryo that lands short of the womb can cause fatal complications. 04.16.2007

Vital Signs: Potassium Overload

Funky fruit can be fatal. 03.13.2007

Vital Signs: High Head Pressure

An infant's rapidly growing skull provides a clue to a life-threatening condition. 01.31.2007

Vital Signs: An Antibiotic Runs Amok

A woman's terrible stomach pain turns deadly. 01.13.2007

Vital Signs: Bugs Are Crawling In My Skin

Skin eruptions mystify both doctor and patient. 11.20.2006

Vital Signs: Why is He Fainting?

Mysterious fainting spells signal a deadly emergency for a middle-aged man. 11.16.2006

Vital Signs: Why Is He Limping?

The injury seemed recent, but its origins were not. 10.18.2006

Vital Signs: Trouble in the Nursery

The dog provides a clue to a family's puzzling seizures. 09.01.2006

Vital Signs: A Parent's Nightmare

Why has the baby become so listless? 07.29.2006

Vital Signs: Can She Survive The Cure?

A dread old disease tests a modern gynecologist. 06.14.2006

Vital Signs: Why Is She Getting Thinner?

Linking stomach pain, diabetes, and weight loss saves a life 05.29.2006

Vital Signs: The Boy Who Stopped Talking

A toddler's behavior gives away his disease 04.02.2006

Vital Signs: Why Does Her Belly Hurt?

Complications from surgery provide an important lesson for ER doctors 03.10.2006

Vital Signs: Why Is Her Vision Hazy?

The warning signs become more ominous as a patient's symptoms come and go 02.20.2006

Vital Signs: What's That Noise In Her?

A diagnostician facing his own medical troubles tracks down a killer defect. 01.17.2006

Vital Signs: Struggling to Inhale

The same symptoms for an infant and an older man have separate causes and different consequences 12.01.2005

Vital Signs

Benign but irritating skin eruptions signal much more serious internal troubles 11.22.2005

Vital Signs

A young man's surprising collapse has a complex cause. 10.24.2005

Vital Signs

A puzzling weakness leads to an unexpected diagnosis 09.09.2005

Vital Signs

A song from Shrek helps a 5-year-old boy recover from difficult surgery 08.06.2005

Vital Signs

Appendicitis? Or something else? 07.24.2005

Vital Signs

A swollen area grows larger and larger 06.05.2005

Vital Signs

End-of-term complications in a difficult pregnancy almost kill a mother 05.01.2005

Vital Signs

A patient's history evokes dread as a physician begins to probe 04.28.2005

Vital Signs

Over-the-counter drugs can be risky 03.31.2005

Vital Signs

The cause of a teenage athlete's fever and pain takes a doctor by surprise 02.06.2005

Vital Signs

An elderly man's puzzling symptoms are as old as humanity itself 01.02.2005

Vital Signs

Could an aching chest and pain in the belly have a common cause? 11.25.2004

Vital Signs

An otherwise healthy woman suddenly develops a drunken stagger 10.01.2004

Vital Signs

Evaluating fussiness in a baby is tricky, but a heart rate of 220 is not ambiguous 08.02.2004

Vital Signs

What do you do when a live patient declares that he is, in fact, dead? 07.25.2004

Vital Signs

Why can't this woman breathe? 06.27.2004

Vital Signs

A young athlete stumbles around the emergency room like an old man 05.29.2004

Vital Signs

Will a young mother bleed to death after giving birth? 04.21.2004

Vital Signs

Was it pneumonia, asthma, or something his mother drank? 03.28.2004

Vital Signs

A young woman's on-again, off-again pain has an unexpected origin 02.05.2004

Vital Signs

A surgeon must carefully reposition a thighbone after a motorcycle injury 01.02.2004

Vital Signs

A young man in perfect health lies paralyzed by an unknown pathogen 12.03.2003

Vital Signs

A child's disease rears up against adults as their vaccinations wear thin 11.08.2003

Vital Signs

What could be tormenting a woman who lives such a sheltered life? 10.01.2003

Vital Signs

A boy is gasping for his life, and the medics' rescue measures have failed 09.01.2003

Vital Signs

New thinking about an old disease 08.01.2003

Vital Signs

An unfamiliar pathogen attacks unsuspecting passengers on a jetliner 07.01.2003

Vital Signs

What's the connection between mental illness and cornea color? 06.01.2003

Vital Signs

She looked healthy, yet the X ray suggested she would soon die 05.01.2003

Vital Signs

I could tell from the infant's unusually high-pitched cry and disturbed vision that he needed immediate attention and treatment to survive 04.01.2003

Vital Signs

Did this writhing, choking child really have to die? 03.01.2003

Vital Signs

Was this a simple case of pneumonia or something much worse? 02.01.2003

Vital Signs

Why does this young woman's head pound when she puts on her shoes? 01.01.2003

Vital Signs

Why can't this baby hold down her formula? 12.01.2002

Vital Signs

A vague, frustrating symptom gets a precise explanation 11.01.2002

Vital Signs

Where did it go? 10.01.2002

Vital Signs

A sore marks the telltale path of a troublesome parasite 09.01.2002

Vital Signs

Strange things can happen when the brain runs low on sugar 08.01.2002

Vital Signs

A fearsome infection spoils a honeymoon 06.01.2002

Vital Signs

The disease that shows us how we are what we eat 05.01.2002

Vital Signs

Uncovering a rare but age-old disease of pain and madness 04.01.2002

Vital Signs

Ultrasound uncovers a lethal choke hold on the heart 03.01.2002

Vital Signs

A legendary but surprisingly docile pathogen takes hold in a young man 02.01.2002

Vital Signs

Yet another mysterious disease that masquerades as the flu 01.01.2002

Vital Signs

Sometimes the immune system turns on its host 12.01.2001

Vital Signs

A dizzy spell provides the key to a little girl's developmental delay 11.01.2001

Vital Signs

A simple excursion brings home a sleeping giant 10.01.2001

Vital Signs

Our intestines do a lot of work without complaint. When they do complain, what does it mean? 09.01.2001

Vital Signs

For more than a century, the key to cancer therapy has always been, Wait for the pathology report 08.01.2001

Vital Signs

A killer masquerades as back, heart, and leg pain 07.01.2001

Vital Signs

Sick kids show up in the ER every day-but they're rarely this sick 06.01.2001

Vital Signs

Headache, fever, and vomiting-a simple viral infection, right? 05.01.2001

Vital Signs

When a sick stomach won't go away, a good patient history can help 04.01.2001

Vital Signs

This time it showed up as dizziness and shortness of breath. But it could have appeared as fever, weight loss, or joint pains 03.01.2001

Vital Signs

A teenager's stomachache proves a diagnostic puzzle—and a cautionary tale 02.01.2001

Vital Signs

The patient's symptoms resembled a backache, but their cause might prove far more deadly 01.01.2001

Vital Signs

Why are so many women in this family unable to conceive? 12.01.2000

Vital Signs

Sometimes when a seizure hits, even the doctor doesn't know whether it's real 11.01.2000

Vital Signs

Mr. Post's escalating fever after a monthlong trip into the bush was not a good sign 10.01.2000

Vital Signs

A wonderful vacation puts newlyweds in a tailspin 09.01.2000

Vital Signs

This pump's electrical system is as finely crafted as a microchip 08.01.2000

Vital Signs

An insidious--and often undiagnosed--sleep disorder robs a woman of her ability to take in oxygen 05.01.2000

Vital Signs

Parents learn that it doesn't take much to start a biological storm in a toddler's brain 04.01.2000

Vital Signs

When is a cardiac patient's abnormality perfectly normal after all? 03.01.2000

Vital Signs

Are you psychotic, overdosing, or did you just forget your booster shot? 01.01.2000

Vital Signs

Mr. Chang can't move his legs, and if something isn't done, his lungs will go next 12.01.1999

Vital Signs

A couple with HIV who long for their own child muster the courage to face the consequences 11.01.1999

Vital Signs

A neglected tooth infection runs amok and threatens to choke off a young inmate's throat 10.01.1999

Vital Signs

The wrong diagnosis tears a family apart 09.01.1999

Vital Signs

Her pulse was close to stopping. Was it the drugs she was taking? 08.01.1999

Vital Signs

Mr. Ervin didn't know what hit him, and neither did his doctor 07.01.1999

Vital Signs

What did Mr. Leonard's back have to do with his eyesight? 06.01.1999

Vital Signs

One of Gaby's legs was short; the problem had to be her hip 03.01.1999

Vital Signs

Mary Grove was suddenly shedding skin in large red patches. The loss was a threat to her life. 02.01.1999

Vital Signs: Dr. Daiquiri

Marilyn Baker was hurting. But her doctor's prescriptions only kept her in thrall to her pain. 07.01.1998

Vital Signs: Heart Smarts

I knew just the right drug to calm my patient's racing heart. I just had no proof it would work. 06.01.1998

Vital Signs:Locked in Place

Andrea's accident had imprisoned her mind in a lifeless body. But how was anyone to know? 05.01.1998

Vital Signs: Sounds of Silence

An accident threatened Mr. Sinclair's poor hearing. Could microsurgery save his fragile world? 04.01.1998

Vital Signs: Sounds of Silence

An accident threatened Mr. Sinclair's poor hearing. Could microsurgery save his fragile world? 03.01.1998

Vital Signs: Final Battles

Mrs. Chang's life had not been easy. Now she was afraid her death wouldn't be, either. 03.01.1998

Vital Signs: A Passion for Painting

Suddenly, at 52, Mr. Carter changed. Now he cared only for art and scorned the world he knew 01.01.1998

Vital Signs: The Shrinking Deficit

02.01.1996

Vital Signs: A Deadly Cry

12.01.1995

Vital Signs: No Surrender

11.01.1995

Vital Signs: The Aretha Franklin Test

03.02.1995

Vital Signs: A Deadly Masquerade

06.01.1994