“The parts of me that used to think I was different or smarter or whatever, almost made me die. ”
— David Foster Wallace in an interview by David Lipsky
Recent physician-suicides and all those before were committed by people; people caught in an organization rigged against them — one that breeds new and exacerbates existing, mental health issues. Physicians are people. Doctors are people. They happen to be people who care, which makes …
“Dr. WHAT?!” she spat.
“Gold … man. Gold, like the precious metal, and, y’know — a man.” This carefully crafted response was curated and vetted by countless returned pages, and it rarely failed to produce a chuckle. The patient was not amused, and she referred to me, instead, with a disdainful, “Rosenberg.” Every day I re-introduced myself, and every day — “Rosenberg.”
This 36-year-old female admitted for road rash and multiple rib …
I leaned back against the wall, breathed into my palms and brushed beads of sweat from my forehead. I wondered if I wasn’t crying because I lacked the emotional capacity, was too exhausted to expend the energy or maybe simple dehydration. Sounds from the preceding hours played on repeat: congratulations on a clean dissection, a panicking anesthesiologist unable to ventilate, the sad songs of bradycardia and hypoxia playing on the …
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