Doing medicine in the time of COVID

By Dr. Paulette Mehta

What was it like to treat patients with cancer during the COVID-19 epidemic? How did it affect patients and doctors alike? This book approaches these questions as it chronicles the life and medical practice of Dr. Paulette Mehta through the COVID-19 epidemic. Dr. Paulette Mehta, a well-known expert in blood diseases and cancer with more than 50 years of experience, shows how the epidemic altered her life, and the lives of her patients, and how it has transformed care as we know it. Everything changed during the epidemic: patients became afraid to come to the hospital for treatment and delayed their screenings and treatments; doctors became afraid to treat their own patients; many doctors abandoned their field for retirement, illness, and frequent quarantining, thereby leaving more work for those remaining in the field. Psychosocial problems in patients and providers alike soared. Patients faced loneliness, isolation, alienation, fears, anxiety, and depression, and some contemplated suicide. The practice of medicine changed radically with an adaptation of protocols for fewer visits to the hospital; switching to oral treatments when at all possible; masking at all visits, and the rapid rise of telemedicine as an alternative to traditional medicine. All these changes left their mark on the patients' and providers' lives and on the practice of medicine. This short book of poems chronicles all of these moments. The book is divided into chapters relating to the prelude of the epidemic and getting ready for changes; the impact of the epidemic on practice patterns; the arrival of the vaccination making COVID-19 a treatable disease; the impact on people's school and work lives; changes in medical practice; and adaptation to a new way of life as the epidemic segued into an endemic. All these episodes of the epidemic are captured in beautiful poetry and music by the hematologist-oncologist and poet Dr. Paulette Mehta. As such it is a historical document of the epidemic in the closed world of cancer and blood diseases and also the reflections of the epidemic on one doctor who practiced through the epidemic and experienced all of the traumas and adaptations directly.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0BY9VDWQR
• ISBN13: 9798366957939
• Release Date: February 2023
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 72 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.2" x 6.0"