Kellie Lease Stecher is an obstetrician-gynecologist and co-founder and president, Patient Care Heroes. She can be reached on LinkedIn, Facebook, and on Medium @kellie.stecher.
Dr. Stecher has won the Minneapolis/St. Paul Magazine’s Top Doctor’s Rising Star award for the last three years. Her focus is on the safety of patients and staff and community education.
She has two children, Addison 5 and Joseph 7. She grew up in Wisconsin and transplanted to Minnesota to be near extended family. She’s a proud alumnus of St. Mary’s University, Winona.
Kellie fights tirelessly for what’s right and for people who don’t have a voice. She’s made her OB/GYN practice a supportive and non-judgmental environment. Her loud, full-hearted laugh is exemplary of an authenticity that’s present in everything she does and brings happiness to every patient she sees.
I recently returned to the hospital where I had first worked as an attending. Everything felt different. It seemed darker and smaller, reminiscent of the feeling when you revisit your elementary school, and the water fountains appear almost touching the ground, making you feel like a giant.
I walked through the same door I had used countless times over ten years, yet it now seemed more like a portal. The floor, …
A love letter to the doctor I was
During the COVID pandemic health care workers needed to work tirelessly to correct the false information that politicians easily spread through the country. The President made claims that the virus was not real, that physicians were getting financial kickbacks from using COVID on death certificates, and that health care workers were benefiting from the pandemic. Physicians, nurses, and staff needed to talk to patients about COVID, and it really took …
Why are doctors sued and politicians aren’t?
Working in health care, going through medical school and residency, changes who you are. We invest so much of ourselves and our potential futures into accomplishing board certification. Once we achieve this feat, we often live in fear of one day losing what we have achieved. After all, many of us have sacrificed hundreds of thousands of dollars, relationships, friendships, marriages, the ability to have children, joys of life, our …
How medical careers are like argyle sweaters
I don’t think I became a whole person until my mid-30s. When you spend the majority of your life in school, training, and building a practice, everything else goes on hold, or autopilot. There are very few things that I made conscious decisions about. Becoming a doctor was something I decided in childhood, and then it was a mission that I felt I needed to achieve. Every action in my …
A physician was bullied and fired by the bully
When I was a 13-year-old freshman in high school, I joined the basketball team. I had always stood out, which I tried to convince myself was a great trait that made me unique and an individual.
However, when I played sports, I felt alive. I had a coach that year who was a nerdy middle-aged man. During long bus rides, he would call me to the front of the bus to …
This physician is done with being silent about women’s rights
On a typical pandemic Thursday night, I found myself scrolling through TikTok. This has turned into the guilty pleasure of my life. Sometimes you need something to do that will make you forget about your own problems and work. On this particular day, I came across a young woman talking about her experience in the military. She appeared on my page, tears in her eyes, explaining her traumatic event with …
Protect the women who protect us
Dear colleague,
Sorry for my delayed response. I didn’t know if I was going to follow up with you on this issue. When you initially messaged on LinkedIn, on New Year’s Eve, I was holding my daughter. She’s five, and she was desperately trying to stay awake for the ball drop. She was determined to ring in the New Year. Which, unfortunately for me, meant that I had to keep my …
When a colleague asks you for nude photos
As I was running into the grocery store, I couldn’t help but take a moment to look at the light, the candy cane border, and the bell ringers stationed in front of the door. For a moment, I felt like I was in some dystopian Hallmark movie. I looked at the bell ringer’s eyes since that’s all I could see due to the masking of COVID. However, at that moment, …
I remember the sound of pure joy and laughter when playing peek-a-boo with my daughter. She would look at me with her big blue eyes and giggle loudly. One of the reasons this game is interesting to children is the psychological concept of object permanence. In the abstract, object permanence is the realization that things exist, even when an object or person is out of sight. Over the years, there …
Have you ever walked into a hospital before shift change in the early morning hours? The lights are dimmer, there is scarce staff walking to their floors, and people are counting the minutes until the new staff comes. Most staff exist in this survival mode to get to the arrival of the new nurses. Sometimes you can even smell the burned coffee sitting on the bottom of the coffee maker. …
Physicians dedicate their lives to serving their patients and the communities in which they reside. We work tirelessly to educate and protect people, regardless of their background, political affiliation, immigration status, or gender. Most of us have worked to educate our local and state governments, schools, and patients about this pandemic to empower them to take safe measures to protect their families.
We are fighting a war to control this virus, …
Physicians choose love, science, and healing
As physicians, we have a unique perspective on racial justice. As an OB/GYN, I am trusted by women, the LGBTQ community, and people of all ethnic backgrounds to take care of them when they are at their most vulnerable. America is at a health care crossroads, and the decisions we make today will affect generations to come.
The very principle of equality is at the heart of these issues. We need …
Help us make equality an American ideal once again
It was an average Minnesota fall day. I ran out of the house to do a 3 a.m. vaginal delivery. I was tired, both mentally and physically. Medicine has always been such a joyous calling for me. I probably commit nearly 16 hours a day to my job in one way, shape or form, whether its education, writing, clinic duties. Everyone has always asked me how I haven’t gotten burned …
Physicians are tired of being judged based on their gender
After the combination of COVID-19 and George Floyd’s death, it felt like time stood still across the Twin Cities. As a physician, I couldn’t understand how a pandemic response could be partisan. However, I became even more shocked at the partisan divide when it came time to discuss racism and gender equity. As a physician, we take an oath to protect life. We are trained to care for people in …
The poignant message in the balloon
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