The best surgeons in the world lose to the universe sometimes. And they don’t know why. This story is about mysterious deaths doctors cannot explain

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Hey, Maaz,” a friend randomly called up. She’s the kind of friend you don’t talk to often but feel connected to the moment you have a conversation. We all have these friends. There is no compulsion to make small talk or exchange pleasantries, asking about families and discussing other trivia before getting to the meat of the discussion, even if you’ve picked up the phone after months or, at times, years.

“I’m calling about my second cousin, who is 20,” she gave me the brief. “Last night, she was out at a family function where she was perfectly fine. She doesn’t have diabetes, blood pressure, or heart problems. No drinking or smoking,” she categorically emphasised like an astute narrator, as these are the questions doctors ask first. “This morning, she woke up and walked to her parents’ bedroom, saying that her right arm was feeling funny. As she was describing the problem to her father, it stopped moving. She started weeping profusely, not understanding what was going on, as she was suddenly not able to lift the hand,” she tried to narrate the sequence of events as accurately as possible. “Then the right leg went numb within the next few minutes and was paralysed,” she explained. “It was as if she had had a stroke where one half of the body couldn’t move,” she gave her interpretation. I listened intently; all this was unusual for a young girl.

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