Thump.There is a strange sound emanating from the hallway. It’s more of a series of sounds, of thuds, punctuated by an odd, louder noise. The hallway is narrow, not much room for a five-year-old to create too much havoc. I close my eyes, and as I try to visualize the corresponding sequence of events the rhythm is interrupted by a much louder sound and the house shakes. A child has fallen ...
Jennifer Gunter, MD
Difficult testing decisions for parents with premature babies
Many people think that tests (blood work, x-rays, scans, etc.) mean their doctor is doing something constructive and working hard to figure out what is wrong. But tests are a double-edged sword.When I trained most diagnoses were derived from careful history and a physical exam. Perhaps because our province did not have funds to have enough CT scanners and we didn’t have an MRI, those tests were on a ...
Caring for people is not always easy, but it is what makes us special
My mom is sick. Because of what can only be described as my crazy family dynamics I did not find out for 24 hours that she was taken by ambulance to the hospital in septic shock from pneumonia.She was hypotensive on arrival (not good) and pancytopenic (low white cell count, low hemoglobin, and low platelets – not good either). A CT scan showed multiple large, irregular lymph nodes in her ...
Where an extremely premature baby immediately receives care matters
When you think about giving a premature baby the best possible start in life, it is important to consider the hospital where they are born. The care an extremely premature baby receives immediately after birth makes a big difference in outcomes.A premature baby who is less than 32 weeks gestation or weighs less than 1500 g at birth should be cared for in a level III NICU. These babies also ...
Conspiracies against vaccines: Blame the media
How did the idea that vaccines are dangerous, toxin-filled CDC experiments metastasize so quickly from the fringe to the mainstream?Keep in mind that not only have vaccines been scientifically proven to be safe, but that some of the arguments against vaccines are so scientifically incredulous they are the equivalent of saying there is a UFO sitting in Central Park right now.So let’s begin at the beginning. In 1998 Andrew Wakefield ...
Intimate partner violence an epidemic of grave proportion
October is breast cancer awareness month. There are pink ribbons and wristbands to wear, pink products to buy, and pink races to run -- all to improve awareness about screening and raise money for a cure. And rightly so, because breast cancer affects 250,000 American women every year.Fewer people know that October is also intimate partner violence awareness month. Purple is the color representing the more than 1.3 million women ...
Pregnant with triplets, and a premature delivery
An excerpt from The Preemie Primer.There’s a well-entrenched theory that OB/GYNs have the most complicated pregnancies.In reality most of us probably do not, but doctors remember complications most vividly when they happen to people they know and love. My pregnancy was, unfortunately, a good example of that old adage. Many of my colleagues who looked after me during that time have said, “It was the worst night of my life.” ...
