“Three Fleet enemas?” I ask the nurse. She isn’t much interested in a conversation with me about anything. She is busy. “This man, so far as I understand it, does not have a colon.” It looks to me like they want to reconne…
Category: KevinMD
How the words, “I can’t breathe,” affect this pulmonary physician
As I held the shaky, sweaty hand of my 52-year-old African American patient, lying in her ICU bed, trembling with fear, tears rolling down her eyes, she gathered enough strength to utter “I can’t breathe.” Her words felt like a punch in my gut, eliciti…
Just what is the WHO and why does it matter?
As medical students with backgrounds in public health and global health care operations, we were shocked by the action on the part of the Trump administration to defund the World Health Organization (WHO). This decision undermines the global community&…
Protect our medical trainees during the pandemic [PODCAST]
“When I first heard about medical schools fast-tracking graduation for students and shifting young residents into high need areas to fight the pandemic of COVID-19, I thought of how panicked those students and residents must feel. Asking them to …
The economic argument for saving lives
The COVID-19 narrative is strong and pervasive: we must sacrifice either jobs or lives. This debate has seemingly polarized our society on moral and ethical grounds. For many healthcare professionals, the intrinsic value of life is self-evident. No p…
Primary care isn’t broken. It needs a better support system.
Primary care is at the heart of each and every health care system. Effective and efficient primary care leads to positive health outcomes across the board, most notably lower rates of mortality and hospitalization, and higher life expectancy. But to ac…
It is our job to change the rhetoric on who physicians are
A colleague of mine once asked me a question that haunts me to this day: “If you care about social justice this much, why are you in medical school?” I was stunned, and I had no response to offer them. That day, I walked away to preserve my peace, but …
A medical student perspective on George Floyd’s murder
Recently in Minneapolis, George Floyd was killed by Officer Derek Chauvin, who held his knee on Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes, including almost three minutes after Floyd was unresponsive. This senseless murder is now added to an already long…
Patients deserve our best all the time, in a pandemic, and at 5:59
It’s 4:30 a.m. as I trudge to the parking garage with a sense of defeat. I am an internal medicine resident wrapping up a swing shift, the magnanimous buffer to admission responsibilities between the day and overnight ward teams. Though clinically tuck…
The COVID-19 pandemic is a catalyst for reimagining future health care delivery
Coronavirus has overwhelmed hospitals, staff, and supply chains, stripped many Americans of health care coverage along with their jobs, and affected billions of people worldwide with mounting fatalities. Despite its massive human toll, the pandemic off…
