Doctors often struggle to show compassion while dealing with patients - Washington Post

Published: May 17, 2011 

I was standing at my patient's bedside. Mike Venata was having chills with a temperature of 103. Sweat covered his balding scalp like dew, then coalesced and rolled down past his staring eyes. 

Just 20 minutes earlier, a specialist had informed him that he had metastatic pancreatic cancer and could expect to live less than six months. He was alone. I’d seen him once before; as an infectious-disease specialist, I’d been called in because his fever might be due to an underlying infection.

I wondered: How do I show him compassion? Read More 

Flood water not likely to produce epidemics - Commercial Appeal

Published: May 16, 2011

Last Monday evening, our family headed out to see the "flood of the century," as the mighty Mississippi crested in Memphis.

From afar, trunk-less treetops appeared as shrubs and tall telephone posts had become stumps. And, up-close, debris of bottles, boxes and tires rested at the water's edge, as if the local roads were a dumping ground. Read More