Medical

It’s common knowledge that a good night’s sleep prepares us for a successful day, but I like to think of it the other way around: Good planning for sleep during the day can ensure successful sleep at night. As a neurologist who specializes in sleep, I tell my patients that what they eat during the…

Coronavirus has officially hit the United States. The estimated numbers of infected are likely a gross underestimate of the actual number of cases, as the U.S. has only tested a small proportion of the population. Researchers at Johns Hopkins estimate there could be between 50,000 and half a million cases in the U.S. at this…

Serving others My career path has been non-traditional, but my mission and values as a psychiatrist emerge from the traditions of medicine and religion. Although I studied visual arts in college, I was drawn to the challenge and meaning of a career serving others. Understanding patients During residency at Hopkins, I was trained in a…

An acoustic neuroma, also known as a vestibular schwannoma, is a tumor of the hearing and balance nerve complex in the brain. They are rare, and account for less than 10% of all brain tumors. The tumor involves an area of the brain and ear called the lateral skull base; an acoustic neuroma can range…

We have lost our chance to contain this pandemic and are now facing an unmitigated medical disaster. This administration’s response has actively undermined our ability to care for patients by perpetuating misinformation and downplaying the looming threat this infection poses to the public. Ensuring health security is the fundamental duty and responsibility of government at…

I have bled out during emergency surgery and been revived by the expert trauma and transplant team who raced into my operating room. I have had liter upon liter of donated blood transfused into my grey lifeless body. I survived months on a ventilator in an intensive care unit. I have had my lungs fill…

I wish that I didn’t have the experience of working 34 years as a nurse. I know the big picture in a hospital. A recent article stated that the Twin Cities, where I live, has 500 ICU beds, 450 ventilators. As of last Friday, those were 95 percent full. Apparently, there are new CDC guidelines…

Obesity is a topic that literally hits home for me.  For the past two years, the website WalletHub has voted the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission TX metroplex as the “fattest city in America.”  As a health care provider, this is deeply disturbing because it puts my community at high risk for a wide variety of health problems, including but not…