One of the most exciting, rewarding, and occasionally scary of all medical adventures is the birth of a baby…

I suddenly heard rapid, loud, speech full of disturbing content…

She is not Catholic, but there is a beautiful old church that she passes everyday…

No patient possesses a more finely-honed hogwash detector than a child.

When is alleviation of suffering more important than extension of life? And when does alleviation of suffering cross into euthanasia? If a patient asks for surcease, what is our duty?

I saw a thin young woman, seated quietly on the exam table. She was bleeding from three full thickness lacerations on each forearm…

Amazingly, she was “fine”. She laughed and bubbled and talked…

“He slept all day,” says his ashen-faced mother at the treatment desk, “He had no fever until tonight.”

There she is! A standout, carrot-top, eye-catching amidst the muted tones of the rest of the newly born. Her large eyes are open, and she frantically sucks her fragile fingers, which have somehow found her mouth.

His arms were massively strong, his disposition was sweet, and he spoke and behaved like a well-mannered six-year-old. “My name is Andy,” he told me. “I like you.”

Medicine, as any discipline, or technology, evolves. In any evolution, important elements are gained, yet equally important and unique elements are lost.

The police had been called to the house by a neighbor who said she heard children crying and hadn’t seen the mother in two days.

Fifteen years after Roe vs. Wade, second trimester abortions were still considered pariah, yet performed daily at the University Hospital of Somewhere Else.

“I joined the Police Department to die—no, I mean it, I went in for God to kill me—police or the Marines— was gonna be one or the other.

July 1. My first day as a family medicine intern, assigned to Labor and Delivery, and my first night on call, 6 pm sharp. Enviously, I watched the other interns smartly packing up to go home.

“Por tres meses…” For three months she had endured griping pain in her stomach…and she felt weary at times.

He was applying for a job on a city refuse truck. This is a very good job, with benefits, for someone whose hiring prospects are otherwise limited.

As everyone knows, the human body has orifices. Occasionally, these become occluded, or occupied, by things that aren’t supposed to be there.

The Firefighter sits in a sterile-looking exam room, dressed in “turnout gear”, smelling of barbecue. He wears a fire-resistant coat…