A few weeks ago, I wondered aloud whether people grieve the same in the middle of a pandemic. A pandemic or other tragedies like earthquakes or tsunamis, when there are hundreds or thousands of people grieving for their lost family members and friends, is their individual grief felt less acutely? Does it help to know that there are other families grieving like yours? Or does the individual grief get pushed …
How do we grieve in a pandemic?
I am sitting at my kitchen table. To my right is my daughter, 9; to my left, my son, 11. They are drawing, reading, doing work that their teachers have diligently sent electronically. Between quiet stretches and fighting between my kids, I try to keep up with the nonstop, detailed emails coming from my institution, Michigan Medicine, information designed to keep staff up to date, and ready to work.
I …
How COVID-19 affects this family physician at work and at home
I hate to say this, but you were right.
We hadn’t come across something such as yourself, at least in our lifetime. Young, old, retired, or working—you were an entirely new beast to us. You had the world turned on its head in a matter of months and began to swoop into our lives in the deadliest way.
You are so small, yet your ability for discreetness and complete invisibility had us …
A physician’s letter to coronavirus
Brown paper bags line the windowsill of the COVID-19 intensive care unit at Eskenazi Hospital in downtown Indianapolis. The bags are filled with the N95 masks we’re reusing, labeled with the handwritten names of my staff: Patrick, Angela, Brittany. They are mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters.
As of this writing, we are caring for more than double our average number of ICU patients and using more than triple our average number …
We don’t talk in terms of supply numbers. We talk in terms of days.
I want to write a letter of thanks for all the sacrifices you have made for our nation during this COVID-19 pandemic.
Thank you for all the lives you have saved.
Thank you for fighting to save all the lives that were lost.
Thank you for leaving your homes each day, not knowing if or when you will hold your children or see your spouse …
A thank you to emergency physicians
My first possible COVID-19 case came nearly three weeks ago, before there were any cases in our city. He was a healthcare professional who presented with fever, sore throat, and cough. We did the usual strep and influenza testing, both negative, but I thought that he looked different. He had some diarrhea, stomach pain, and a different look to his face that I couldn’t place.
“You might have it,” I said. …
How the lack of coronavirus testing impacts primary care
I’ve been telecommuting for two weeks, and I already feel like Bill Murray’s character in the film Groundhog Day. A college friend of mine had a term for this feeling—déjà movie. I ease into my day with the repetitive normalcy of feeding the dog and sitting with my coffee while I watch the news.
A lead story included pictures taken by Dr. Colleen Smith, a young doctor at Elmhurst Hospital in …
The crisis after COVID-19: Why doctors won’t get treatment
I’m a third-year medical student, but my medical education, as I knew it, is currently on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Stanford has pulled its students from hospitals and clinics for the time being, following recommendations from the Association for American Medical Colleges (AAMC).
Our pre-clinical students, first and second-years, have transitioned to remote learning. Fourth-years, who have mostly completed their required rotations and have already Read more…
Even with education on hold, medical students still contribute
I am the director of critical care for a hospital. Five days ago I tested positive for COVID-19. I can’t know for certain where exactly I contracted the virus. But when my hospital admitted its first COVID-positive patient, I stayed until 3 a.m. to set up the isolation ward and care for the patient until she was intubated and transferred to the ICU. I entered the isolation room wearing …
We’re buying masks and gowns with clinicians’ health. We need to stop.
I am a professor and cardiac anesthesiologist who practices at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska. Like the majority of health centers across the world, our leaders are working around the clock to treat COVID-19 in our community. We on the front lines are preparing, educating ourselves daily on rapidly changing plans and treatments, and working to keep …
The inspiring women physicians of the COVID-19 pandemic
Out of the blue, a new virus popped up, and ten weeks later, it is a pandemic. Within the last ten weeks, doctors have identified this new disease, figured out how it is transmitted, identified what body fluid we need to test to determine who has contracted the disease, developed a test for it, mass-produced that test, and distributed the tests all over the world. What an incredible response we …
This pandemic highlights the need for an emergency fund
I have been writing columns for physicians for twenty years. And year after year, I have had physicians say this: “I’m glad you said what you did. If I said it, I’d be fired.” There are variations on the theme, but they’re much the same. Twenty years, and far more than 20 years, during which the alleged health care leaders in America have been routinely muzzled because they aren’t supposed …
Truth dies in silence. Sadly, so do people.
With COVID-19 raging through the nation, and limited supply of PPE at hospitals, doctors and other critical care personnel are at high risk due to their increased and daily exposure to the virus. For health care workers, the need to plan for a possible worst-case outcome for themselves and their families has become an immediate concern. Doctors are spending limited weekend time Read more…
How doctors can rush to complete their wills
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Infectious diseases have been a scourge of mankind since time immemorial. I am a keen reader of history, and anyone who does so, knows that infections have not only caused billions of deaths and untold suffering—but have also brought down kings, armies, empires, and entire civilizations. Previous pandemics have literally changed the course of human history. The one we now face in 2020s America thankfully falls at a time of …
How the coronavirus pandemic can save lives in the future
I am 64 years old. I was a nurse for 34 years, retiring a year, and three months ago, I worked on the medical-surgical floor, ICU, and the last 30 years, in the emergency room. I retired because I’d had enough.
This year has changed me. My life no longer revolves around my ER job. I am not exhausted from 12-hour shifts, taking at least a day to recover. I no …
The novel coronavirus continues to rage through America, with the total cases standing at more than 210,000 and the death toll at over 5,000. It is without question that our seniors–those 65 years of age or older–will bear the brunt of the health consequences of COVID-19 and the projected American death toll of up to 240,000 this year.
It is now well known that seniors have a …
It was 2013. High-tech entrepreneurs were excitedly “disrupting” industries, bringing goods and services closer to users. Uber replaced cabs, Kickstarter replaced investors, and telehealth companies offered convenient, at-home medical care over smartphone video. Why waste time going to an office or clinic, especially if you’re not feeling well? Why spend so much money? The physician’s physical examination had been oversold. It wasn’t really needed.
Psychotherapy never required a physical exam in …
Should the telemedicine boom persist after the COVID-19 pandemic?
We have all listened repeatedly to the many confused, confusing, and misleading statements coming from the White House in the midst of this pandemic, unprecedented in its scope and existential threat. Responding to all the misstatements would be a full-time job. However, the barrage of reckless comments made about drug treatments for COVID-19 during a briefing on April 5, 2020, requires immediate and strong correction.
To address this, I will respond—in …
Why we must be cautious about hydroxychloroquine
As I get ready for work, my children, aged 3, 8 and 14, run to me and give me hugs so tight that I catch my breath. It also makes me realize that I have now developed a soft tummy that will need hours in the gym to flatten out. Flatten the curve, so to speak.
These are not normal times. While some of us have had the opportunity of spending …
COVID-19: How do we protect our children?
My last block of medical school was supposed to be the best part of the past four years. I carefully crafted a four-week vacation from school, designed for searching for the perfect place to live during my emergency medicine residency while spending valuable time connecting with classmates I might never see again. I could never imagine my current reality of moving back into my childhood bedroom and hiding from imminent …
COVID-19 made me realize that I’m not ready to die to be a doctor
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