Author: Gene

(Snippets from the frontline) COVID-19:  PTSD in my healthcare colleagues I have vivid memories of patients dying.  Some I did not know as they came through emergency room trauma.  Others … Continue Reading →

(Snippets from the frontline) COVID-19:  Comforting your hospitalized loved one Hospitals do not have enough PPE (Personal Protective Equipment – gloves, masks, gowns, shoe coverings), nor sufficient access to COVID-19 … Continue Reading →

(Snippets from the frontline) COVID-19:  Stigmatized by a cough I was pushing my shopping cart in an aisle with other nearby 6-foot-socially-distant customers.  Close by was an employee stocking shelves … Continue Reading →

(Snippets from the frontline) COVID-19:  Sweethearts They were childhood sweethearts.  Married for almost 60 years, and inseparable. Their neighbor was ill, and hospitalized.  Because of the COVID-19 crisis and hospital … Continue Reading →

(Snippets from the frontline) COVID-19:  Shucks My daughter works in an endemic area, with 7 colleagues and 5 patients positive for COVID-19.  So when she became ill, the test was … Continue Reading →

(Snippets from the frontline) COVID-19:  On being a senior Before they initiated one hour senior headstart at the groceries when toilet paper disappeared, all I wanted was gatorade.  Shelves were … Continue Reading →

(Snippets from the frontline) COVID-19:  Mother Earth I run…slooow.  Being athletic as a youth and growing up in smoggy Los Angeles meant daily discomfort attempting to take a deep breath. … Continue Reading →

(Snippets from the frontline) COVID-19:  Show us the numbers! Hospital healthcare professionals are dying.  Many because they do not have adequate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) like gloves, masks, gowns, shoe … Continue Reading →

(Snippets from the frontline) COVID-19:  Housecalls – what are the rules? I do housecalls.  Most of my patients are older than 65.  Some are bedridden and immobile.  They could be … Continue Reading →

(Snippets from the frontline) COVID-19:  The struggling doctor’s office For 32 years, I have been in private practice in California’s Santa Clarita Valley.  I run a small business, have employees, … Continue Reading →

(Snippets from the frontline) COVID-19:  History repeats itself We were at war.  Yet, there was a second battle against an airborne virus plaguing the army as well as citizens.  Those … Continue Reading →

(Snippets from the frontline) COVID-19:  Monitoring destiny You’re sick.  Is it a cold, seasonal flu, or COVID-19? Whether you know the answer or not, the fatal destination typically is your … Continue Reading →

(Snippets from the frontline) COVID-19:  Dear bailout company As a frontline provider of healthcare, the COVID-19 pandemic brings new urgency caring for patients.  Every day I have to carefully calculate … Continue Reading →

(Snippets from the frontline) COVID-19:  A perfect storm It’s a perfect storm.  A pandemic colliding with the opioid crisis. We are told to shelter in place, yet for patients under … Continue Reading →

(Snippets from the frontline) COVID-19:  Screening hospital personnel rapidly Forty years ago while working in a VA Emergency Room, I examined a veteran who I thought could be anemic…low red … Continue Reading →

(Snippets from the frontline) COVID-19:  No visitors allowed Our mother, who is 98 years old, lives close by.  Because of potential exposure to the coronavirus, I sometimes have to avoid … Continue Reading →

(Snippets from the frontline) COVID-19:  Having an end-of-life discussion, now There are horror stories around the world.  Not enough medical life-saving equipment, with difficult decisions who will live and who … Continue Reading →

(Snippets from the frontline) COVID-19:  “Hose me down..!” Being a geriatric healthcare professional, when I come home, my wife forces me to “hose down.” I come through the garage, close … Continue Reading →

(Snippets from the frontline) COVID-19:  Stay home, now what? We are in the midst of a COVID-19 pandemic and should listen to Public Health and CDC updates with the hope … Continue Reading →

(Snippets from the frontline) Who’s under the sheets? Sometimes medical care can be impersonal. My first surgical rotation included morning rounds where hospital admissions were identified by “the patient closest … Continue Reading →

(Snippets from the frontline) The seven year itch Both lost their spouse in their early 80s.  They found each other at church seven years ago as a bothersome itch kept … Continue Reading →

(Snippets from the frontline) A message to my colleagues Your patients are suffering. Healthcare is in shambles, and the consequence is not just physical weakening of bodies, but the degradation … Continue Reading →

(Snippets from the frontline) Wiping out sepsis Sepsis is a potentially fatal blood infection leading to hospitalization, and costing millions of dollars a year.  Commonly, patients are older women that … Continue Reading →

(Snippets from the frontline) Cocaine in your soda In the late 1900s, soda pop contained cocaine and caffeine as acceptable ingredients.  Not until a sensible President, Theodore Roosevelt, was it … Continue Reading →