The real-life Harlan Ellison did have serious heart trouble.

And he was (and still is) about as temperamental as his counterpart, so the idea of a pulse monitor is not too farfetched. Will's apology is kind of touching, especially if you know why he's so eager to find father figures.

As with Moko, as with Peter David, our heroes, our role models, let us down by being human. Sooner or later you discover that your personal hero is not all you thought he or she would be, or should be. Something dies in you then. Sometimes something else is born, but the thing that died will never come again.