Natasha Abadilla
Natasha Abadilla is a medical student.
Is this your author page?
Make it work for you. Your KevinMD author page is one of the highest-ranking results for your name. An enhanced author page turns this page into a premium profile with your photo, biography, affiliations, publications, and links, publishes your accepted articles in 1 to 3 days, includes a listing in Experts by KevinMD, and comes with a guaranteed interview on The Podcast by KevinMD. See an example · See the enhanced author page → Cancel anytime.
Latest articles
Medical education
Two weeks ago, while I was helping with an emergency medicine course that I’m a teaching assistant for, I started feeling extremely light-headed, and the chest tightness that I had dismissed as heartburn earlier that morning got worse. I was…
Two weeks ago, while I was helping with an emergency medicine course that I’m a teaching assistant for, I started feeling extremely light-headed, and the chest tightness that I had dismissed as heartburn earlier that morning got worse. I was tended to by the emergency medicine doctor who I was teaching with, admitted to the ED with a resting pulse rate of 130 beats per minute, later admitted to the …
Read more…
A medical student as a patient. She thanks her support systems.
Medical education
Note: This article contains language about physical assault that could be upsetting to some readers. Stanford Medical School saved my life. Not in the metaphorical way, but in a very literal way. If I didn’t start medical school when I…
Note: This article contains language about physical assault that could be upsetting to some readers.
Stanford Medical School saved my life. Not in the metaphorical way, but in a very literal way. If I didn’t start medical school when I did, there is a high chance I wouldn’t be alive today.
I struggled writing this piece because only a small handful of people know my story. By the time you’re done reading …
Read more…
How medical school saved this student’s life
Medical education
Recently, I had the honor of standing by one of my childhood best friends as she promised the love of her life that she’d stand by him forever. The wedding was beautiful, and at the reception, I played with another…
Recently, I had the honor of standing by one of my childhood best friends as she promised the love of her life that she’d stand by him forever. The wedding was beautiful, and at the reception, I played with another close friend’s 3-year-old daughter and talked with other friends about their work promotions and apartment searches. All I have to contribute to these conversations are anecdotes about medical school and …
Read more…
Becoming a doctor is the epitome of delayed gratification
Medical education
One of the best bits of wisdom I’ve ever received is that you can tell a lot about someone by looking at how they spend their time. In medical school, time is our scarcest resource. We’re at this strange and…
One of the best bits of wisdom I’ve ever received is that you can tell a lot about someone by looking at how they spend their time. In medical school, time is our scarcest resource. We’re at this strange and exciting point in our lives, during which we’re responsible for learning an enormous amount of information in hopes that someday we’ll be able to quite literally save lives.
Many of my …
Read more…
A medical student’s reflection on time, the scarcest resource
Medical education
My classmate and I were walking back to the residents’ workroom when we realized one of the psychiatry patients was trailing along behind us. I glanced over my shoulder and found a very short gentleman in a patient gown walking…
My classmate and I were walking back to the residents’ workroom when we realized one of the psychiatry patients was trailing along behind us. I glanced over my shoulder and found a very short gentleman in a patient gown walking just a little too close to me.
“Serena,” he said, smiling at me.
I looked at my classmate. We were on inpatient psychiatry, and he looked as nervous as I was. Our …
Read more…
Scenes from a medical student’s rotation in psychiatry
Medical education
I’m three weeks into my second year of medical school, and my classmates and I are sharing feelings of being “old” compared to the first years on campus, who are “bright-eyed and bushy-tailed” -- not yet jaded by med school…
I’m three weeks into my second year of medical school, and my classmates and I are sharing feelings of being “old” compared to the first years on campus, who are “bright-eyed and bushy-tailed” — not yet jaded by med school bureaucracy, and (rightfully) excited by all the opportunities that lie ahead of them. I’ve also heard a few of them use an often-judgmental term that has always confused me: “gunner.”
Some …
Read more…
In medical school, not all gunners are created equal
Medical education
Congratulations on your acceptance to medical school! Wherever you’re starting this fall, know that you’re joining a “cult” of health care professionals and health care professionals-to-be. No matter how little you know, you’ll be asked for medical advice. And the…
Congratulations on your acceptance to medical school! Wherever you’re starting this fall, know that you’re joining a “cult” of health care professionals and health care professionals-to-be. No matter how little you know, you’ll be asked for medical advice. And the more you learn, the less likely you’ll be able to sit through an episode of “Grey’s Anatomy” without picking out the make believe. We’re right there with you.
Medical school is a …
Read more…
3 pieces of advice to new medical students
Medical education
This quarter, during the block of our human health and disease course dedicated to learning about the pulmonary system, I conducted one of the scariest “academic experiments” of my life: I stopped going to class. What did she do with…
This quarter, during the block of our human health and disease course dedicated to learning about the pulmonary system, I conducted one of the scariest “academic experiments” of my life: I stopped going to class.
What did she do with all that free time? one might be wondering. Instead of spending hours every week watching the lectures I missed going to in person and reading textbooks (I saved all of that …
Read more…
A medical student stops going to class. See what happens next.
Medical education
Back in September, an Inside Stanford Medicine article featured my first-year medical school class on our first day of anatomy. It spoke of learning anatomy and having the privilege to work on real donors’ bodies as a “rite of passage,”…
Back in September, an Inside Stanford Medicine article featured my first-year medical school class on our first day of anatomy. It spoke of learning anatomy and having the privilege to work on real donors’ bodies as a “rite of passage,” something all medical students must do to really discover the human body.
We were all very excited, yet timid, on that first day of anatomy class, I remember. Afraid …
Read more…
Never forget a donor’s humanity
Medical education
I’m a first-year medical student who recently discovered the magnetic pull of surgery. As one might assume, on my first day scrubbing into the OR under a pediatric surgeon, I was beyond excited. The surgeon’s precision and expertise fascinated me,…
I’m a first-year medical student who recently discovered the magnetic pull of surgery.
As one might assume, on my first day scrubbing into the OR under a pediatric surgeon, I was beyond excited. The surgeon’s precision and expertise fascinated me, and the constant activity in the surgical suite was something I could definitely get used to. Adrenaline was as pervasive as anesthesia in the OR, and I knew I’d thrive there.
However, …
Read more…
Doctors should take care of teddy bears too
Real physician voices, twice a week
Free, and one click to unsubscribe.
