I Think He is Ready
Mrs. Red Jacket sat at the bedside in her isolation gown which covered her red jacket. She had left her walker outside her husband’s room. Mrs. Red Jacket held his hand and gazed out the window while he was sleeping.
Clinical
Resident Physician Contributing Writer
Saint Louis University Hospital
Gebran was born and raised in Beirut, Lebanon. He comes from a family of five children, including four sisters. After his volunteering experience at the Children Cancer Center of Lebanon, Gebran decided to pursue pre-medical studies at American University of Beirut. He also attended medical school there. Following that, he pursued postdoctoral research in transplant Nephrology at Johns Hopkins. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Saint Louis University hospital. For the love of the Midwest, he plans to move to Indiana University to work in academic hospital medicine. Basketball and scuba diving are some of Gebran's passions. In his free time, he enjoys watching the NBA and buying all the gear for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Morning Coffee (2017)
I often arrive before sunrise and leave long after sunset, enduring unpredictable and challenging schedules while juggling multiple competing responsibilities.
Hope Lost and Found
At the beginning of my intern year, I bought a ukulele. I started intern year at a sprint, like anyone does, arms full of hope. This was quickly extinguished, lost in an atmosphere so devoid of hope that it all flew out of my arms to settle into places so far apart, it might as well have been floating in the vacuum of space.
Kusama: On Humanism in Psychiatry
I first heard of Yayoi Kusama last year when her spellbinding exhibit came to the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. Admittedly late to the international zeitgeist of Kusama, what initially drew me in was her story — a Japanese-American avant-garde artist who suffered from severe mental illness and successfully transformed that suffering into riveting artwork.
Resident Reflections: On Freedom Without Fear in America
My last admission on my last call day of the year; only one patient stands between me and freedom. Freedom from the endless calls. Freedom from self-doubt and anxiety. Freedom.
Community Health Center Funding on Life Support Unless Congress Acts
Just like many Americans, Teresa is a busy mother-of-two with a lot on her plate. When her four-year-old daughter fell ill with the flu, she was grateful that the Child Health Insurance Coverage (CHIP) their family relies on was recently reauthorized in January after four months of funding limbo.
Gunshot Victims Rushed to the Emergency Room: What It’s Like to Be Their Doctor
It seems that each week we learn of a new mass shooting. Gunfire from a legally-purchased AR-15 assault rifle hits innocent high school students, nightclub patrons, and mall-goers. A politician reassures the nation that our brave first responders are bringing the victims to a nearby hospital. The media’s report to the public generally ends, but when I hear “trauma team to ED STAT,” my work only just begins.
Top 5 Reasons You Might Want to Work Locum Tenens After Residency
Every job is different, but my experiences so far have drawn a very stark contrast to life as a resident. Now imagine, if you can: you stroll into work at whatever time you want. You round on your patients, write notes and leave. The rest of the day you give verbal orders over the phone while you hang out at the beach.
Natural Birth
On night shift as an OB/GYN resident, you are not the same person you are when you’re among the living. It might be the long hours, the lack of sleep, or the darkness creeping in from the windows, but your temper is shorter, a pager sounding sends you over the edge, and simple nursing requests leave you sour.
Uncle and Doctor: Terms of Endearment or Old-Fashioned Barriers?
On my first day of intern year, my attending corrected me in the hallway after I introduced myself to a patient by my first name. Following this, I sheepishly adopted a habit of saying “I’m Dr. Last Name” when sticking out my hand to greet a patient. In clinic, the nurses call me “Dr. Last Name,” even when saying a casual hello. When you refer to yourself as a doctor enough times, you start to believe it.
One Code Blue
We coded the woman for forty minutes. She was forty-two, and had two kids, and was perfectly fine yesterday. Now she was gone, or going, her family in the lobby, and no one with any answers.
Another Night in the Emergency Department
Another night in the emergency department in Pittsburgh’s Northside: busy, loud and chaotic. Paramedics pulled patients on stretchers and nurses pushed patients in wheelchairs through the corridors.
Resident Physician Contributing Writer
Allegheny General Hospital
Daryl McLaren is a emergency medicine resident at Allegheny General Hospital, a Level 1 Trauma Center located along the Northside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah, Daryl trained at the University of Utah School of Medicine after earning an undergraduate degree in English. He recently matched at the University of Utah's Global Health Fellowship and will be pursuing his interest in global medicine during the 2018-2019 academic year. Additional interests include a voracious appetite for Stephen King novels, mountain biking, trail running, poetry, coffee, film, making music and his 4 year old daughter, Phoebe Marie.