By Dr. Anthony Policastro Most medical diagnoses are obvious if you ask the right questions. However, some are less obvious. In those instances, it is important to make sure that all the information is obtained. That is usually obtained through asking more questions. But it is dependent upon asking the right questions. It is also dependent on getting the right answers. There are times when a complex diagnosis can hinge on one minor piece of information. When I was assigned to Andrews AFB in the early 1980s, we had a six-week-old patient come to the medical center for surgery. He had a condition called pyloric stenosis that was common at that age. The surgery is pretty routine. After the surgery, I got a call at 2 a.m. from one of the interns. He told me that the patient was coding. When I got to the hospital, the infant was receiving CPR. I noticed that the abdomen seemed distended. So I got a needle and tapped it. Blood came out. The abdomen was filled with blood, so there was clearly a bleeding problem. We continued CPR and started IV fluids. We called the parents and went in to talk [...]