Medical students learn fat embolism syndrome as a triad: breathing failure, confusion and a pinpoint rash, usually a day or more after a broken thighbone. A 43-year-old man in China who ended up on a ventilator after crushing a finger and thumb had only one of the three.
That mismatch exposes a problem specialists have acknowledged for years. There is no single test for fat embolism syndrome, and the scoring systems doctors use to diagnose it do not always agree.
