Johnathan Yao is an internal medicine resident.

Inspiring lessons from WWII veterans and the intensity of the medical field

Physician
July 2, 2023

On some of my night rotations during intern year, I found myself watching WWII documentaries and movies. The patients at the VA medical center had stuck with me with their stories and their attitudes. My experiences at the VA motivated me to learn more about my patients’ lives, who had served our country. As I watched some of these movies, I noticed parallels between my life and those of the …

Read more…

Inspiring lessons from WWII veterans and the intensity of the medical field

How one liver disease patient found hope and overcame adversity

Conditions
June 22, 2023

The first day I came to the liver service, I met Mr. S, who was struggling with complications of liver disease. In the long term, he required a TIPS procedure that would better distribute his abdominal pressure and eventually a liver transplant. He was at high risk for the procedure and was struggling to maintain the fluid restriction necessary to prepare him for it.

Mr. S was entirely despondent when I …

Read more…

How one liver disease patient found hope and overcame adversity

Awakening the dormant elements of humanity

Physician
June 11, 2023

When I was first paged about Mr. P, I braced myself for the worst. He had already had three “code greys” called—the hospital code for aggressive behavior. When we met him on his hospital bed, he was bound by restraints on his wrists and ankles to protect the staff. He was admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) for alcohol withdrawal, though the medications used to treat his condition had …

Read more…

Awakening the dormant elements of humanity

From medical student to intern: Discovering a deeper connection with patients

Physician
June 4, 2023

As a medical student with a limited knowledge base and limited exposure to taking care of a high volume of patients, my idea of being the physician I hoped to be involved in spending time at the bedside and really getting to know my patients as people and hearing their stories. As I was learning my way around how the medical world worked as clerkship student, this was perhaps the …

Read more…

From medical student to intern: Discovering a deeper connection with patients

Heartwarming stories of cancer patients teaching us about life and the human spirit

Physician
May 30, 2023

I felt uneasy starting my oncology and leukemia rotations. These patients were so sick, and many of them had incurable cancer, often just weeks or days away from death. I wondered how I could help them, what we could do if we couldn’t treat their cancer. I’m grateful that these patients taught me not just much about how we can always help our patients and support them but also much …

Read more…

Heartwarming stories of cancer patients teaching us about life and the human spirit

Raw humanity on night float: inspiring patient encounters and overcoming challenges

Physician
May 27, 2023

Night float had always been this mythical monster to me, an intimidating prospect that conjured up some of my greatest fears about a residency rotation – jetlag, nocturnal clock, lack of continuity with patients or a day team, multiple pagers and multiple admissions every night. Maybe it was the uncertainty of the unknown that had seemed so daunting.

Somehow, after three admissions on my first night, I found myself still awake …

Read more…

Raw humanity on night float: inspiring patient encounters and overcoming challenges

Thank you to the patients who have allowed me into your lives

Education
May 24, 2021

In college, though I barely came out of organic chemistry in one piece, I couldn’t deny a persistent gut feeling and took a leap of faith to pursue medicine. That pursuit has been an arduous one, but that’s what has made the journey rewarding beyond my wildest imaginations. Thank you to my incredible mentors for nourishing my love for the practice of medicine and allowing me to dedicate myself towards …

Read more…

Thank you to the patients who have allowed me into your lives

The opportunity to connect with another person on the most human of levels

Education
February 18, 2021

One of my most impactful experiences during my third year of medical school was spending time with my patients and getting to know them. I went into medicine because I believed in the special relationship between doctor and patient. As I was shadowing in college, I was amazed by how within minutes, a stranger would reveal physical and psychological details about their life they might not even share with their …

Read more…

The opportunity to connect with another person on the most human of levels

If I listen hard enough, each patient has a sacred story to share

Education
February 6, 2021

From a medical perspective, ‪Mr. G’s case seemed straightforward. His GFR had fallen. His kidneys were failing. Dialysis would be required as the best treatment for his renal condition.

When I met with Mr. G later in the afternoon, he was in despair. He could not see how dialysis would save his life and expressed anguish towards the idea of living the remainder of his life on dialysis. He deliberated declining …

Read more…

If I listen hard enough, each patient has a sacred story to share

COVID-19 blurs the line between physician and patient

Conditions
May 7, 2020

The unspoken culture in medicine has been that to maintain objective professionalism – some measure of distance is encouraged between the clinician and the patient. From anatomy lab, students are encouraged to forget patients as fellow human beings but organs and limbs. Medical rounds and board examinations reinforce that patients are diseases to be fixed. In some sense, such distance may be protective, as medical disease manifested in a human …

Read more…

COVID-19 blurs the line between physician and patient

How we respond to COVID-19 can serve us well for the rest of our lives

Conditions
April 19, 2020

Many of the patients whom I met during my oncology rotation felt hopeful for a cure. They imagined how once their cancer went into remission, they could go back to their normal lives as they once were.

I was struck then when one patient, a 72-year-old male Mr. G, shared with me a different attitude towards his cancer. His father, his mother, and his sister had all died from cancer. He …

Read more…

How we respond to COVID-19 can serve us well for the rest of our lives

COVID-19 is a story of human beings

Conditions
April 11, 2020

As a medical student now in the time of COVID-19, many friends and family have turned to me seeking advice and guidance in an uncertain time. I’ve appreciated how my different experiences in medical school have prepared me for this responsibility. My immunology and pathophysiology classes can explain how COVID-19 spreads, how it attacks the respiratory system, and how the symptoms manifest itself. But I quickly came to realize that …

Read more…

COVID-19 is a story of human beings

This patient interaction is a reminder of the power of being human

Education
January 17, 2020

During a day of shadowing during my first year of medical school, the physician I was following had been running behind schedule and instructed me to keep the final patient company until he caught up.

I knocked on the door and found myself facing a wide-eyed, middle-aged man staring down apprehensively at his severely bloated stomach.

As I asked the patient what was going on, he suddenly looked up at me and …

Read more…

This patient interaction is a reminder of the power of being human

Patients are more than lab results

Conditions
July 14, 2018

I loved my endocrinology block in medical school. It was one of my favorite units. One hormone acts on another gland, which either induces a positive feedback releasing its successor hormone or a negative feedback blocking its predecessor. It was step-by-step. It was straightforward.

I loved the material so much that I reached out to an endocrinologist to shadow her. I wanted to see the power of what we were learning …

Read more…

Patients are more than lab results

My first objective structured clinical examination

Education
April 20, 2018

After a semester of studying and taking written exams, we had our first OSCE in medical school. An OSCE — or an objective structured clinical examination — is the real deal. Instead of filling out multiple choice boxes, we instead work with a real human being, which for me is a welcome change.

The actor is given a script with their unique condition and story — it’s a simulation of what …

Read more…

My first objective structured clinical examination

The unintended meaning behind medical schools’ pass-fail system

Education
April 6, 2018

In recent years, there has been a push across medical schools to change the grading scale towards that of a pass-fail system. The appeals of a pass-fail system to me were obvious. Instead of worrying about my grades as I had in college to maintain an adequate enough GPA to get into medical school, I believed that merely passing would lessen much of the pressures I faced as an undergrad.

Those …

Read more…

The unintended meaning behind medical schools’ pass-fail system

Medicine isn’t about mechanics. It’s about the soul.

Education
March 6, 2018

In medical school, the lessons and stories have a unifying theme that connects the threads of humanity. In medicine, I could find these stories, the feelings of loss and fear and hope and love. In the face of illness, suffering, and death, we often see the unvarnished sides of the human condition — the more raw sides of our nature hidden behind the decorum of everyday living, behind the curations …

Read more…

Medicine isn’t about mechanics. It’s about the soul.

The irony of me observing death on a day celebrating my birth

Education
February 22, 2018

As part of my medical school’s inter-professional learning, I shadowed a hospital chaplain this afternoon. While physicians principally attend to the physical healing of patients, chaplains also fulfill an important role in health care: meeting the spiritual needs of patients. When faced with disease, patients often grapple with deeper questions about their illness beyond just what the diagnosis and treatment plans are.

Immediately upon arriving at the hospital, there was a …

Read more…

The irony of me observing death on a day celebrating my birth

A near-death experience taught this medical student a lesson

Education
January 21, 2018

I had just taken my final anatomy exam and finished a long two-month ordeal dissecting through and memorizing every component of the human body. At the beginning of the course, I had been excited, energized, honored to commence such a foundational experience in medical training. By the end, I was exhausted, wanting nothing more than just to sleep.

The very next day, we began physiology with two weeks of cardiology separating …

Read more…

A near-death experience taught this medical student a lesson