Sonali Mantoo is a critical care physician.

Critical care physician battles long COVID with hope and grit

Conditions
March 8, 2024

I recognize your anguish. Long COVID is new, and I will do my best to support you through this new and confusing illness. This is all I wanted to hear in my countless doctor’s visits. Some came close. The rest were baffled, given how healthy I was prior to a “mild COVID” infection.

I felt patronized by my own colleagues for trying experimental therapy. When activities of daily living are a …

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Critical care physician battles long COVID with hope and grit

Death is not giving up hope

Conditions
May 20, 2020

Death. Mortality. End of Life. Something inevitable, yet rarely discussed and a source of intense discomfort for most. When mentioned, it is considered inauspicious and rude in many cultures. Death is an integral part of the workday for a critical care physician like me. But it was never a topic of discussion in medical school or training.

Death is inevitably encountered by every physician at some point and by every human. …

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Death is not giving up hope

Incorporate art therapy into healing spaces

Physician
May 10, 2020

Art is a way to find yourself and lose yourself at the same time. When troubled, we experience the monkey mind, thinking of worst outcomes, or replaying past events. A creative pursuit helps stall that process by helping us actively practice mindfulness. There is no wrong brush stroke in art; you simply incorporate that into the painting and create something beautiful out of it. A good philosophy for life too, …

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Incorporate art therapy into healing spaces

We care for patients. Why don’t we care for ourselves?

Physician
June 18, 2019

In health care, we are hardwired to do all we can to minimize error and avoid failure. The journey of training and practicing medicine rests on the premise of perfection. And yet, perfectionism and shame are thought to be the two sides of the same coin. As clinicians, we have the privilege of interacting with people from all sections of society during the most vulnerable times of their lives. It …

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We care for patients. Why don’t we care for ourselves?

It is time to consider the health of health care workers

Physician
June 6, 2019

As health care workers, we spend most days in hospitals, clinics, ambulances, and the like — places that are concrete containers for pain and human suffering. And we are bound to be affected by what we see, even if it isn’t apparent. Most people do not witness acute and extreme suffering on a daily basis. Between a comfortable home, car, school, grocery store or office, there is little opportunity to …

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It is time to consider the health of health care workers