I said, “Did you flex his neck?” They said, “We don’t do that in the MRI scanner. That’s not the protocol.” “You don’t get it,” I said. “The disease is defined that way.” I bring the new scans up on my monitor to show Elliott. This is one of those cases where the right picture really is worth a thousand words, and the wrong picture is worth one. I show Elliott what the MRI looked like when they had him flex his neck. The ligament buckles, it bunches, it causes venous congestion, and it pinches the spinal cord. “Every time the kid leaned forward he compressed his spinal cord, and he’s a
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