Lumbar punctures don’t kill people

The intern fiddled with the oxygen tank and dashed away to get some tools. I looked at her attendants and shook my head. The two men held their emotions. Their stoic faces showed only a flicker of intense pain before settling back into chiseled fixation. As if called by some universal force, more of her family flowed in, taking in the silence that had descended upon the emergency department. They saw the used needles, bloody and guiltily lying beside her supine form.