I regretfully told my 65-year-old patient in the preoperative area, “I’m going to have to cancel your case.” We both knew this was coming. He suffered from a large inguinoscrotal hernia that was symptomatic but not dangerous, a condition that had threatened his welfare for the past several months. Given his education level and social issues, his career prospects were limited to manual labor. I sensed his desperation to return …
“There’s no heartbeat.”
Three words no one ever wants to hear.
Three words no one ever wants to deliver.
And yet, as a community of physicians, we deliver those crushing words on a daily basis. None of us would ever take the task of bearing this piece of news lightly, but for me, it was not until I was on the receiving end of them that I truly grasped how profoundly a physician …
Humanity in medicine is in crisis
Like many of us, I have been struggling to reconcile my love for everything good about this country with the senseless gun violence that terrorizes us today. In the wake of each shooting, I vow to do more — to speak up as a surgeon, as a former victim of gun violence and simply as a fellow human — but the words escape me. How do we make meaning out …
A physician’s personal experience with gun violence
It was 5:45 in the morning on a Monday after a full weekend of call. Thoroughly exhausted, I shuffled into the elevator and was met by the stench of stale clothing mixed with cigarette smoke. A painfully thin teenager exited, looking lost. I allowed him to wander out, grateful to be spared his odor. I was apathetic, overtaken by a weariness I vowed as a medical student never to have.
Morning …
Life as a doctor is selfless and selfish at the same time
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