Lauren Roth is a family physician.
“I don’t know how you do what you do.” About 90 percent of the time, this is the response I get when I tell people that I am a hospice physician. “Isn’t it sad to work with dying people all the time? You lose all of your patients… that must be so difficult.”
Having been exposed to the many different ways that people can die throughout my medical training, I see …
I’ve come across several articles recently highlighting the Dr. Lorna Breen Healthcare Provider Protection Act. The primary stated intent of this is “to improve mental health among health care workers. It is named in honor of an emergency physician who died by suicide during the height of the COVID pandemic.
Although my very first thought was, “oh, thank God … they are finally listening,” that was quickly replaced with a sick …
“Something’s wrong with Eddie.”
In four words, my entire wedding day collapsed around me. I’d just arrived at a beautiful Gothic chapel in a rented 1950 Rolls Royce, mom and dad on either side of me, prepared for a picture-perfect first look with my groom. As his mother’s words echoed in my ear, I immediately thought of all the scenarios that could be easily remedied so we could move forward with …
“Do you know if he has designated anyone to be his health care power of attorney?” I asked the nurse.
“Well, with the kind of life he led, I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t have done that,” she replied.
Today I met a man for whom life has not been easy. For the greater part of his five decades on this earth, he’d had trouble with drugs. His mother told us that two …
In 2009, I started a family medicine residency. This dream had been brewing since age five when I decided that I wanted to be a doctor. I followed that dream like a mouse follows cheese. Despite some obstacles in the way, I kept my eyes on the prize. I couldn’t wait to be a doctor—a PCP. I couldn’t believe that someone would call me “their” doctor. The thought thrilled me. …
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