How physician burnout hurts patients

On Saturday morning at the breakfast table surrounded by my husband and kids, I suddenly felt chest pain, palpitations, and was about to collapse. Being an internist, I knew it: arrhythmia. Paramedics at arrival confirmed it. I was running ventricular tachycardia.

Out of the chaos surrounding me at that moment, my physician’s brain assessed the situation: “VT. Serious arrhythmia.”

After that, I lost it. I became a scared-to-death patient who has a …

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