What problems are there with ejection fraction?

Gravitas: French nuclear submarine patrols South China Sea

The German Sergeant

I remain puzzled regarding Mr. Smiths' motive in telling me this story. I suspect that he told what he did since I am also a former military officer. I am a general practitioner. I met Mr. Smith on a busy Monday afternoon. I asked his reason for seeing me this day and he replied he had a pain in his right flank. We discussed the nature, intensity and timing of the pain, all the usual things that make it better or worse and finally worked in to the common question regarding the length of time the pain had been occurring. He replied 48 years yesterday. This struck me as unique and I gently pried further about anniversaries and where he was 48 years ago. I learned he was a sharpshooter raised in the swamplands of South Carolina.  Mr. Smith told me he was a Corporal in a rifle squad in the US Army in the Battle of the Bulge. The battle on the day was apparently quite static and the front lines moved several times within hours. Corporal Smith and his squad were pinned up against an equally stubborn German squad for several hours and he managed to kill or wound several members of the squad in front him. As happens in war, German reinforcements then swarmed in and overthrew Corporal Smiths' position and took his entire squad as prisoners. A German Sergeant from the opposing squad then sought out Corporal Smith and cursed him many times while kicking him in the right side until many ribs were cracked. In the ongoing maelstrom, American reinforcements soon arrived and retook the contested position within several hours. The American squad was freed and the German squad were now prisoners of Corporal Smith. I asked Mr. Smith what happened next. He told me he went to his lieutenant and asked him for his sidearm. The lieutenant obliged the corporal and he proceeded to find the unarmed German Sergeant and shot him between the eyes. I had no remedy for Mr. Smith that day but we cordially parted ways. I have often wondered if he is a murderer or was a 19 year old kid at the end of his frayed nerves on a bad day. Leslie Beben 9/3/22

Soulshine

a bigoted woman

In 1977 I was an Air Force intensive care technician at Keesler AFB, MS. There one day I met an extremely ill white 78 y/o woman with fulminant Hepatits B to the extent she required ventilator support. The unfortunate woman was sealed in a negative airflow room, seemed to have no visitors and communicated by chalkboard with the staff. Because she was so infectious and ventilator dependent, one of us had to sit by her bedside in full gown, mask, gloves and footwear in case her ventilator malfunctioned. I took my shift for four hours one day and prepared to break for lunch. We could see through the airlock my friend Lee Whitaker was dressing to spell me for lunch when the lady got my attention and wrote on her chalkboard. She wrote "Please don't leave me in here alone with that Nigger".
I had a good lunch that day and have stewed about this ever sice.