I Had A Terrifying Postpartum Complication — And I Want To Prevent Anyone Else From Experiencing It
A few days after coming home from the hospital, I knew something was seriously wrong. I’d just given birth, and my baby was fine, but I had a blinding headache, which was soon compounded by chest pain. Five days later, I found myself gasping for breath during simple actions like walking around the house. By […]
I Made A Decision At 17 That Completely Changed My Body. I Kept It A Secret — Until Now.
“My surgery was a secret from everyone I knew,” the author writes. Pramote Polyamate via Getty Images I was 16 when I first learned about the surgery. My mother told me she had heard of something that could help me. Something that could fix me. The lap band surgery would place an adjustable ring around […]
Autopsies Show COVID-19 in the Brain
Early this year, leading researchers discussed what we knew — and didn’t know — about COVID-19 and the brain. Since then, new findings have emerged about SARS-CoV-2 and the nervous system, including the results of an autopsy study that showed the presence of the virus throughout the body and brain. How can a respiratory pathogen […]
Opinion | Suffering Endures on the Other Side of the Mpox Curve
I couldn’t remember exactly where I knew him from, but I recognized his large olive-green eyes above his mask when he stopped at my clinic office door. “Hola doctor, me recuerdas [do you remember me]?” he asked excitedly. He said I had helped him during the summer when he had a severe case of monkeypox […]
My Belly Button Saved My Life
I knew what to look for, but I missed the signs. I went to an ovarian cancer awareness walk a decade before I was diagnosed with it at the age of 44. I took home pamphlets describing it as a “silent killer” because most people miss the symptoms, which include frequent urination, feeling full quickly, […]
‘I Thought We’d Be Spending Less’: What We Heard This Week
“We knew it would be a lot of money, but I thought we’d be spending less.” — Heather Vallier, MD, of MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland, on her team’s study that showed the total cost of care for treating gunshot victims at the trauma center over a 27-month period was over $18 million. “This is […]
‘We May or May Not Ever Get Paid’: What We Heard This Week
“All we knew is that we may or may not ever get paid.” — Joel Hansford, MD, a partner at physician-owned staffing firm EM-Staff, on the 10 emergency physicians who went unpaid for three months by a regional hospital for shifts they worked in April. “We haven’t figured out yet how to vaccinate people through […]