Office of Education
Yale University
School of Medicine
367 Cedar Street
300 ESH
New Haven, CT
06519 USA

Case author: Frederick D. Haeseler, M.D.

Dan Yang: Introduction

Last August, Dan lifted an old black metal trunk filled with clothing, books, photos, music CDs, and a baseball glove into the back of his family's Plymouth Voyager, hugged his mom and his “little” brother, took a deep breath, and drove off with his dad by his side to start a new chapter in his life as a college freshman in the Green Mountains of Vermont.

Three weeks later he was back in the Voyager, headed home for the weekend after a sudden illness that came and went like a thunderstorm on a late summer afternoon. Although he was feeling better, the nurse practitioner at the student health service recommended that he “go home, have some chicken soup, and rest up this weekend before returning to class.”

“I'm really upset, Dad. I lost a day of classes. I'll never catch up,” Dan said as his father pulled into the driveway. That night at 4:00 AM, unable to sleep, Paul Green gently opened his son's bedroom door. Dan, who was awake and sitting in a chair, turned toward the door with a grimace and said, “Dad, I think you better call Doctor Grey.”

Next: Patient interview