Contributing Writer Emeritus
Tufts University School of Medicine
Manasa graduated from Brandeis University with a BA in biology, and from Tufts University School of Medicine with a dual degree in medicine and business. When not practicing medicine, she loves to travel, read, and write.
The patient was a man in his sixties, sitting in the armchair. His wife was next to him. He was there for his routine appointment with a psychiatrist about his depression, stress and anxiety. A year ago, he had a stroke, followed by a motor vehicle accident. His wife is now his caretaker. “It’s hard to take care of him at home, when I’m at work all day, too,” she said. “And he hasn’t been …
Today was not sunny, but today James got to go outside. James is seven years old. Today, he was allowed to drink ginger ale. He’s never been allowed to drink what he wants. He hasn’t left the hospital in weeks. Since James was born, he has had an array of complications. He’s suffered numerous heart attacks, a nearly fatal hemorrhage, a stroke, renal failure, and has lived most of his life on dialysis. His doctors have tried heroic measures “to …
There exist, in truth, three simple words that strike dread into the hearts of every physician: Do. You. Remember. This phrase was introduced to me in the middle of first year. I was spending time in my medical student lounge when a link popped up on my newsfeed to a TED talk by Dr. Brian Goldman, an emergency physician from Toronto who hosts the radio show White Coat Black Art and who has also authored the book “The Night Shift.” In …
The medical students, residents and Dr. G stood around the computer with backs hunched. With serious and emotionless faces, we stared directly into the screen. We were taken aback by the MRI results of his brain in front of us. Was this a primary tumor? An AVM? A dreaded metastasis from somewhere else in his body? How long has this mass been in his brain? Look at the size. Look at the calcifications. What did …
Kyle died early on a Sunday morning. His last meal was vanilla pudding, fed to him lovingly by his grandmother Shirley, while reruns of “Inspector Gadget” played in the background. When Kyle was born 25 years earlier, the family had been told he would not live more than a few weeks into infancy. But Kyle surprised everyone by surviving a quarter of a century with debilitating cerebral palsy. What surprised me most about Kyle was …
After arriving at the hospital, scrubbing in and warming up with a few anatomy questions with my attending, I was relaxed and ready to assist with the upcoming thyroidectomy. My patient, who will be referred to as “M,” was a 17-year-old girl who presented to the office with dizziness. After an extensive workup it was discovered that her symptoms were due to thyroid dysfunction. The surgery was meant to be a straightforward case, but the …
I read the latest progress note: ¨67-year-old male with metastatic lung cancer. Mildly agitated. Pain controlled with morphine.¨ I walk into a single room to see a frail man looking worn beyond his years. I introduce myself and ask if it is a good time to chat. He looks away and tells me that now is not a good time. I can see he has just received his lunch tray. Fair enough. I would not …
The only thing different was the room number and the day of the week. “Hey, our favorite flyer is back,” said my attending as I went to see the patient in room 10 for the first time in my life. The patient was already doomed as I became jaded, cynical and wondered what the health care system or we as physicians could do with patients like this. Let’s be clear, I still had never met …
After graduating from college, I worked at an outpatient oncology facility. I was an administrative assistant, manning the phones, sorting the mail, hounding the doctors to sign insurance forms and complete refill requests—basic, unspectacular stuff. I inhabited the bottom of the workplace hierarchy, beneath the nurses and nursing aids, below the receptionists and medical assistants. They say nurses and nursing assistants are a patient’s first point of contact; in reality, a patient’s first exchange with …
“Es un milagro, señora.” It was getting late, and the clinic waiting room was almost empty. It was OB/GYN day, and the patients—predominantly Spanish speaking migrant agricultural workers—had all finally been seen. All except Maria, who was still in the exam room. Her six-year-old son, Joaquin, skittered around the outside corridor, under the watchful eye of the nurses preparing to close up shop. I was in the exam room with the doctor and Maria, and …
“Are you really prepared to see this?” the doctor asked staring intensely at me, his arm blocking my way to the patient’s room. “Yes,” I replied hesitantly. “You prepped me on the patient already.” “Kid, I didn’t ask if you were prepped. I asked if you were prepared.” I knew that a scheduled delivery for a miscarriage would be a traumatic experience. I knew that it required the utmost sensitivity and compassion. Dr. A had …
“Would you like one meatball or two?” The words stumbled off my tongue as I smiled sheepishly at the people I was serving dinner to. Throughout my first few weeks of medical school, I had frequently experienced the same acute awareness of my own inadequacy. From long hours spent in the gross anatomy lab in a mixed state of amazement, perplexity and reverence, to the scrutiny of seemingly cryptic pink shapes in histology lab, I …
Contributing Writer Emeritus
Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine
My name is Danielle Roberts, and I am a student in the Class of 2016 at Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine. I received a Bachelor of Science in Biology with a minor in Chemistry from Trinity University in San Antonio, TX. I currently serve as the co-president of my school’s charter of Family Medicine Interest Group and as a mentor for first years enrolled in the rural health elective.
Born of a British father and a Chilean mother, having lived in Argentina for most of my childhood, and subsequently moving to Texas, I have developed an appreciation for cultural and linguistic differences. I embark in the field of medicine with the hope of reducing health disparities among minority and under-served populations and promoting cultural competence among health care providers.
