My First Code Blue
“Are you okay, sweetie?” asks the intern as we start to ascend. She is completely unconscious, looking into nothingness. I start to feel the adrenaline. “I don’t think she’s okay,” remarks the intern.
Tag: patient story
Contributing Writer
Medical College of Wisconsin
Michael Sobin is a third year medical student at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, WI. He is a graduate of the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities where he earned a B.S. in Biology.
Compassion in Medicine: Looking Beyond the Patient’s Illness
While there is no way to choose our patients’ outcomes, we can certainly choose to be empathetic and compassionate regardless of their outcomes. Medicine without empathy and compassion is not medicine at all.
The Ways We Fail
Empathy is a muscle you have to exercise just like any other. It is a choice. It’s something you have to study and practice and sometimes fail at and always try again.
Perspectives on Building Rapport with Patients
While being inundated with information on most things that are normal and abnormal about the human body, it is important to remember that we learn all this information to treat patients, not to treat diseases.
Gift of Life
“Procurement tonight” — a text / I’ve been anxiously awaiting with both excitement and dread, / for on transplant service this means / a life must be lost to save another’s.
Basil
It was pink / like the flowers he buys his wife. / It was not uniform.
The Waiting Room
The room kept going in and out of focus. That was why she did not notice him at first. All she could pay attention to was the way her hands and feet kept going cold, hot and then cold again — all happening in step with the alternating blurring and clearing of her vision.
Outside the Room: A Code Blue
I was called to a code the other day. Now I should probably clarify: as a medical student, I don’t actually do anything (unless they really need people for compressions). In fact, I wasn’t even in the room.
Fourth Year: Fences
The last year of medical school heralds more than just the end of an era. It brings with it the confidence in a career choice doubted several times just a year ago.
Ready to Go
The very first patient I ever met on my internal medicine rotation was someone who hated being in the hospital. He took every opportunity in the following ten days to remind us that he was waiting to be discharged.
Her Wardrobe
In high school, I was obsessed with wearing only vintage clothing. After hours of painstakingly searching every clothing rack at Goodwill, I would find a well-worn baseball jersey or an elaborately bejeweled Christmas sweater. I felt a sense of immense pride in reclaiming someone else’s memories — their winning games, their holiday parties – in an attempt to express my “uniqueness”.
On Strangerhood, Intimacy and Fake Pee
She and I experienced such extremes of strangerhood and intimacy in only 72 hours. But what a privilege it was, to be there for her when she had no one else, to advocate for her, to go a little (or a lot) above and beyond on her behalf, to see the inter-workings of this stranger’s life: this is why I chose medicine.
Contributing Writer
University of Colorado School of Medicine
Reade Tillman is an MS3 at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. She received a BS in Biology from Azusa Pacific University, where she also played on the women's soccer team. She left with a lot of great memories and few knee surgeries, so now she enjoys retirement by traveling to as many warm beaches as the medical school schedule allows.