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…
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 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…
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…
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…
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…
I’ve always been fascinated with dystopian novels and zombie movies. When the apocalypse comes, we stop sweating the small stuff. Important tasks like sculpting our abs or finding the perfect area rug suddenly take a back seat to the new primary dire…
“Our current guidelines from the hospital and our national societies are if the patient is not at risk for a major cardiac event in the next week we should defer surgery.” The words hang in the now virtual air of the hospital’s weekly multidisciplinar…
“Benadryl barely helped me sleep last night,” I groan to my partner. My eyes bloodshot, my head pounding as I recount the number of days I have needed to take a sleep aid this week. He hands me my lunch bag and locks the door to walk with me to work. T…
“I could hear the breathing from the door without my stethoscope. Do you know what it sounds like? It’s like the sound of broken glass rubbing against itself.” An ICU nurse sat across from me, the emotional baggage visible on her eyelids as she stood s…
