He was dead. His face a terrifying, sweat-slicked white, the young man's body lolled lifelessly on the emergency room gurney. Five hours earlier, Marty had walked in a strong, healthy 27-year-old. His only worry: some sharp pains in the left side of his chest that started two days earlier. He figured it might be a muscle pull from weightlifting. But then it spread. "Any shortness of breath?" I asked. "No." "Pain down your arm?" "Just the chest." "Do you smoke?" "Half a pack." "Cough? Fever lately?" "No, doctor." Marty was young for heart disease, but he was a smoker, I reminded myself. "OK. Let's take a listen." With his shirt off, Marty's compact frame bulged. On the left side, the sound of his breathing came through only faintly. Too much muscle? I wondered. But the right side sounded normal.
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