One of the first patients I admitted as an intern was a duck sculptor from the Outer Banks of North Carolina. She was an animated woman in her seventies, with an engaging smile, who had always been in good health. On the afternoon of admission, she greeted me warmly and told me about the workshop where she crafted and sold her duck creations. She was also an accomplished duck caller, skilled at replicating the sounds of the birds she sculpted. That evening she captivated the attention of all those present, her air-piercing duck calls reverberating down the medicine ward.