From the Wards

Veronica Gibbons Veronica Gibbons (1 Posts)

Veronica is a medical student in the West Virginia University School of Medicine class of 2028. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in English literature from Swarthmore College, where she also played collegiate soccer. Her interests in medicine include plastic surgery, rural outreach, and the role of the humanities in patient care. Outside of medicine, she enjoys endurance sports such as trail running and triathlon, as well as painting, creative writing, and spending time outdoors.




Foreign Bodies (Berries)

Published by Veronica Gibbons

Foreign Bodies (Berries) Veronica Gibbons (2026) acrylic on paper This painting reminds us that beneath every incision is a unique individual, shaped by experiences that cannot be standardized. Medicine is inherently unpredictable, and while training emphasizes mastery of uniform knowledge, that focus can shift attention toward efficiency, performance, and personal progress. The unexpected blueberries disrupt this mindset, highlighting that while anatomy may be shared, each patient is different. The piece underscores the responsibility to stay …

“You Must Hate Patients”

Published by John Waters

From premed onward, an interest in pathology is often met with a well-meaning but mildly disapproving joke. It comes from friends, family, mentors and internet forums. “You must hate patients.” It seems introverts and misanthropes alike are often relegated to the sub-sub-basements and windowless corners of the hospital, where radiologists and pathologists hiss at lost patients. While every specialty is ripe with ridicule and stereotypes, this particular joke damages the image of an already underappreciated …

Surviving 3rd Year

Published by Tanvi Saran

I stepped foot on the island, unaware of what the next 39 days will hold. I recounted the advice I sought out prior to this adventure. “Remember to not step on anyone’s toes.” “Don’t be a burden. Be proactive.” “Read the room.” I wandered about my new home, using a map to guide me to my assigned tribe. I stepped foot into camp; a windowless room filled with scattered computers, rolling chairs, and an overfilling …

The Sound of an Urban Cowboy

Published by Matthew Petitt

“Walker! David Walker!” I called the name of the next patient as I stood in front of the obnoxiously loud automatic doors that separated the emergency department waiting room from the clinical area. As the doors scraped shut behind me, I realized I’d probably called his name too loudly. The waiting room was dead silent. Only empty chairs on a nauseatingly sticky floor looked back at me as I glanced around the room for Mr. …

Skipping Stones

Published by Kristen Anderson

“You’re thinking about it all wrong,” my fiancé said. His voice poured from the phone like a warm cup of tea, steeped in the miles that stretched between us. “You still think you can be a savior, when really you’re a vessel. If you’re alone and giving someone CPR and they die, you can’t ask yourself if they would’ve lived by someone’s more experienced hands, because it was always going to be you. You were …

Healing’s First Breath

Published by Emilio Blair

The clinic room was quiet, the air laced with the familiar scent of hand sanitizer. Cold air crept out from the overhead vent and slipped through my scrubs, sharpening my focus but numbing my hands at the same time. I was a third-year medical student on my family medicine rotation. Sitting across from me was my first patient of the day, a woman in her forties, here for her routine annual checkup. I settled onto …

A Summer of Reflection

Published by Abdullah A. Memon

As the summer countdown began, there was both a sense of thrill, excitement to learn from and be around someone I admired, and a weight of expectation, both from myself and from those I’d be working with. These emotions are familiar to most embarking on the journey of medicine, where the promise of growth comes hand in hand with the pressure to rise to the occasion. I honestly hoped it would be filled with the …

The First Day

Published by Kristen Anderson

From great violence burst that first guttural wail of life. Gurgling with fluid, peach fuzz slipped into gloved hands. Your head was still moulded by the birth canal as we fit your wee yarn cap. Your mama is a warrior; you’ll see her battle scar one day and will hardly believe that it was through this fine passage you slid into life, spluttering with indignation to have been woken so abruptly from your nap. How …

Rhythm of Healing: The Power of Dance in Patient Care

Published by Raghuram Reddy

The rhythmic clash of the kartal, a copper instrument, marked the beginning of our Sunday dance extravaganza. “Chak De India” pulsed through the air, a Bollywood anthem that ignited our spirits. Didi, a kartal maestro, kept the beat steady, a rhythm that mirrored the pounding of my heart as I twirled and leaped, lost in the joy of dance. In a small town where everyone knew each other’s stories, dance was my mother’s gift to …

And So I Smile

Published by Christine Zickler

“They should have a vaccine for cancer.” Tears were running down his face and onto his lap as I passed him another tissue. He couldn’t continue chemotherapy until the wound on his leg healed. It was my fourth day on my pediatric plastic surgery rotation as a third-year medical student and I was learning how to do a wound vacuum-assisted closure. He begged us to leave him alone. “I want my knee back,” he started …

Dead or Alive: A Student’s Experience

Published by Kenneth Lopez

“That doesn’t happen often,” I quietly but excitedly say to myself while discussing our consult from the PICU. My attending hesitates, pondering the precarious balance between encouraging my medical curiosity and protecting me from the horrors of child abuse and mistreatment that still haunt her to this day. That day, I was a first-hand witness to the necessary but horrible clinical task of a brain death exam. This task is a rite of passage for …

Natalie David Natalie David (3 Posts)

Contributing Writer

Emory University School of Medicine

Natalie is a medical student at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia class of 2026. In 2022, she graduated from Muhlenberg College as valedictorian with a Bachelor of Science in Biology and minor in Jewish studies. She enjoys reading fantasy novels and playing with her pet rabbits in her free time. After graduating medical school, Natalie would like to pursue a career in psychiatry.