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Laura Vater, MD
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Calluses (Published in the Intima)
I’m 16, and my hands are covered in thick, hardened layers of skin across my upper palms—my body’s attempt at protecting me from the...
Laura B. Vater, MD, MPH
How Physician Exhaustion Kills Compassion -- And Nurtures Shame (Published in STAT News)
It was 5 o’clock in the morning, and I entered the room of my eighth admission. A thin man was reclined in bed, a breathing tube in his...
Laura B. Vater, MD, MPH
The Holiday Card (Published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology)
I kept her family holiday card tucked into the side pocket of my black briefcase for a year and 3 months after she died. I carried it...
Laura B. Vater, MD, MPH
Papaya (published in the Intima)
A white rose was taped to the door, and I pushed the metal handle to enter. The glow of moonlight beamed through the blinds and onto a...
Laura B. Vater, MD, MPH
The Before and After (Published in JGIM)
We sit at grouped desks, eyes on blinking green pagers then back to bright screens. It’s now the last year of my residency, and I’m...
Laura B. Vater, MD, MPH
In The Valley (published in JGIM)
“Mommy, will you sing the valley song?” my three-year-old daughter asks. We came across this folk song a few months ago, and it has...
Laura B. Vater, MD, MPH
Lea Rose (published in the Intima)
I watch the sun descend from the hallway of the ICU, again covering the unit for the night. Ventilators whoosh while filling injured...
Laura B. Vater, MD, MPH
What She Carried (Gold Humanism Workshop)
Julie carried the news of two diagnoses, coming just weeks after burying her son: Multiple myeloma and amyloidosis were the unfamiliar...
Laura B. Vater, MD, MPH
Four Walls (Published in Blood and Thunder)
Published in Blood and Thunder: Musing on the Art of Medicine Four Walls Laura Vater, MD, MPH Published in Blood and Thunder: Musings...
Laura B. Vater, MD, MPH
After 28 Hours Awake I Didn't Care if I Made It Home Alive (MDLinx)
(Published on MDLinx) After months of long hours and fractured sleep as a resident, followed by a stressful 28-hour call, I sat in the...
Laura B. Vater, MD, MPH
My Hospital Orientation
My mom was life-lined to a critical care unit. I was a first-year med student, and I remember only pieces of that first day...
Laura B. Vater, MD, MPH
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