What are the chances.......

That this daily run of the mill random patient that you  see in the ER with all the pattern of symptoms that have become second nature to you to slot and eal with, is an initial manifestation of a rare syndrome that you existed only in the small paragraphs of the end of the chapter in Harrison that you never read? 

That would depend on the questions you ask I guess. No one comes to the doctor saying I have Langerhans cell histiocytosis or MELAS. You could be very comfortable treating these guys as "COPD exacerbation" or "young stroke with negative work up" and never know for once whats going on. It runs well with your spiel of things- protocol done, rehab worked out, patient feels well, D/C to nursing home. 

You could very well put it the other way around and ask, well......WHAT ARE the  chances?

Well.....it all depends on the questions you ask.

Full code

Some day the old guy with multiinfarct dementia with PEG tubes pumping tasteless Jevity 1.5 into his stomach, trach to breathe, multiple aspirations of garden variety flora , MRSA in his maniacal decubiti, VRE in his pee and shit thats C difficult to solidify, will wake up and live his life.

The life where he could get out and smoke some hash , sell some Percocet on the street to add to his income from disability /social security checks , get mugged/shot/stabbed walking home with the booty- all this while battling his chest pain that someone told was from the coke- bah those guys, its the itch from his sternotomy sutures, nothing more- and making occasional visits to the dialysis center, suffering for some stupid genes that his ancestors handled him besides plus size jeans thats family heirloom , battling the stupid BiPAP machine at night when sweet love slept with her own.

That life beckons to him - he craves to get up and move on. It is more than just a sexually transmitted disease, or an accidental collision between sperm and ovum with randomness of Heisenberg or phylogenetic boohah.

You can choose life, choose a job, choose career, Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance. Choose fixed interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends.

Or you can choose to live life this way and never die.Because them guys told em all "to do everything."
Just as he did everything man.

Italicised material by Mark Renton from Trainspotting