The room was suffused with pale light. There was no noise, no breeze. Two children lay on hospital beds, sedated. The only sign of distress would come every few minutes when one of them would tense his whole body, breathing…
When I was in college, I volunteered at the local homeless shelter. Back then you were allowed to smoke indoors, and the morning after a night shift I would leave with my hair stiff with the smell of cigarettes (I had a lot more…
When I was a kid, I remember my parents getting a call from my older brother Pat's teacher. He was falling asleep in class. Perhaps, the teacher suggested, he should get to bed sooner? You would think, both my parents being…
Every so often a parent brings their teenager to the Emergency Department for a drug test. The parent is suspicious that their teen is using drugs, even if the teenager denies it. There is obvious tension in the air between the…
Very few rashes belong in the Emergency Department. Just about all rashes can wait until the next day to see the doctor. Parents bring their kids in anyway, often because they are afraid: afraid of infection, allergy,…
My wife tells the story of how two of her nephews screamed non-stop for their whole first year of life. Her sister and her husband were getting so crazy that she offered to watch the kids for a weekend so they could get a break…
It is a busy time of year for us in the ER business. Besides the usual injuries and illnesses, people fill the ERs in the evenings with worries that are NOT emergencies. The waiting rooms are clogged with milling crowds, often…
Many of my conversations with the parents of sick kids begin with "We went to the doctor to get his shots, and the next day he came down with..." Sometimes the parents think the actual vaccinations made their child sick. I…
When I walk through the family room Saturday mornings, my teenage kids aren't watching cartoons anymore. They are watching reality TV. You know which shows I am talking about, the ones where the performers become stars by…
