[Book Review] Incarceration Nations

I don’t know how much time the average person spends thinking about prisons. It usually crosses my mind when I have a patient who is brought from prison – which happens a lot less now that I’m working only with kids. Every once in a while there will be a report of a jail break,

Doctors and Piercings: Part 3

I removed my nose jewellery recently, and in many ways that decision was as difficult as getting it in the first place.

What If Slavery Never Fell: Underground Airlines [Book Review]

The purpose of an alternate-reality novel is not just to point out the differences between our situation and the what-ifs, but more jarringly to show the similarities. And that is what I found to be the value (and the horror) of Underground Airlines, because as I read I found myself asking, “But how is this REALLY any different from what black Americans are dealing with in our reality?”

Weekly Whine: Small Luxuries

We have learned to adjust to these circumstances, because being angry every day makes the working environment unpleasant. But sometimes it is the small things, the absence of tiny luxuries, that plunges one into despair.

What I See In Your Photos With “Poor African Children”

5. I see someone who took a picture of an attraction.

We take pictures of the Taj Mahal and Mauna Loa and the Shwedagon Pagoda and Table Mountain and so, why not, of these adorable African children. And we post them online too, because the world must see what we saw.

The Passion Deception: Beyond What You “Like”

If you have been told your whole life that you need simply to do what you love (and you’ll “never work a day in your life”, yada yada yada), you might not know HOW else to choose a path forward.

The Passion Deception: Why Passion Is Not Enough

I feel like many talented youngsters have a pressing desire to do a job that makes them “tick”, and they are taught (myself included) from a young age that the profession you choose should be one you feel passionate about. I can understand why we tell people that too: talented youngsters can often do anything they want to, so “passion” becomes a good indicator of what to leave and what to dive into.

On the Ethics of Treating Ebola (or refusing to)

The topic has come up among our students too. We train at one of the nine South African hospitals that are to be the first port of call for suspected Ebola cases. What would we do if we actually had a confirmed case? Would we, as students, treat them? Mostly we think we would not (right now… read on).

Lies They Tell You About Medicine

Canada’s The Globe and Mail recently published the piece, “Think medical school is for you? You’re probably wrong.” Trisha brought it to my attention with her great response piece here. While I think the author has some salient points, I disliked the strong undertones of the piece. It did get me thinking, though, how a

Healthcare for LGBT Patients in South Africa

In our third year, a friend of mine had an upsetting first shift in Trauma Surgery: the first suturing she ever did was on a young woman who had just survived corrective rape. Rape is common in our country in general, and so is the “corrective” rape of gender non-conforming women. A year later, we