Category: Conditions

The aftermath of death

Drip. Drip. Drip. It’s 8:00 p.m. I’m staring at the IV tubing. We forgot to stop the fluids. I’m standing in the resuscitation room alongside the naked, broken body of a teenage male. Unable to break my gaze on that dripping IV line, thinking, We’re go…

In case you need a reason to get the COVID vaccine, here are 12

I read somewhere that 30 percent of nurses were reluctant to get the COVID vaccine, but I didn’t think I would know any of that 30 percent. I was at work the other night when I realized that I was wrong. Newly vaccinated, I was talking to some of my nu…

The week I tested positive for COVID, the vaccine arrived: a family doctor’s perspective

On Friday evenings, my family usually listens to my husband DJ music in the basement, streaming online on Twitch, and dancing along. During one of these nights, I went upstairs to check on my two girls and remembered to check online for my routine COVI…

Health care workers who are forgotten on the frontlines

Governor Cuomo showed New York and the world the importance of leadership and communication during a crisis. Ignoring this standard makes the information void surrounding the COVID vaccine roll-out even more upsetting. I represent 150 dedicated pediatr…

How can physicians convince Black patients to take the COVID-19 vaccine?

“How can we, as physicians, convince Black patients to take the COVID-19 vaccine?” my residency interviewer asked me, a Black fourth-year Johns Hopkins medical student. I paused. I couldn’t help but wonder if the interviewer had asked all of the other …

Should playing football require informed consent?

I’m of Irish heritage and we love to tell stories. This story feels like it needs to be shouted from the rooftops. I grew up in Texas, where football is king. Here’s my story so parents can make a more fully “informed consent” when deciding if their ch…

COVID-19 and the use of outpatient steroids

In some people, COVID-19 causes mild or no symptoms at all. In others, it can cause significant respiratory distress that can lead to death. Once infected with COVID-19, is there anything that someone can do to foster a less severe infection?  The answ…

Science challenges dogma and upends previously held beliefs in its quest for truth

Like most modern marriages with spouses in the same profession, ours is one based on an exquisite balance of willful one-upmanship and reluctant admiration. A pandemic with two physicians in critical care medicine, albeit in different disciplines, serv…

21 for ’21: little sparks of joy

Keep it Simple is a bumper sticker slogan. Life during a pandemic has been anything but simple, and the holiday season presents (not the gift kind) its own special challenges. So does living alone and trying to stay humanized. In his book Together: The…

Harness the power of social media to reach COVID immunity: #CovidVaccine

The roll-out of the COVID vaccine, which started in the U.S. recently, brought hope to millions of Americans reeling under the protracted coronavirus pandemic. The phrase “this is the beginning of the end” was used repeatedly by interviewed…