A blog about the inner workings of the field of medicine and its theoretical, practical, and ethical complexities.
By: Aaron Rothstein
March 30, 2016
“Yes. But could I endure such a life for long?” the lady went on fervently, almost frantically. “That’s the chief question — that’s my most agonizing question. I shut my eyes and ask myself, “Would you persevere long on that path? And if the patient whose wounds you are washing did not meet you with gratitude, but worried...
January 29, 2016
I have written quite a bit about why physicians become cynical (see here, here, and here). What follows are some more thoughts on this topic that relate to my previous post on Parkinson’s Disease (PD). Recently, a sixty-three-year-old patient came to the neurology clinic for a left-handed tremor that had become worse. He and...
January 6, 2016
via Shutterstock In 1817, Dr. James Parkinson, an English surgeon, scientist, and political activist, wrote in An Essay on the Shaking Palsy about a new medical pathology. In this work, he describes the characteristics of what would later be called Parkinson’s Disease (PD). The essay is worth examining because it offers a perspective...
November 12, 2015
As physicians, we rarely consider the healthy human body. We learn about normal human physiology during our first year of medical school but soon afterwards are exposed solely to pathology. In the hospital we almost always inquire, “What is going wrong here?” but rarely ask, “What is going right here?” It is worth taking a moment...
October 15, 2015
The neurology team shuffled single-file into the patient’s small room. The patient, probably in his 30s, had black hair, brown eyes, and an unsettling demeanor. He glared icily at us from his bed, the blankets covering him up to the neck. His pale brow furrowed even more noticeably as all nine of us intruded on his privacy. In a scene...
September 15, 2015
With what strife and pains we come into the world we know not, but ’tis commonly no easy matter to get out of it. —Sir Thomas Browne, Religio Medici I wasn’t the first to arrive in her room. The resident had already started the code, and nurses, physicians, and medical students crowded around her bed, performing CPR. The patient, a...
August 10, 2015
I have a rendezvous with Death At some disputed barricade, When Spring comes back with rustling shade And apple-blossoms fill the air— I have a rendezvous with Death When Spring brings back blue days and fair. It may be he shall take my hand And lead me into his dark land And close my eyes and quench my breath— It may be I shall pass...
July 28, 2015
This year we witnessed a lot of contentious debate in newspapers and on television shows about the safety and efficacy of vaccines. Recently, for example, the actor and anti-vaccine activist Jim Carrey spoke out against a new law in California that eliminates personal-belief exemptions from mandatory vaccination. Carrey tweeted:...
June 23, 2015
American medicine is not well. Though it remains the most widely respected of professions, though it has never been more competent technically, it is in trouble, both from without and from within. —Dr. Leon R. Kass As a newly minted medical school graduate, I am suddenly faced with much more responsibility. Now I must write...
June 2, 2015
“You’ll h-h-h-have to… excuse m-m-m-me. I’m a little slow because I had a stroooooke,” he told us before we explained to him what his wife’s treatment would be. His voice was nasal and his speech deliberate as he slowly and poorly enunciated each word. He wore sweatpants and a long-sleeved shirt with a blue and white hat...