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Ebola
“If I get a call about smallpox from the ER I’m not coming in,” an Infectious Disease doctor said to a colleague in the hospital where I was working. It was the early days of 9/11 and anything seemed possible. “Are you all OK with providing care for Ebola patients?” our section chief asked. Our ICU is the … Continue reading
Code
“They need you in room 13” she said when I answered the phone and I ran back to the ICU. The patient was coding and for each minute that felt like an hour, we tried, and failed, to save her. She wasn’t breathing, her heart wasn’t working, and despite the 30 people gathered in the room, … Continue reading
Time to bring back morbidity and mortality conferences
My post on the changing culture of medicine as reflected in the way we talk about our errors in M&Ms is up at kevinMD. http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2014/07/time-bring-back-morbidity-mortality-conferences.html
Morbidity & Mortality Conference, a post mortem
When things go wrong in medicine, as they invariably do, we try to figure out what went wrong, and why. We try to learn if there’s anything we could have done better and what we should do next time. It used to be, in the days of the Giants, that the physician responsible for the patient … Continue reading
My post on Bronchial Thermoplasty is up on KevinMD today
My post on Bronchial Thermoplasty, a new treatment for asthma, and evidence in medicine is up at KevinMD.com today. http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2014/04/bronchial-thermoplasty-asthma-widely.html
One Practice A Week
“There’s only one soccer practice a week,” he said, “Seven to eight pm on Mondays, and then the game is on Saturday… It’s not bad.” I had trouble fathoming it. But what time do you eat dinner? 8pm. Do you come home and cook afterwards? Cook before or during – parents don’t have to stay for … Continue reading
Girl Mayor
Matthew (age 3): “It has to be the mayor.” Me: “The mayor?” Sam (age 5): “Yeah, you know, the guy in charge of everyone in the city.” Me: “You know, women can be mayors too.” Sam: “Yeah, but they’re usually guys.” I keep having some iteration of this conversation with my young sons – women … Continue reading
Why Some Women Love the Ban Bossy Campaign
Sheryl Sandberg’s campaign to “Ban Bossy” when talking about girls, so that they’re less likely to be discouraged from being leaders, has generated some serious backlash. Some have objected to the campaign by schooling us on the differences between being bossy and being a leader. Indeed, these words are not synonymous in the dictionary. Some, especially … Continue reading
A New Therapy for Asthma
I first met Carol* (name and identifying details have been changed) when she came to my clinic after a severe asthma attack had sent her to the Intensive Care Unit. After a few days, she had been extubated and had acquired a new diagnosis, asthma. When she saw me in clinic, she felt better than … Continue reading
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