Category: Favorite Posts
Brown and Bubbles: Why Ferguson and Wilmington Are Alike
“Hey, Bubbles has a gift for you. He’s been looking for you, since you saved his life,” my neighbor said casually. I was somewhat surprised; Bubbles (not his real street name) was a young man whom I met while administering first aid for an injury sustained on my block. Bubbles had a critical...
Betrayal
Baxter was named after a Puritan minister, and I am faintly amused by this memory when I hear him yowl through the bathroom door or when his claws clumsily scrabble across our faux-wood floor. He is not quite as cute now, in the sense that his kitten-like actions are more coordinated though less graceful and less innocent. Playful nips at our fingers now...
Despair
“He wasn’t a big time drug dealer or anything, you know? He didn’t have anything worth taking. I knew him.” My neighbor stopped for a moment, clearly shaken and deeply unnerved. “Why did this happen to him? We grew up together…” His voice faded and we sat in silence. It was twilight in summer and...
Should We Pray With Patients?
The patient was abruptly, unexpectedly, and neurologically devastated, leaving his family stunned and grief stricken. There was little else for the ICU team to offer, even as we worked to do everything physiologically possible to sustain life. It was late at night and as we stood in the room listening...
In Its Time
[The third post in a series on becoming a Christian physician, originally written for the ESN blog. Earlier posts are Do You Want to Be a Doctor? and Helping People Is Not Enough]. After working 24 hours on call in the pediatric ICU, I was exhausted. I wanted to sleep, but friends had...
Do Doctors Make Bank?
Summer had finally emerged and we were sitting out on my front steps, enjoying the afternoon heat and watching some of the other kids play out on the street. Some of the teenagers were casually tossing a football around, throwing it high and watching it bounce among the electrical wires,...