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…
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,…
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 the sun goes down, people worry more. They stay awake at night worrying about their job, their relationships, their finances. There are few other people awake with whom to talk the worries out. And when kids get sick with…
It is that time of the year, with the hot weather and the summer rains, when the mosquitoes bloom. It is also the time when TVs should be off and the kids outside playing with friends, getting exercise, sun, and air. But when…
We were already busy that night- every bed had a sick or injured child in it. The waiting room was also full, full of families clamoring to be seen too. Then, when it always seems the time is wrong, the ambulance phone rang. …
The parents got our attention by banging on the Ambulance Entrance doors. In their panic they had stopped there and did not read the signs about the walk-in entrance. They were panicking for good reason. The father had his three…
This morning Tracy Wirtz and I talked about sun exposure and preventing sun burns. Skin cancer is more common than people think, and is quite preventable. Also, sun burn hurts and few things are more miserable than a child…
DODGING VOMIT I have gotten pretty good at dodging vomit over my years as a pediatrician. It only takes once or twice really to learn, after you have been hit. "Gastroenteritis", also called "stomach viruses," "stomach flu," or "…
