Field notes: The haunting words from a case early in my career.

On weekends, I share personal stories and insights from my work as an ER doctor with our premium subscribers. This is a story I've carried with me for several years now. And, as always, we’ll be back tomorrow with data-driven updates and analyses. Have a great Sunday.

—Jeremy

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Sometimes a sentence stays with me. One of these is something a patient said to me very early in my career as an attending emergency physician here in Boston. It occasionally enters my mind when I am treating a very sick person. When I tell it to you, it might haunt you just a bit, like it haunts me now.

My patient didn’t speak a lot of English. We’d relied on a translator when I’d first met her. But she knew enough to take me by surprise later when she turned toward me, looked me square in the eyes, and spoke up. There was a bizarre certainty on her face. She blinked once, and in the most matter-of-fact of ways declared, “I die today.”

I froze. I looked right back at her. I raised my eyebrows and curled the side of my mouth, a sarcastic and bemused smirk. This was to hide that I was a bit unnerved by her startling, if broken English. “Not on my watch, lady,” I told her.