As a surgeon who specializes in gynecologic cancer, I have performed thousands of operations over my two-decade career. But the ones my team and I have done since the beginning of this year have been the most fulfilling. The reason? A simple yet remark…
A guest column by the American Society of Anesthesiologists, exclusive to KevinMD.com. I vividly remember the first time I saw someone who had died. She was in her late 20s, wearing tattered clothes, and alone. Her friends and family never came. I watc…
There is a species of jellyfish that exists only in one lake on this entire planet. Every morning, before the sun rises, these jellyfish travel to the surface of the lake so that algae that live within them can photosynthesize and produce glucose for …
When I was five years old, I wanted to be Aurora from Sleeping Beauty. I admired her because I, too, had long, blonde hair and loved to play in the woods. During the movie, I sang with the music. “I know you. I walked with you once upon a dream. I know…
Separating fact from fiction had once been her favorite activity. Going over research with a fine-toothed comb, she caught the inaccuracies that riddled popular culture like unruly strands of hair. It came down to this simple algorithm: there were thin…
When it comes to plastic surgery, I have found that many people — doctors included — expect post-surgical pain, so they plan for that assumption. This means preparing for days, weeks, or months of narcotics use. This mode of thinking begins…
When we all lived in villages, knowing individual merchants allowed you to identify and avoid the cheats. As we urbanized, brand names became the reputational marker. But when you are dealing on the internet, where no one “knows you’re a dog,” what gua…
The Brazilian butt lift (BBL) is a procedure that enhances the buttocks through fat transfer. Excess fat is harvested from other areas of the body including the abdomen, hips, lower back and thighs through liposuction. BBL is a popular procedure for th…
An excerpt from Close to the Sun: The Journey of a Pioneer Heart Surgeon. In the third year of medical school, we were granted a three-month elective, during which we were encouraged to work at another hospital or in some medically related endeavor to …
I could hear the scream from across the room. It was shrill and filled with panic. Any parent can identify the difference between the cries of normal toddler discomforts and a true emergency. I dropped what I was doing in the kitchen and found my three…
