This is almost a full month of quarantine for me. I started this journey early before it was a requirement for all, as a physician with a history of a spontaneous coronary artery dissection, I knew it would be bad if I didn’t stay put. I risk fa…
Category: Conditions
When a mnemonic becomes dangerous
Fat. One tiny word. One voluptuous, full-figured concept. Several weeks ago, amidst a conversation regarding the risk factors for cholelithiasis (i.e., gallstones) during a chief concern small group session for preclinical students, my preceptor ushere…
Why we must be cautious about hydroxychloroquine
We have all listened repeatedly to the many confused, confusing, and misleading statements coming from the White House in the midst of this pandemic, unprecedented in its scope and existential threat. Responding to all the misstatements would be a full…
COVID-19: How do we protect our children?
As I get ready for work, my children, aged 3, 8 and 14, run to me and give me hugs so tight that I catch my breath. It also makes me realize that I have now developed a soft tummy that will need hours in the gym to flatten out. Flatten the curve, so to…
COVID-19 made me realize that I’m not ready to die to be a doctor
My last block of medical school was supposed to be the best part of the past four years. I carefully crafted a four-week vacation from school, designed for searching for the perfect place to live during my emergency medicine residency while spending va…
Doctors and health care workers must be granted student loan forgiveness during the COVID-19 pandemic
While millions of Americans are being told to stay home, doctors, nurses, and other health care providers are showing up to work every day to battle an invisible enemy—the deadly COVID-19 virus. With hospitals, doctors’ offices, and nursing homes facin…
Can I belong to the medical profession without having to give up everything else?
I had spent the morning in the operating room, holding open the mouth of a young man while the resident physician attempted to stabilize the fractures in his jaw bone and lace wires between his upper and lower gums, much the way one would thread a shoe…
Support your local private practice physician. They’re a small business.
Small businesses are a vital part of our economy. They are ubiquitous and take on numerous forms, including traditional brick and mortar spaces, kiosks, and online enterprises. They enhance our most basic capitalist principles, such as innovation, entr…
How parenting in a pandemic is an unexpected opportunity
Being a parent in the middle of a pandemic is not easy. Sheltering in place with canceled daycare, school, and college, while also being a doctor or other healthcare worker, working in high-risk, high-intensity situations, presents many challenges. It…
Stop romanticizing the Italian health care during the COVID-19 pandemic
I have been reading about “the Italian health care system, one of the best in the world,” yet unable to keep pace with the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. Let me be honest and unpopular: the Italian health care system is rotten, and the coronavirus pandem…
