The Impossible Predicament of the Uninsured
This story starts with a missed call and unfolds into something much harder to look away from. Jenisha Watts traces her aunt’s path to the ICU through an accumulation of smaller decisions shaped by cost—appointments delayed, prescriptions skipped, symptoms endured longer than they should have been. It’s a deeply personal account, but also a familiar one, capturing what it means to live in within a system that makes healthcare contingent. A reality clinicians see every day, but rarely in such full, human detail. (from theatlantic.com)
‘The Pitt’ Is Showing Us the Complicated Reality of Psychosis
Using a storyline from “The Pitt” as a way in, this article provides a moment to slow down enough to see what psychosis actually looks like before the breaking point. The subtle shifts, things patients often carry quietly for months. It walks through those early signs with clarity, but also with a kind of restraint that feels true to the experience. By the time someone reaches the ER, their story has usually been unfolding for a long time. (from nytimes.com)
I was a surgeon. The hardest part of leaving medicine was believing that I could
A former ENT surgeon writes about the moment she allowed herself to imagine a life outside of medicine, and what it took to actually leave. It’s not framed as burnout per se, but an intimate look at a system that makes it hard to see any path beyond it. The reframing is striking, the same traits that make someone a good physician—discipline, judgment, follow-through—don’t disappear outside the hospital. They travel. (from statnews.com)