While one could say I was born in the South, I had to move a lot closer to the Mississippi to find that my Southern California momma and daddy had left certain nuances of expressive gentility untouched in the process of raising me right. Northwest Arkansas, where we’ve come to settle, may not be considered the Deep South, but you certainly can hear it from here.
One good place to do …
I recently worked an evening shift in the emergency department the day before New Year’s Eve. Patients arrived in waves, by car and by ambulance. They seemed to check into the triage area every few minutes. When I left at midnight, there were 23 patients awaiting admission in the ER waiting for four, six, 12 or more hours — some for a full day.
Simultaneously, there were about 20 waiting to …
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Join us on our latest episode as we explore the importance of addressing violent behaviors in health care settings. We’ll be discussing the role of Behavioral Emergency Response Teams (BERTs), trained in non-violent intervention techniques, in managing …
A good cup of soup can be comforting during illness. It’s like a form of medicine. Soups have many vitamins and minerals, protein and carbohydrates, and of course, water or cream to help stay hydrated. Salt makes a sore throat feel better (like warm salt water gargling) and heat clears nasal congestion (which relieves pain and sinus pressure). As such, a typical cup of restaurant soup costing $5 or $10 …
Last night, one of my work colleagues asked me how I do it. I looked over at them, a little confused. They looked back at me earnestly. How do I continue to come to work every shift and not burn out? How do I keep finding meaning in what I am doing? How?
They’re a yearling emergency medicine attending. They’re just getting started in their career, whereas I am several long …
The shocking scene that unfolded during the Bills-Bengals game Monday evening was a play that I’ve seen countless times on a very different stage. Yet as a hospital physician, watching Damar Hamlin’s on-field cardiac arrest was unexpectedly jarring. Seeing the coordinated and professional medical response on the field was inspiring. No doubt, timely and effective CPR and defibrillation saved his life. As I reflect on the events of that evening, …
First, I want to extend my thoughts, wishes, and prayers to Damar Hamlin, his family, and his teammates. Seeing his collapse on television stirred many emotions in me; I can’t imagine what those who were on the field or in the stadium experienced.
As a pediatric emergency physician, I can tell you that anything related to cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is difficult. America got a real glimpse of the horrors of CPR …
The first dying patient I saw as a medical student was a man newly diagnosed with lung cancer, a chronic smoker with now oxygen-dependent COPD. In rounds, our medical team stopped outside his room, and the learned men and women pontificated about what to do next with the man. Chemo? Radiation? Both? I pretended to listen and rubbed my chin with feigned discernment, trying to understand the conversation like any …
Consider Medicare enrollment with the end in mind. In case of emergency, do seniors prefer medical care or holistic care? Might they designate a medical power of attorney or a merciful power of attorney? Do they oblige CPR or sign a DNR order?
The JAMA Network just published Death and End-of-Life Care in Emergency Departments in the U.S. This retrospective cohort study concludes that,
Robust systems of emergency care …
I love listening to podcasts on my way to work, and I was most excited when the second season of Dr. Death started. If you didn’t listen to the first season, it was about Dr. C. Duntsch, a neurosurgeon in the Dallas area who should never have been operating on people. He even left his best friend paralyzed from the neck down due to a botched surgery.
The second season follows …
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Jay Baruch is an emergency physician and author of Tornado of Life: A Doctor’s Journey Through Constraints and Creativity in the ER.
We discuss his emergency …
Imagine delivering testimony to practicing emergency medicine for 30 years on the TEDx stage and my “Real Serious Illness Conversations with Parents” being condemned with this NOTE FROM TED: Please do not look to this talk as a substitute for health advice. This talk only reflects the speaker’s personal views and beliefs. It’s as if to say, “Beware of the doc”… who lets individuals decide how they’ll die …
I had a fairytale courtship, engagement, and wedding to my Prince Charming. We came home, starry-eyed, ready to start our forever together. Within weeks, I began to struggle. Always an extrovert, suddenly going to my family medicine rotation took extraordinary effort. I began to worry about my every word and action. Some days, I said nothing — unsure whether I could form a coherent sentence. I decided to take time …
I’m a pediatrician and have been practicing for 29 years. I currently own a solo practice.
Here is a story I wrote years after a patient encounter during my residency in 1993. I didn’t know it at the time, but it was an experience that would shape my career in general pediatrics.
Marcus is the worst case of child abuse I’ve seen to date. He’s two years old. His mom’s boyfriend dips …
I went to Poland and Ukraine in April and May of 2022, hoping to support the Ukrainian people in their defense of their country and democracy itself.
Vladimir Putin had put the world in a vise.
“Let me do what I want, or you will risk nuclear war,” was the implication. We’ve seen this before, I thought. Putin is Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin all rolled into one, and he needs to be …
Health care has a dirty little secret. And if you aren’t part of the club, chances are that you don’t know anything about it. Aside from COVID-19, short staffing, and the lack of hospital beds to accommodate those who need them, another crisis has been overshadowed and hidden from public view.
What is the secret? Health care is dangerous.
In fact, so many doctors and nurses are choosing to leave the bedside …
He was in the Ivy League for med school. His dad was an MD, and they lived not too far from this small town. Daddy’s house, a “mini-mansion,” was right around the corner.
After successfully completing his residency, Dr. David became our ER physician. This was a big deal—a big fish in a little pond.
He had an aura of wealth about him. He had an arrogance about him, too.
He was new …
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