“Rebirth therapy” was meant to help a troubled girl start over, but it ended her life instead.
medicine
Posted inEditor's Pick
No One Told Babe Ruth He Had Cancer, But His Death Changed the Way We Fight It
How the legendary baseball player’s cancer treatment in the 1940s helped pave the way for how we treat cancer today.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Recovering My Fifth Sense
In this personal essay, Kavita Das recalls learning to self-advocate as a patient with a cleft palate — and as a child in a family full of doctors.
Posted inArts & Culture, Quotes, Science & Nature
Black Women’s Maternal Mortality Rates in the US are Staggeringly High
Shalon Irving was educated, insured, and well-supported by family and friends. She still became a casualty of missed opportunities and neglect by healthcare providers.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Anatomy of a Surrogacy
They wanted a baby, she wanted to carry it for them—for a fee. It’s a common transaction but illegal in Canada, and the system here leaves both parties vulnerable.
Posted inBlog Post, Science & Nature
What Makes a Disability Undesirable?
Should we try to correct disabilities to help the disabled, or make their existence easier for the abled?
Posted inArts & Culture, Story
“No Fatties”: When Health Care Hurts
A fat person walking into a doctor’s office can expect lectures, condescension, and misdiagnoses from a medical culture that chalks every health issue up to weight.
Posted inArts & Culture, Quotes
The Flavor of Childhood: Sweet Medicine
One person searches for the anonymous fruit flavor of the pediatric amoxicillin that so many of us, somehow, came to love.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes, Science & Nature
Reunification Will Have to Bridge the DMZ and Massive Technological Gaps
Physicians in South Korea are working to understand the health issues North Korean defectors face, in preparation for eventual reunification.
Posted inEditor's Pick
In Defectors From the North, Doctors in South Korea Find Hope — and Data
A program tracking the health of North Korean refugees rests on the premise that someday, health care will once again be a shared responsibility.