Recently, a neighbor and friend of mine died. After her cancer was diagnosed as incurable, she was referred to hospice care, and family members traveled long distances to spend quality time with her during her last month of life. Her neighbors in our c…
“As a runner, my pulse rests around fifty, but the ICU team had worried when it dipped to thirty-five, and my blood pressure hovered around ninety over fifty. Understandably, bags of saline were hung, and steroids were added. My headache improved…
I am no stranger to death. I have gently closed the eyelids of a woman dying from liver disease, blasted Led Zeppelin by request during a man’s last breath, and exchanged dog photos with an elderly gentleman on his final day. Although I cared for…
Every time I visit my great grandmother, Tata, Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal floods my thoughts. Tata is 101 and developed severe dementia within the past two years. In 2019, she fell and fractured her hip. In the hospital, she recovered poorly. The phys…
The last thing Jessica said to John, her fiancé of 10 years, was, “I love you” before he drove to work. Hours later, after suddenly experiencing a cardiac arrest at the office, he was in an ICU bed attached to a ventilator. He was pale and unresponsive…
In today’s increasingly technological, data-driven, depersonalized world of health care, I wonder if the concept of “a good death” is even possible. The COVID-19 pandemic, in particular, has caused me to reflect on this. What does it look like? How do…
“We are health care workers. We are doctors, advanced care practitioners, nurses, pharmacists, social workers, and so much more. We are on the frontlines. We are our parents’ children, and we are parents to our young children. For the first time,…
“It seems as though the looming reality for many of us is that we will have patients who need ventilators, and none will be available. It seems like we might benefit from remembering that we can still succeed in practicing medicine by being prese…
My medical school’s secondary application, like that of many other medical schools, asked me to describe a personal or professional challenge or conflict and to explain how I worked to resolve it. However, unlike other medical schools, my school specif…
“Faced with the prospect of not being able to provide all COVID-19 patients with the life support that they may need, physicians and nurses are working in conditions that have been described as ‘hell.’ How are providers to cope…
