Category: Conditions

The COVID-19 breakthroughs are coming

An excerpt from The Physician Inventor: The Doctor’s Handbook to Patenting Medical Devices and Methods. Recent New York Times articles document the growing concern that the United States will not have enough ventilators to fight the coronavirus pandemi…

A letter to President Trump from an emergency physician

Dear Mr. President, I write to you now to congratulate you. You are at the cusp of a moment that historians will note catapulted you into one of the great chapters of the American story. Your name will forever be listed among the great men of the ages….

COVID-19 and the physician’s oath

COVID-19 started to really hit home this week. I hadn’t been aware of its severity because, honestly, I was too busy balancing residency, being a husband, and a father to keep up to date on the daily news.  Now it’s unavoidable with school closures, tr…

Treat your sleep like the vacation it is

It’s common knowledge that a good night’s sleep prepares us for a successful day, but I like to think of it the other way around: Good planning for sleep during the day can ensure successful sleep at night. As a neurologist who specializes in sleep, I …

On the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic

Coronavirus has officially hit the United States. The estimated numbers of infected are likely a gross underestimate of the actual number of cases, as the U.S. has only tested a small proportion of the population. Researchers at Johns Hopkins estimate …

Medical community recommendations for a better COVID-19 response

We have lost our chance to contain this pandemic and are now facing an unmitigated medical disaster. This administration’s response has actively undermined our ability to care for patients by perpetuating misinformation and downplaying the looming thre…

I’ve been on a ventilator before, so I’d like to sit this pandemic out

I have bled out during emergency surgery and been revived by the expert trauma and transplant team who raced into my operating room. I have had liter upon liter of donated blood transfused into my grey lifeless body. I survived months on a ventilator i…

The worst-case scenario for our hospitals in a severe pandemic

I wish that I didn’t have the experience of working 34 years as a nurse. I know the big picture in a hospital. A recent article stated that the Twin Cities, where I live, has 500 ICU beds, 450 ventilators. As of last Friday, those were 95 percent…

Coronavirus can be controlled, but we must embrace sacrifice

In the midst of this coronavirus pandemic, a friend of mine relayed a troubling story to me recently. My friend is a dermatologist who is 9-months pregnant, living and working in a county with no known community spread of the novel coronavirus. After s…

I’m grateful my father never lived to see the COVID-19 outbreak

My dad was a baseball enthusiast and a connoisseur of fried calamari and dark chocolate.  He had a genius-level IQ and knew the answers to obscure Jeopardy questions.  He would beat you at any trivia game.  He was an avid reader, typically reading at l…