I just lost my uncle to COVID-19. I am writing this to honor him because I cannot leave the country to travel to Canada to see him, I could not visit him in the hospital when he needed us the most, I cannot attend his funeral, and I could not tell him in person how much I love him and appreciate everything he has done for me.
He was …
My uncle’s battle against COVID-19
Nurses are responsible for patient care. They are the ones at the bedside 24/7. There is no one who spends more time with individual patients. They are the ones most in danger in the coronavirus pandemic.
The news gets grimmer every day about the inevitable surge coming across the country. Forecast of death tolls in the 100,000 to 200,000 range, if not higher, is terrifying. If the death toll is that …
I won’t sacrifice myself when I can’t get a damn mask
We are in the midst of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The numbers are scary and changing by the day and hour. Johns Hopkins University has a real-time dashboard where you can monitor global cases.
Cases in China have leveled off, while elsewhere in the world, cases are on the rise. At the time of this writing, there are about a quarter of a million confirmed cases worldwide …
Ophthalmology in the era of COVID-19
I miss going to work feeling excited, inspired, determined, frustrated, and exhausted. Being a doctor has been my magnetic north since I was ten, the longest relationship of my life. It’s who I am, what I’m called, how I spend my waking hours, what makes my family most proud of me, and my first love.
Now I go to work terrified. I cannot sleep the night before I am on call. …
For the first time, my job has betrayed me
With COVID-19 spreading rapidly throughout the nation, we need to work together to save as many lives as possible. This includes asylum seekers who are detained for entry-related offenses.
Asylum seekers are among the most vulnerable groups globally. They are mothers, husbands, and children fleeing violence, poverty, and persecution. With few options, they arrive to the U.S under a human and legal right to seek asylum. As …
A doctor’s message to ICE: Release asylum seekers to prevent COVID-19 spread
The world is impacted by coronavirus. The same advancements in civilization that allow us to travel and experience new cultures are the very thing that has blurred our borders and made everyone susceptible to the virus. We are observers and participants at the same time.
Schools are closed and shifting to long-distance learning models. Conferences are canceled. Sporting events are shutting the stadiums to fans. We are social beings now being …
3 tips for inner peace in this COVID-19 world
The world of COVID-19 has two poles: the frontline workers bravely putting themselves at risk for the greater good, exiled to tents in their backyards to protect their families – and the rest of humanity, asked to do its part by staying home.
As a medical student, I have felt somewhat untethered – aligned in training and identity with the former, but relegated to the latter out of necessity. I have …
We treat self-sacrifice as a currency in medicine
It’s maddening to see the differences in health outcomes between the rich and the poor. Even more unsettling is reflecting upon the psychological pain accumulated when living in a fad-obsessed materialistic comparison-creating society, the postponed dreams, and the day to day compromise that those with less have to endure – thoughts that may be far removed from the ruminations of the those who have abundance.
I don’t mean to stereotype, and …
Coronavirus exposes the reality of income-driven health inequality
On March 17th, in a nationwide effort to protect our patients and minimize the overuse of critical primary protective equipment (PPE), the most disposable force in the hospital was removed: our medical students.
When I learned of this temporary suspension, I had just finished my first month of inpatient medicine, a defining achievement in the clinical years. My peers and I had endured eight months of clinical rotations, surviving (at times …
Being a medical student during the COVID-19 pandemic
Ignoring a problem won’t make it go away. I say this all the time, with love and compassion, to my patients who are having trouble accepting a diagnosis. Ignoring your Type 2 Diabetes, for example, won’t make it any less real. It will only land you in renal failure and on dialysis, or with a foot amputation, or a heart attack or stroke. Sometimes, we have to set ego aside. …
Ignoring COVID-19 won’t make it go away
The global pandemic of COVID-19 presents a serious threat of overwhelming our health care system’s capacity. With the lack of a clear, decisive response from the federal government to minimize early virus transmission, it’s becoming rapidly clear that the spike in critical patients flooding the health care system within Italy will likely soon be a problem that the United States will face …
What about the other 80%? Medical students at all levels of training can help beat COVID-19.
I am addicted to Facebook these days. Like everyone else, I am glued to social media, riveted by the drama unfolding around me. I read from the perspective of a primary care doctor in Seattle, the site of the first case of COVID-19 in the country. My friends and family send me regular thanks for being “on the frontlines.” In truth, I am not on the frontlines. I am not …
Don’t praise physicians, protect them
The unparalleled and pervasive nature of the evolving COVID-19 pandemic has touched all of us in some way. There is limited, albeit growing, research on the mental health effects of disasters. A recent review article pointed out the potentially negative consequences of prolonged quarantine, while other research from Wuhan, China, highlighted the impact of COVID-19, particularly amongst healthcare personnel. Psychiatrists and mental health professionals will play a …
Redefining the role of psychiatrists in the time of COVID-19
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In college, I learned about the Frank-Starling law of the heart. It is fascinating and demonstrates just one of the bewildering number of human physiologic responses needed to adapt to the demands we place upon our bodies every day. In brief, the Frank-Starling law states that a healthy, normally functioning heart will respond to increases in demand for blood supply and oxygen by increasing the strength of cardiac contractility. This …
The heart of America’s health care system is failing
Fourteen days of social distancing have passed. Emotions are high all around. The wicked foreboding of the mysteriously menacing novel Coronavirus has spared no one. Everyone is scared. The cleaning staff, scrubbing, and wiping just one more time. The techs, maintaining stoicism behind masked faces. The patients, eyes darting with fear. The nurses, bravely caring for their patients. The reality is that the physicians are scared too. We are all …
A few weeks into COVID-19: Alternating between sadness, fear, optimism, and anger
Arrival to isolation room 45: Recently diagnosed with COVID-19, brought in by ambulance for re-evaluation.
I don my new uniform of colorful barriers: red-rimmed eye shield, green N-95, yellow gown, purple gloves. I carefully walk through two sets of doors into the room and find the most sterile spot. I used to touch, shake hands, sit; now I stand on a clean tile away from his bed.
“So I …
Within the COVID-19 tragedy, there are real people admirably grappling with their new realities
As a 4th-year neurosurgery resident, I’ve tried to sink my heels into every aspect of neurosurgical care in order to harness the skills, the knowledge, and the confidence to know that I’ll be ready to provide exceptional care to my own patients at the end of seven years of training. If you asked me before the COVID-19 pandemic, I would have never considered that telehealth and virtual care would not …
Virtual care for surgical subspecialties
When the COVID-19 pandemic is finally over, health care providers around the world will be asking themselves how we got here. Buying PPE off eBay. Soliciting the public to sew masks. While, as a country, we could have been better prepared, it would not have been practical to stockpile the 3.5 billion masks that HHS estimates will be needed throughout this pandemic. …
Doctors in harm’s way: The stage was set for a PPE shortage long before COVID-19
An emergency room physician, who I interviewed recently, rented an Airbnb to protect his wife from the virus. He is now separated from his family, alone and fighting to keep safe in New York City, with limited resources and PPE or personal protection equipment. When we turn what is vital to our physician’s protection into an acronym, PPE, it loses intensity and meaning. The words “personal protection” is also a misnomer …
Health care workers are precious jewels. Treat them as such.
When I was 18, I decided I wanted to be a doctor. I wanted to help people. I wanted to make things better for others. So, I studied hard in college. I couldn’t afford to pay for test prep classes for the medical school entrance exam, so I studied on my own. I would lock myself in my room and study for six to eight hours at a time for …
I am a physician and I am not your enemy
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