Edward Hopper Sunday paintingAmedeo Modigliani Reclining Nude paintingAlphonse Maria Mucha The Judgement of Paris painting
physician tapped the keys again, and a third display shared the screen with the first two.“This is heart function. Standard three-phase action. Diastole, atrial systole, ventricular systole. Slow but not too slow. Weak but not too weak. Slight irregularities, but nothing dangerous. Now look here at the brain waves.”The beta waves were doing the them to the slow, steady heartbeat. “After fifty-six minutes of this, his brain activity returned to the long, slow delta waves?”“That’s right. Until he died the next morning.”“So if it’s not two machines malfunctioning, how do you explain all of this, Doctor?”“I don’t. I can’t. You asked me if there was anything unusual in the patient’s file. Specifically, something ... uncanny.”“Yes, but—”earthquake jitterbug once more.Ethan said, “He’s terrified again.”“In my opinion, yes. Yet there’s no change in heart function. It’s the same slow, somewhat weak beat with tolerable irregularities, [364] exactly his deep-coma pattern ever since he was first admitted to the hospital almost three months ago. He’s in a state of terror ... yet his heart is calm.”“The heart’s calm because he’s comatose. Right?”“Wrong. Even in a profound coma, Mr. Truman, there isn’t this complete disconnect between the mind and body. When you’re having a nightmare, the terror is imagined, not real, but heart function is affected just the same. The heart races during a nightmare.”For a moment, Ethan studied the violently jumping beta waves and compared
Thursday, December 18, 2008
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