On paper, Christel Put was the last person a cardiologist would worry about. A nurse who had spent years in intensive care, she did not smoke, did not drink, exercised regularly. Her blood pressure was normal. Her cholesterol sat around 200, her triglycerides low, her good cholesterol high. No family history of heart disease. A body-mass index of 19.
Every box the standard risk models check, she ticked in the reassuring direction. She also had a coronary artery that was almost completely closed.
Her story is a quiet warning about the averages medicine trusts. A person can pass every standard test and still be in danger, and what saves them may be less a better test than a doctor unwilling to accept a reassuring one.