I was talking to a doctor friend about the movie Asphalt City. He mentioned the scene where the old crackhead lady was relentlessly berating the young paramedic who just sat there saying nothing, looking all burnt to hell already, not two months into the job. We talked about burnout. Burnout comes in waves, I said. …
President Joe Biden today commuted the sentences of almost 2500 people doing hard time for nonviolent drug offenses. The action was aimed at righting injustice. Old sentencing guidelines provided disproportionately harsh sentences for those found with crack cocaine (largely blacks) while those found with powdered cocaine (largely whites) received much more lenient sentences. Biden, who…
The latest CDC provisional 12-month rolling numbers (through August 2024) are out for fatal overdoses and the news continues to be promising. The US reported overdose fatal numbers are down 23.2 % from the August 2023 high. * In Connecticut reported overdoses are down 29.9% from our November 2021 high, a level equivalent to July…
It all started on a hot summer day. My local supermarket was selling generic Kool-pops — a box of 100 for about $5. I bought a couple boxes and started stocking the small refrigerator in our hospital’s EMS room that previously only carried ginger ale and orange and cranberry juice. The pops were a hit! …
“What do you feel like eating today,” my partner Erica asked when we cleared the hospital from a sick call. “I don’t know,” I said. Some days I don’t eat, others I like to take advantage of the myriad of culinary offerings in the city, Jamaican, Dominican, and Vietnamese among my favorites. A number of…