Author's posts
It is a dark day to be a doctor
It is a dark time to be a physician. Yes, because of the global pandemic- watching our colleagues in other countries die, staring down the barrel of not enough ventilators, reading the New England Journal of Medicine’s paper on how to choose who gets …
Grieving the end of life experience from an ICU nurse
The image of patients dying in the intensive care unit is changing. Over the phone, family members cry on the other end as I tell them that we are not allowing visitors due to “the coronavirus” at this time. They tell me, “but I help make his decisions…
A message to administrators from physicians: Lead, follow, or get out of the way
We represent the front lines in this ongoing crisis, and we are disheartened by not only the lack of support but overwhelming greed from just about all of you. We have kept our mouths shut and practiced medicine, providing excellent patient care, while…
Physicians are disposable and are taken for granted
Doctors are begging the public for basic protective equipment. Us. The United States of America. Supposedly the most advanced, most privileged nation in the world. We are in a pandemic dumpster fire. There has been no centralized movement to tackle th…
To my surgical colleagues: Please do the right thing
As an anesthesiologist, the odds are I might get to work thirty minutes or an hour before you to prepare for the case or cases which you will perform that day. No matter what the procedure is, I am prepared for the worst possible scenario. This include…
I don’t want to risk my life to keep my job
There’s an intruder in our relationship, and her name is COVID. Every night I come home, and she’s lurking around the corner on an Amazon box, in the crevice of my couch perhaps, or her scent is lingering on my husband’s scrubs. A physician-physician…
Our collective struggle to fight COVID-19 coronavirus
I hope we eventually study the COVID-19 event after a sober period of analysis and reflection as an example of a societal panic attack. This is not Ebola, with a mortality rate of over 50%, or even SARS, with a 10% death rate. We’ve seen this movie be…
The dangers of opioid addiction in the medical industry
The Joint Commission of Hospital Accreditation requires hospitals to ask the patient for their level of pain, just subjectively. They require we use a 10-point scale, from 0 for no pain to 10 being the worst pain ever. I knew instinctively that this wa…
Raw thoughts from a critical care physician
Physician burnout. Physician suicide awareness. Buzzwords. Words that get tossed around. People in leadership seem to be concerned about. Institutions say they care. “Solutions” get created. Solutions that look great on paper. Sometimes under the guis…
Why this immunocompromised doctor wants you to stay home
I am a middle-aged gastroenterologist almost 15 years out of training. I have a chronic medical disease and had a bout with lymphoma two years ago, both of which require me to stay indefinitely on immunosuppressive drugs. I am certainly not the only he…
