“Guys, are you alright in there?” I ask casually while taking the first bite of my dinner on a 24-hour PICU shift. No answer. “What is going on? Why is she beeping so much? Is her tube blocked?” My voice gets louder. Complete human silence. Except for …
When your grandmother suffers a devastating stroke, it is a family tragedy, but it does not necessarily make the headlines. When Luke Perry has a massive stroke at age 52, it does. Stroke remains a surprisingly common occurrence, striking someone in th…
ing my ER shift for the day, I waited for the shuttle at a busy intersection. Within a minute of drowning myself in music, I saw an obese man at the bus stop suddenly collapse to the ground. I removed my backpack and ran the fastest I have ever run in …
I have had a complex relationship with music. As a child, I had several instances of feedback that I was “bad at music.” When my class would sing at assemblies, I would get side glances and subtle and not so subtle clues that I should be at the edges a…
My dad flew to California in the spring to meet his grandson, who was about five months old at the time. He wasn’t that interested in baby care. He mostly wanted to sight-see and spend the evenings watching TV. One weekday morning, he ventured out on a…
Recently the Apple Watch’s latest feature went live – an electrocardiogram (ECG) app that monitors irregular heart rhythms. The internet is overflowing with reports from people didn’t know they had irregular heartbeats until they took their data to the…
A few days ago, I made a call to my neurologist’s office. The fourth call about the same issue. I needed my migraine medication and wasn’t able to get it. I was almost ready to give up and give in to having migraines on a daily basis. None …
An opinion piece published in JAMA suggests the latter: “Protecting the Value of Medical Science in the Age of Social Media and ‘Fake News’” The authors argue social media poses a threat to science in several ways: Unfettered pu…
Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians. An 82-year-old woman is seen for follow-up evaluation of Alzheimer disease. Since her last visit 12 weeks ago, she has been taking rivastigmi…
You’ve probably seen it on the news – a rare, polio-like illness is causing cases of paralysis in children. Here’s the latest info, based on our best current knowledge from the CDC. Acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) is a sudden illness that causes weakness …
