Misdiagnosis

Here's a funny story. So Saturday morning, Nicole and were nearing the completion of our DPS practical (an assigment in our class Doctor, Patient, and Society in which we had to craft a History of the Present Illness for an imaginary patient), and were walking down the hallway after a breakfast of pancackes. I noticed the cleaning woman, walking very slowly towards the landing, leaning against the wall. Having just researched certain neurological conditions for the paper, I immediately wondered what could be wrong with her - was she experiencing some hemiparesis (one-sided weakness)? Should I check see if she was alright? We passed her, and as I glanced over my shoulder at her, she said something very softly, something that sounded like "be careful" or "watch out". And then I heard the scraping.

Just ahead of us, the hallway opened into an open-air landing, with a little white balcony and stairs heading down. Behind the traschcan, a large, scrambling shape caught my attention - it was a dark-green, 3 foot-long monster of an iguana that looked like it stepped right out of the cretaceous period, perched precariously over the edge of the railing. I saw it before Nicole did, and I must say - I thought it was the cooolest thing I'd seen all morning. However, in the next second, right before Nicole saw it, the thing disappeared from view for a few interminable seconds. Next came a solid, heavy *WHUMP* into the grass below. I quickly crossed to the balcony and peered over the edge, wondering what a 30-foot drop would do to 20 lbs. of reptilian muscle. Apparently, not a whole lot - the giant iguana scrambled away into some greenery.

When Nicole and I had descended the stairs and were making our way to the morning anatomy T.A. session, the beast was gone from sight. It then occured to me, that things would be very different had we been, say, 20 seconds earlier.