Pleural Effusion

“This image represents a pleural effusion. I was working in the ER after the third surge when a young patient came in with chest pain and difficulty breathing. He had the wide-eyed, deer-in-the-headlights look that tells us so much more about a patient’s illness than the words they are speaking. He was ultimately diagnosed with new heart failure and a large pleural effusion. He spent several days in the hospital before being discharged with a handful of medications–tokens of his journey from healthy, well appearing adult to a chronically ill heart-failure patient.”