Insights on Residency Training

May 23rd, 2016

My Third Day in Greece

Ahmad Yousaf, MD

1) At one point today in the Idomini refugee camp, I was playing catch with a beautiful baby girl in between some of the tents. She could not have been much older than my own daughter and, like my daughter, would throw the ball backwards over her head instead of towards me and then would […]

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May 22nd, 2016

My Second Day in Greece

Ahmad Yousaf, MD

1) The following are real conversations the team has had with patients/refugees in our short time here: Young lady who came in with urinary symptoms: “How old are you?” “I am 27 years old… I hope this is the last year of my life.”   Teenage male: “I have to get out of here. I’ve […]

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May 21st, 2016

My First Day in Greece

Ahmad Yousaf, MD

I am participating in the SAMS (Syrian American Medical Society) medical mission in Greece. 1) Loneliness is truly the darkest consequence of this crisis. The Syrian people haven’t just been kicked out of their homes. They were stripped away from their neighborhoods, friends, and family via death, destruction, sickness, and tough decisions that they had to make about […]

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May 20th, 2016

Traveling Can Be Frustrating

Ahmad Yousaf, MD

Note from the NEJM Journal Watch staff — Ahmad Yousaf is currently on a trip to help care for refugees in Greece. He is sending daily updates to share his thoughts; we will be posting them here daily.  The discomforts of travel are real. Stress, related to the unknown: flight times, traffic to the airport, crying babies, […]

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May 13th, 2016

“Be Careful. He’s Violent.”

Briana Buckner, MD

“Be careful. He’s violent.” That was the way sign out began for Mr. T. The intern continued, “He has been in the hospital forever because he was kicked out of his nursing home. Good luck. And, oh yeah… he’s blind.” Puzzled, I looked at my list of patients and, not sure whether I should write […]

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May 6th, 2016

Declaration of Death

Ahmad Yousaf, MD

“Is he dead?” I stepped up closer. He was yellow. Bright yellow. Steve had been admitted to the hospital for altered mental status when his last PET Scan revealed that the pancreatic cancer had spread from the tail of his pancreas into his liver where it now blocked the ducts that carried the bile out […]

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