Hi everyone,
On Friday evening, I took a last stroll through the MICU. My team had gone, but before leaving, I wanted to check on two patients who were teetering on the edge of intubation, to let them know I’d signed out to Dr. Honiden and would be thinking about them in the days ahead.
I spent all of March in MICU and Stepdown. The month returned me to my roots: as a fourth-year student, a chance MICU rotation led me to switch from pediatrics to internal medicine. I was drawn into the emotional tides, the fast thinking, the teamwork, and the bonds with patients and families. Since then, I’ve forged close professional friendships fighting hypotension, bacteremia, hypoxemia, and acidemia. Sometimes we savored success, and sometimes we had to acknowledge we’d done all we could. We always fought together.
In medicine, our work is bound up in relationships with fellow doctors, nurses, APPs, therapists, pharmacists, social workers, and everyone who pulls together for our patients. Even as the world outside threatens to unravel, our medical center’s fabric remains whole.
In just a few weeks we’ll add 66 new interns to our residency. Today, it’s a pleasure to have them introduce themselves (attached). I hope you savor getting to know them as much as I have. As a bonus, I’ve added a collage of happy Match Day photos.
Enjoy your Sunday, everyone. Tonight, we’ll be celebrating Gabrielle’s birthday at one of our favorite restaurants, River Tavern in Chester.
Mark
P.S. What I’m reading:
- The Story of One Woman Who Fell Prey to the Medical Freedom Movement By Matt Hongoltz-Hetling
- Parents of transgender children in CT concerned about Trump ban on gender-affirming care By Cris Villalonga-Vivoni
- Peter Marks, FDA’s top vaccine regulator, forced out By Matthew Herper et al.,(Dr. Marks was a beloved Yale hematologist before assuming his role at the FDA)
- The Personal is Political By our very own Dr. Katherine McKenzie
- A Doctors’ Day Message from Drs. Thomas Balcezak and Margaret McGovern