Category: Conditions

Protestors don’t scare or intimidate this virus

They scream and holler and march. Open up the U.S. This is a hoax. Coronavirus is deadly. Invisible as the virus makes its trek across our U.S. Across the universe. Nurses and doctors and respiratory therapists are being named heroes. Signs and banners…

A physician’s personal experience with sepsis and ventilator support

The coronavirus pandemic has turned the world, and all of its citizens, around, never to be the same again. As an ICU and ventilator survivor, I focus on the drama of the patient’s room, and the reality of what is truly a tragic experience. Nineteen-ni…

A doctor’s pro wrestler husband

My father would have liked to know Dr. Young’s husband, Tad. Tad is a professional wrestler, the world-class wrestling kind, complete with lots of belts and awards (or so I want to believe). My father, he’s been dead a long time. He liked b…

Let’s not let our pride get in the way of heroism

Nothing about quarantine feels heroic. Nothing about sitting in an empty apartment, checking the Johns Hopkins Covid-19 tracker every 10 minutes, feels like saving the world. Nothing about the paper I’m writing, the pantry you’re stocking, …

The question you will be asked after the pandemic

I am an ICU nurse in Manhattan. I have seen my share of trauma, critical illness, and sorrow. But what is happening in my hospital and hospitals across America is on a scale of the tragedy not even the most seasoned clinician has experienced. My hospit…

Emergency physicians want you to have the talk about end of life care

Currently, over 60,000 people in the United States are projected to die from coronavirus.  While this is lower than earlier predictions, it is still an appallingly high number.  As two emergency medicine physicians, we have been steeling ourselves for …

It’s time for health care professionals to acknowledge our vulnerability and allow others in

It was only day one, and I was covered in blood halfway to my elbows from doing chest compressions in the operating room. The room was filled with doctors, nurses, and other OR staff. Empty bags that once contained life-saving blood, plasma, and platel…

The final words that are a precious reminder of why I went into medicine

I have cared for them both, husband and wife, now in their 80s, for almost 20 years. She is a retired nurse and him from his business. They are so typical of this “greatest generation”: tough, enduring, hard-working, deeply faithful, fervently independ…

Health care workers: What do you need?

What do you need? What do you need right now, and what will you need days, weeks, months from now? Do you need PPE or time off? Do you need hand sanitizer or disinfectant wipes? How about testing kits? Swabs? Do you need help keeping your practice aflo…

COVID-19 and the value of human life: What if the vulnerable population was flipped?

As I lay awake in the wee hours of the morning, after having yet another debate regarding COVID-19 and reopening the economy, my thoughts were rambling.   I am ready for some return of any semblance of normalcy—like most everyone in the world right now…