Christine Marie Deeths is a family physician.

Rethinking teen medical consent: Navigating complex health needs

Conditions
April 11, 2024

Is it time to reconsider the age of medical consent for teens? This is a question I have been asking myself as my children are approaching 18. For many years, I’ve dreaded the thought of my medically challenging child turning 18 and suddenly being thrust into the not-so-warm and fuzzy adult world. I have nightmares about her navigating insurance. I cannot visualize my very passive and indecisive child on the …

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Rethinking teen medical consent: Navigating complex health needs

How a simple chore transformed my perspective on medicine

Physician
February 29, 2024

My son was born in a small community hospital with breathing and heart issues requiring transfer to a children’s hospital several hundred miles away. I arrived at the children’s hospital, worried, exhausted, and overwhelmed many hours after he did. Everything had happened so quickly my head was spinning.

After I checked on my son, I was directed to the Ronald McDonald house. I arrived in the wee hours of the morning …

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How a simple chore transformed my perspective on medicine

Surviving and thriving: the new reality for chronically ill children

Conditions
February 11, 2023

My daughter was born with cystic fibrosis (CF). CF has been a catastrophic disease, historically fatal in childhood. CF is not pretty; it affects nearly every organ system, slowly and systematically damaging them. People with CF have thick, sticky mucous, which clogs their airways, pancreatic ducts, sinuses, and intestines. This mucous causes numerous health issues.

CF has been around for a long time. In the Middle Ages, a poem warns parents, …

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Surviving and thriving: the new reality for chronically ill children