All good doctors learn to filter what parents say to them during history taking, to examine each parental statement for reliability, likelihood, and sheer outlandishness. Parents of sick children are a cross-section of humanity and, like all of us, var…
What if I told you that your adolescent child could contract a disease that can never be cured, but only maintained? That it would be a lifelong struggle that could change their personality, compromise their potential and values, destroy their relation…
A Kentucky judge rejected the claims made by a teenager who sued his local health department for temporarily barring students at his school who aren’t immune against chickenpox from attending classes and participating in extracurricular activitie…
I have been a medical doctor for 19 years, a pediatrician for 16 years and a mom for 11 years. Being a mom is — hands down — the hardest but also enhances my work as a physician (though I would not admit this before I had my own children). My work at w…
The following is something I wrote for our annual memorial service for children who have died at our Children’s Hospital. But these same thoughts are with me every day. It’s an honor to be here with you to celebrate the lives of our patients. Thank you…
The following is something I wrote for our annual memorial service for children who have died at our Children’s Hospital. But these same thoughts are with me every day. It’s an honor to be here with you to celebrate the lives of our patients. Thank you…
Medicine was my path. I’d decided that early in life before I knew what a career in medicine really looked like. I believed as a doctor I could help people and have a positive impact in their lives. After all, what does a teenager know about being a do…
“As soon as I mentioned the ‘A’ word, I knew she would not be calling me back.” This was what one of the parents I met at my preschool told me about what it was like trying to register her son with autism in a non-specialized local communi…
Being a doctor mom is a beautiful paradox of feeling like a badass one moment and a frazzled I-don’t-know-what-the-heck-I-am-doing mess of a person. Being a female physician, the majority of us feel there is a societal and cultural pressure to be perfe…
I did my medical school training in a country where I saw many children die every day from preventable illnesses. Measles, diarrhea, and malnutrition were the norm. I still have vivid memories of a young child dying in my arms of severe diarrhea and de…
