Carol never saw it coming. She and Bob had been out shopping together — they did everything that way.

It was a hot day and she decided to take a quick shower while he popped outside to water the plants. There was a loud crash and when he rushed back in he found his beloved wife of 30 years unconscious on the bathroom floor.

She never woke up. A CT scan revealed a massive bleed in her brain from an aneurysm she never knew she had. And she was gone.

Carol was my sister-in-law, not my patient. I wondered what thoughts went through her doctor’s mind when he heard the news. Had she ever mentioned any symptoms that could have alerted them to the aneurysm?