Narrative Tenses in Clinical Cases

• When we discuss past medical cases, we use three main narrative tenses. We choose them based on whether an action was a completed event, an action in progress, or an event that happened before another past action.
• Tense
• Use
• Example
• Past Simple
• Completed actions in the past
• Dr. Adams examined the patient yesterday.
• Past Continuous
• Actions in progress at a specific past time
• The nurse was recording the vitals when the monitor beeped.
• Past Perfect
• An action that happened before another past action
• The patient had already left the clinic before the lab results arrived.
• Remember
• Use the past simple for the main events of a case history in chronological order.
• Use the past continuous for background situations or interrupted actions.
• Use the past perfect to look back further into the past from a past moment.
• We often use past continuous and past simple together when a short action interrupted a longer one.
• Examples
• While Dr. Evans was reviewing the chart, the patient woke up.
• She felt dizzy because she had not eaten all morning.
• The surgeon operated on the knee on Monday.
• Common mistakes
• When the doctor arrived, the patient died.
• When the doctor arrived, the patient had died.
• While she examined the arm, it was starting to swell.
• While she was examining the arm, it started to swell.

Complete the sentences

• While Dr. Baker (examine) ____ the patient in Boston, the phone rang.
• The young man (collapse) ____ on the street in Chicago last Tuesday.
• By the time the specialist arrived, the nurse (already / give) ____ the medication.
• The family doctor (work) ____ at Massachusetts General Hospital when the crisis started.
• Dr. Carter (not notice) ____ the small rash on the child's foot.
• Before they admitted her to the ward, they (run) ____ several blood tests.

Sources: photo by Vitaly Gariev on Pexels