During the first six months as an ICU nurse, I vividly recall seeing my first balloon pump — a cardiac assist device sitting in the aorta that helps the heart pump blood more effectively and improves perfusion to the coronary arteries. I became mesmeri…
One June afternoon, Susan came in from gardening to find that her husband, John, was missing. After a frantic scan around their wooded lot, she called 911 and soon had sheriffs, firefighters, and a state police helicopter scouring nearby parklands in p…
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 1 in 8 women experience symptoms of postpartum depression (PPD). Furthermore, studies show that minorities have a higher prevalence of PPD, 38 percent with low-income Hispanic mot…
This past month, I was admitting a patient for a TIA, otherwise known as a “mini-stroke,” whose symptoms resolved by the time he got to the floor. In the interest of connecting with the patient during my taking of his history and physical, I usually as…
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted our ineffective approach to the obesity epidemic in the United States. I believe COVID-19 would have claimed fewer lives if we had healthier patients and less obesity. According to the CDC, “obesity may tripl…
An excerpt from Brain Storm: A Life in Pieces. The first time it happened, I sat only a few feet away from Yael in her tiny office, a position that usually made me feel safe, but this time I was about to explode. “Shelley, what’s going on?” I couldn’t …
Consumer demand for mental and behavioral health services reached a fever pitch in 2020. From prolonged social distancing and financial strains, to the burnout of extra caretaking, grief over tremendous loss, and the monotony of working from home, the…
You stand up from your desk, take a deep breath, and get to work. It’s business as usual. There are exams to perform, test results to review, referrals to be made, and patients to console. A patient’s son is on the phone, concerned about his mom’s upco…
You stand up from your desk, take a deep breath, and get to work. It’s business as usual. There are exams to perform, test results to review, referrals to be made, and patients to console. A patient’s son is on the phone, concerned about his mom’s upco…
“Thank you. You’re the first to say it’s OK for me not to breastfeed.” These words have been said to me before by tearful, exhausted mothers. It had been sporadic, but now, it feels like I hear this every day in the clinic. Each time, I feel a rush of …
