So last week, I did the bravest thing I have done in a very long time — I quit my job. Yes, I put in my 60-day notice. This was my dream job post service in the U.S. Air Force. I had dreamed of working in this establishment for months before my service time was up. I could not have been happier when I joined their team, a group practice …
Why this physician quit her job
I have to admit, I’m not the biggest follower of popular culture. I couldn’t pick a Kardashian out of a crowd if my life depended on it. I don’t know who Brad Pitt is currently married to, if he’s married. And I have no idea how many kids Natalie Portman has, if she has any at all. (In full disclosure, I was blanking on names and pulled up People.com to …
On vaccines: 1 pediatrician vs. 13 celebrity opinions
Death and dying — it is one of the first topics I was taught about in medical school. I was fortunate to attend a medical school that only made us spend half our time falling asleep in lectures. The other half we were in small group sessions, working our way through real patient scenarios, trying to learn to think like a physician.
As part of our first-year curriculum we had to spend time doing …
A physician explains the afterlife to his child
Dear science,
Today my sons, Oliver and Victor, are 15 years old.
It is not a miracle; it is thanks to you.
Unable to get pregnant I needed infertility therapy. If you had not isolated the hormones, developed tests, and then designed medications for ovarian stimulation and to trigger ovulation I would never have become pregnant.
If ultrasound had not been developed I would not have known I was pregnant with triplets and then …
Fortnite Season 5 has officially arrived — bringing new features, a new maps, and new skins. Parents can anticipate battles over the amount of time spent playing the game to “level up” with your teens.
If you are not familiar with this game, then it likely means that you are not the parent of a teenager (I nearly wrote “teenage boy,” but it is important to appreciate the growth of female …
Parents vs. Fortnite: tips from a child psychiatrist
Urgent care centers are way ahead in prescribing unnecessary, potentially harmful antibiotics that are doing no one any good – at least no patients any good. The owners of the urgent care centers are the ones who are benefitting. And you and your family are being bilked, misled, and harmed.
A recent study published in JAMA Internal Medicine looked at the proportion of antibiotic prescriptions that were made for viral respiratory …
Urgent care centers prescribe more antibiotics. Why is that?
Anyone who has worked in medicine for a long time well understands the power of the statement coming from an experienced person: “This kid looks sick.” That person could be a physician or nurse. Years of experience does tend to give one a sort of sixth sense for when to worry something serious is going on that just hasn’t shown itself fully yet. Seasoned parents can often provide the same …
When you hear these words from an experienced clinician, believe them
A recent stir was created regarding a California pediatrician Dr. Bob Sears. Dr. Sears is sympathetic to parents who do not want their children vaccinated. Apparently, Dr. Sears got in trouble with the California State Medical Board for not producing medical records to support a parent’s claim that their son could not take vaccines because of adverse reactions, including “loss of urinary function and going limp,” and instead, just taking …
The consequences of taking patients at their word
The face of a 2-year-old Honduran girl, dwarfed by the adults who only appear as legs in the photo, communicates undeniable anguish. Used to represent the horror of children separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border, the photo became a lightning rod for controversy when it turned out that this particular child was not actually separated from her mother. In an interview for CBS News the border patrol officer involved …
When family separations become a threat to existence
One of the most contentious areas of health policy over the past two decades has been the safety of vaccination. Vaccines prevent the outbreak of diseases that used to be widespread, like polio, and scientific consensus strongly supports their safety. Yet many Americans refuse or delay the vaccination of their children out of fear that it could lead to autism, even …
Vaccine opponents think they know more than medical experts. Why is that?
During my pediatric surgery training, I could easily point out which was the hardest day for the three fellows that were under training on that specific year. It was late evening when I received a call that one of our patients had coded. I was at home, and the drive usually took me exactly seven minutes.
Due to social reasons, this patient was in the hospital with us for months (at …
How do you come back after losing a battle?
I recently listened to DDx, a new podcast from Figure1. In their third episode, a 37-year-old man presents to the emergency department in the middle of the night with persistent vomiting and retching. He is highly vocal and agitated. Upon questioning, he reveals that he experiences these episodes frequently and previous investigations have all been inconclusive. His skin is noted to be flushed and his father …
What is the pediatrician’s role in marijuana use?
I could see the excitement on my six-year-old daughter’s face as we pulled into the parking lot and unloaded her new bike from the car. She had been anxiously awaiting this moment for several weeks — she was going to learn to ride a bicycle. She watched with increasing interest as I unscrewed the training wheels, tightened her handlebars and handed her the bike. She got on her new bike …
Third year of medical school is like learning to ride a bike
ADVERTISEMENT
Recently, a journalist with NPR asked her audience if sleeping with your baby is as dangerous as doctors say. In short, yes, it is very dangerous.
In the article, Michaeleen Doucleff repeatedly trivializes the danger of parents co-sleeping with their baby. She uses anthropological evidence to reassure parents that sleeping with their infant is safe if parents don’t drink, smoke, or use illicit drugs. She makes light …
Sleeping with your baby: Mainstream media gets it wrong
I had not one, but two suicidal teen patients today. This is only one day after I had an eight-year-old suicidal patient come to see me. Three weeks ago, a 17-year-old female walked in, she had hung herself in her closet one month earlier — saved only by the timely breaking of the crossbar of her closet — passed out on the closet floor by her mother. A 16-year-old male …
A pediatrician’s healing spirit: treating depressed, anxious, and suicidal teens
As I begin my overnight pediatric emergency department shift, there is one patient waiting to be seen: a six-year-old male with autism who is alleged to have experienced sexual assault. In my first year of pediatrics residency, I haven’t yet managed a sexual assault case, but it’s time for me to learn. I sign up to see the patient and move to find them in the sub-waiting room.
As I round …
A difficult situation a resident faced in the emergency department
It’s a Sunday evening in a local South Texas emergency room with the expected ER traffic for a weekend evening. Lots of simple traumas: ankle sprains, abrasions, lacerations, falls, common URI symptoms, and fevers.
The EMS radios in with a call of a five-year-old male who has altered mental status. The patient is brought in around five minutes later and placed in an open emergency room. The patient is accompanied by …
What happens to the health of children taken from their parents at the border?
Vaccines have been hailed by virtually all medical experts, as well as medical historians, as the among the greatest triumphs of public health to occur in the past two centuries. Yet since Jenner first proposed vaccination for smallpox using the vaccinia, or cowpox, virus there have been both skeptics of its effectiveness and people who thought it was dangerous. That is, they had the risk/benefit ratio of vaccination exactly backwards, …
Has the anti-vaccine movement affected vaccination rates?
Seventy percent of the children and adolescents I see in clinic are obese so I have many opportunities throughout my clinic day to talk about exercise and nutrition. Although the general message is the same, precisely how I deliver the information matters more than I could have imagined. I found this out quite accidentally.
It was toward the end of the day, two months after the firestorm in Santa Rosa, California. …
A low-tech way to improve the physician-patient relationship
The year was 1997, and I was an intern. I remember the morning vividly. Rounds had ended, the nurses had just started their shifts. The hospital was hustling. I felt a buzzing sound and looked down to see a page from my mother, then another and another. The frantic paging made my heart race and I wondered what could possibly be wrong. I ran to the nearest phone and heard …
Empathy is what separates doctors from computers
Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.
