A cancer survivor. A heart attack victim. Pediatric patients. Be inspired by medical stories from ordinary people who’ve had extraordinary challenges. Hear about the health problems and transformations of our patients.
Every week we’re publishing the winning poems from April’s medical poetry contest. This week’s poem was a runner-up in Category II: How Sick Did You Get? Untitled By Bonnie Carey The worst ailment that on me befell Was an abdominal cyst that did swell Of alarming surprise Was its Guinness…
In 2012’s “Silver Linings Playbook,” Bradley Cooper portrayed the role of a mental health patient diagnosed with bipolar disorder. [caption id="attachment_8389" align="alignright" width="204"] Jennifer Raymond's son died of H1N1 flu complications in 2009. Read Vim & Vigor to find out how she honors his memory.[/caption] Read about Cooper’s experiences and…
For National Poetry Month, we held a poetry contest focusing on medical themes. We received numerous submissions, from hilarious haikus to heartfelt free verse. We all found it very difficult to choose our favorites! Daniel Becker, MD, editor of Hospital Drive, worked with our editorial staff to choose the winners.…
Helena Frischtak, a third-year medical student working in different clinics and parts of the hospital as part of her training, contributed this post. In the hospital, people come and go. Rooms take on new patients, and doctors take on different rooms. When you start to know a patient better, he…
In August 1982, Thomas P. Loughran Jr., MD, was working in Seattle when a woman with a mysterious blood illness was transferred to his hospital. That patient and her condition changed the path of Loughran’s research forever. [caption id="attachment_7950" align="alignright" width="300"] Read about patient Helen Trimm's cardiac arrest scare in…
Jim Malloy was only supposed to be pretending to have an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). [caption id="attachment_7762" align="alignright" width="300"] During training, medical student Ryan Jones (right) caught an AAA in Jim Malloy.[/caption] This condition, where an area in the abdominal section of the aorta swells and can burst, is common…
While many people associate November with Movember and men’s health, it’s also Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month. Watch UVA political analyst Larry Sabato's story.
UVA patient Betsy Houston, a freelance writer and editor, contributed this post. “A debt we can never repay…” That’s how my husband and I describe our relationship with the UVA Health System. Nearly ten years ago, the doctors and nurses in the hospital saved my life after a massive gastrointestinal…
Floyd Lamb had a problem. At first, it wasn’t that big of a deal; his finger was curling down and he was having a hard time straightening it. But then, one day, he couldn’t straighten that finger at all. And this simple problem made life very, very complicated. “I couldn’t…
It started off as a splitting headache that would not go away. Michelle Green tried a number of therapies: Massage, acupuncture, visiting a chiropractor. Then a neighbor suggested she see a doctor. “Thank God for pesky neighbors,” Green says. The tumor growing in her brain was the size of a…
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