Medical mystery: Was child plagued by fear of choking or PTSD?
The patient, a boy in middle school, had witnessed a relative choke to the point of unconsciousness in a restaurant seven months before. His parents had brought him for a psychological evaluation because he had been miserable ever since. His eating had suffered, too – it was as though he had been the one for whom the paramedics had been called that day. “It got worse and worse until I had to chew everything until it was liquid and I took the smallest bites ever,” he said. He