2/ Dr. Farmer started his vocation of #SocialJustice by serving the beautiful people of Haiti, the world’s 1st Black republic. He looked in their eyes & saw their needs…HIV, malaria, Tb, hunger, poverty, neglect.
In response he took action…
(paintings below by my daughter)
3/ Paul Farmer is the central figure in Kidder’s 📚 “Mountains Beyond Mountains.” If you haven’t read it, order now.
Through his drive and insights we learned to say “Yes” to bringing modern medicine to the most remote settings of human life on Earth 🌍
4/ “Farmer doesn't care if no one else follows his example. He's still going to make these hikes. If 7 hours is too long to walk for two families, you're saying their lives matter less than some others', and that idea is what’s wrong with the world.” #MountainsBeyondMountains
5/ In my life, he became a beacon of hope & direction. Over the last 2 decades, when I fall down in studying ways to expand & improve on standards of care in ICU medicine for the world’s sickest patients, Paul & @PIH are always my inspiration to get back up. I’m forever thankful.
6/fin #PaulFarmer’s legacy lives on not just because of the above book & #NGO.
More importantly, he lives on in the minds & hearts of the people whose lives he made better….as he told Ophelia Dahl…“one person at a time.” RIP
Kenbe fem (“Stand firm,” Haitian Creole)
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Prevent this w 3 steps:
📌Avoid #COVID by Vax & Mask
📌Avoid severe COVID by Paxlovid & Monoclonal Ab
📌👇 read here about PICS & how to reduce injury in the ICU
2/ Here’s what you must know if you get too sick & land in an ICU.
History Lesson 📝
In the past, too many decisions in #CriticalCare were guided by fear. We oversedated patients for too long out of worry they might self-extubate & pull off restraints.
That’s happening again 🤮
3/ We kept patients immobilized due to an overly conservative approach to fall prevention that precluded us from attempting to walk them early. We kept families away from patients, treating loved ones as visitors rather than members of the healing plan.
1/🧵🎥 Politicians & Media are sending messages to take down #COVID protections.
In US it’s premature. Why?
📍>50% adults are NOT protected w #Booster
📍>75% of kids 5-11 are NOT fully #Vaccinated
📍Feb 8th >3,000 died
📍>17,000 dead in past week
📍>60,000 💀 January
Thoughts?
2/ Last week I had moments where I thought, “It really is sad that society has to keep masking up & those poor kids in school haven’t seen people smile in so long.”
THEN…I thought about how dangerous it is for #CovidKids who get #longCovid to have to live that way.
1/🧵ICU Burn-Out Prevention in #COVID: a few thoughts
Early on as an ICU Doc, I carried a lot of shame because I realized that even though I sufficed as a technician and possessed the right knowledge, I was NOT doing a good job as a “person” with “people.”
2/ Which is to say, I was only “good” doctor on paper. NOT in real life.
I kept myself at too much of a distance, and I thought my job was to do procedures well and provide the right medicines.
Now I know that was not enough, not by a LONG SHOT.
3/ 📚 I wrote: “That shot of adrenaline from saving a life dissipated once the ventilator was in place…as if we handed over care of our patients to machines while we went off & intubated, sedated & paralyzed the next person...
2/ Brains of COVID-19 patients had some of the same pathological changes seen in Alzheimer's disease, which may explain the memory problems people with long COVID experience....
3/ The study...linked the inflammatory response found in SARS-CoV-2 infection with pathways causing tau hyperphosphorylation typically associated with #Alzheimers. The data also indicated a role for leaky ryanodine receptor 2 (RyR2) in the pathophysiology of SARS-CoV-2 infection.