All names changed for privacy.
In March of 2024, my dad presented to the Emergency Department (ED) with shortness of breath. Unlike other patients in the waiting room, though, nothing could treat his condition. Courtesy of rapidly advancing ALS, his chest muscles were denervating, and his lungs were stiffening from...
The McCaskey Distinguished Alumni Award, presented annually since 1995, recognizes five graduates who have achieved distinction in their fields and made significant contributions to their communities. This recognition from McCaskey — an institution that has shaped Lancaster's leaders for over a century — represents not just personal achievement but...
Art by Kim Le, MS2
Over the torturous years of growling and groaning at the Perelman Center, both at the mule-crevice of dawn and the wee witching hours of the night, I have starved, famished, and scavenged daily like a vulture in a lab coat. Since the pandemic, as a...
Art by Shanthi Deivanayagam, MS1
Scenario I.
Writing is the ultimate flattening. This was the thought passing through my mind as the numbers on the screen slowly succumbed to the pull of the black hole that is zero. The gatherer of these numbers was a computer, reading impulses from myriad sensors...
Art by Caroline O’Rourke, MS2
Make sure you set an alarm before you sleep. In fact, set multiple alarms because you can never be too sure of waking up and actually getting out of bed by 6 am. Your phone shrills. Eat a big breakfast with protein. Brush your teeth...
Art by Mimi Kim, MS4
“He got up, did a little jig, and then it was over.”
Whenever I hear this story of the preceding moments of my grandfather’s death, I can’t help but let out a chuckle. I picture him getting out of bed, kissing his wife of over 50...
A traveler standing in the town of Epidaurus in the Peloponnesian peninsula of southern Greece, about 80 miles southwest of Athens, would see the famous Theater of Epidaurus rising on the western slopes of the Cynortion Mountain. Constructed between the fourth and third centuries BCE, the theater is a...
There are weevils in my rice.
Yes, weevils. Little crawling things. Scourge.
Long brown snouts and probing antennae. Through the curve of my clear, air-tight container, I watch the weevils burrow through the uncooked rice like spring water in jagged limestone. I see one crawl in a circle and then slip....
Art by Kass Zhang, MS1
“Try Room 10.”
My time at Mount Carmel Hospice gave me some of my life’s most profound moments. My role was simple: sit with patients and listen. Some spoke freely, filling the space with stories. Others rested in silence as we held hands, saying everything without...
By Jingyi Zhang, MS1
To whom, as whom, and in whose interest does write?1
In his essay collection The Writer as Migrant, Ha Jin raises these three existential questions to all writers. He believes they are especially difficult for writers like himself, who are telling stories to an adopted audience...
Dr. Ken Ginsburg is a pediatrician specializing in Adolescent Medicine at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, a Professor of Pediatrics at Penn, and the Director of Health Services at Covenant House Pennsylvania, a shelter that serves youth experiencing homelessness and human trafficking in Philadelphia. An acclaimed physician, educator, researcher...
Intertwined hands—
Four squeezes: do-you-love-me
Three squeezes: yes-I-do
Two squeezes: how-much
Squeeeeeeeeeeeeee: (that much)
Alternating roles, my dad and I gave each other the chance to relay the depth of our love with the intensity of a squeeze. It was a reflex initiated by the joining of hands, an act as easy as breathing....
Names changed and age adjusted for privacy.
Janet looked up at me through tears in her eyes – wondering what I was going to ask next. We had spent the better part of the last hour recalling and documenting the medical history of her eight- year- old, Sam. An hour...
The taste of the mushroom was a map. Biting into it, I was tracing the soil it had grown in, navigating the weather conditions that brought about its fruiting, human work that picked it from a hillside, and centuries of Tuscan culinary tradition that led to its simple preparation...
Thank you for gathering here today. My name is John Smith, and I am a medical student at the Perelman School of Medicine. It is my distinct privilege to deliver this eulogy.
When I first met my donor, we were strangers, yet they willingly revealed the most intimate part of...
I pull my coat’s hood to shield my face as the rain pelts down. I slip my hand into my pocket for my keys and shift my weight to balance my bag of groceries. Bread, milk, eggs. I’m not sure why I bought them, but it seemed like the...
I grew up reading murder mysteries and religiously watching CSI. So, when I saw Murder by Degrees in a bookstore, I was excited! A murder mystery based in Philly with a medical undertone: what could be better?
I hopped onto Libby, an eBook app used by libraries nationwide, to see...
Part A: Definition
Born from the cold stink of a 1920s British printing house, “cryptic” crossword clues are phrases divided into two main parts. One part is the definition, a simply stated explanation equivalent to a regular crossword clue. The other part is the wordplay, a linguistic puzzle that obfuscates...
It was a sunny September afternoon. You were sad you had to miss school to come to the doctor, especially because you were feeling fine. You may have been coughing every other sentence, wheezing a little too, but it didn’t stop you from exploring every corner of the office...
Congestive heart failure. Arrhythmias. Cardiogenic Shock. Death.
The words started to blur and swirl together while my throat tightened. My breathing became shallow and erratic until I collapsed into a dripping, whining, weeping mess. My hands shook as I typed in the same ten-digit number I’d memorized since childhood. The...
When we each arrived in Philadelphia for medical school, none of us knew what to expect. We had only met once over a 20-minute Zoom call, but our shared identity as gay men gave us an instant connection. David grew up in New Jersey in a Chinese family of...
In the present,
There is no yesterday and no tomorrow
It is just that moment
A moment that has no thought
Because it is that quick
But a moment that takes time
Because it is that slow
In the present,
Time passes in an instant
It matters that little
But it must happen before anything else
It matters that much
The...
Amid all the inexplicable events that occur in our lives, does meaning exist—and if so, where can we find it? “Cream,” a short story published in the New Yorker, is author Haruki Murakami’s answer. Through the voice of its protagonist, Murakami meditates on the big questions and arrives at...
If there were some verbal argument capable of resolving internal doubts and insecurities, I’m sure I would’ve found it by now. Given my tendency to constantly overthink – much like a beaver’s tendency to chew or a frog’s tendency to croak – one would expect that through sheer probability...
Medical school is a time of transitions - a time of new experiences, of growing, and of learning. Along the way, we make mistakes, we find meaning, we are inspired, and we are humbled. There are some moments of laughter and some of tears. We study, take exams, practice...
I sat in the exam room, holding my breath as the doctor deliberated before delivering a diagnosis. “Well,” he said, “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with you. Your MRI is normal.” He paused momentarily, managing to give me a sympathetic look. “You’re stressed out by medical school. It’s...
I woke up one January morning feeling excited to wear a costume like a kid on Halloween. It was my first shift at UCC, a community health clinic, with my first-ever patient as a medical student. I put on my brand-new black Figs from Christmas and then bundled up...
A Reflection on Anton Chekhov’s Story & Working with Standardized Patients
“Why are you wriggling?”“Your fingers are cold!”“Come, come…it won’t kill you. Don’t twist about.”
This moment from Anton Chekhov’s short story Anyuta has always stood out to me. As a Russian Language & Literature major, Chekhov has always been one...
Note: Names have been changed to respect others’ privacy.
The last text I ever sent to my friend Ellie was three days after she died. I told her I loved her, that I missed her. I thanked her for being my friend.
In the past year, our friendship had grown strong...
An Introduction:“A certain man… fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite, when he arrived...
When we make mistakes that affect patients, we must focus on the patient and their family. Their pain, discomfort, or broken trust must take priority over our bruised egos. It is not any patient’s job to reassure us or put us back together when we are disappointed in ourselves. In moments of failure, we must lean on our support systems and call upon the muscles of grit and self-compassion that we have strengthened from past failures. We must give ourselves time, space, and energy to lick our wounds — but not at any of our patients’ expense.