Life in the Balance: The Intensivist

After the Fall: Hope and Healing

Concussions can happen to anyone at anytime and anywhere.  A traumatic brain injury or TBI can be mild to severe.  Its effects can be overwhelming and life altering. In this episode, we will meet a woman in her 70’s whose life turned upside down after  a bad fall down a staircase and the medical team who helped her regain her footing. Guests: Bonnie and Darrell Hutson Dr. Kelly Collins, physiatrist specializing in rehabilitation medicine with CentraCare/St. Cloud Hospital, St. Cloud, Minnesota. Tracy Welsh, occupational therapist, CentraCare/St Cloud Hospital Katie Madsen, speech therapist, CentraCare/St Cloud Hospital For more information on brain injury: https://www.cdc.gov/traumaticbraininjury/index.html [https://www.cdc.gov/traumaticbraininjury/index.html] For more information on CentraCare’s in-hospital rehab unit: https://vs.centracare.com/app/files/public/64489a98-0017-4727-8f50-2e4638f20249/inpatient_rehab_brochure.pdf [https://vs.centracare.com/app/files/public/64489a98-0017-4727-8f50-2e4638f20249/inpatient_rehab_brochure.pdf] Before you go, please tell me what you thought about this podcast. Did you like the story? Not too excited about it? Why? You can contact me at https://cathywurzer.com/ [https://cathywurzer.com/] Thanks for listening and please share this podcast with others.

Cracking the Code: Discovering Rare Diseases

Millions of people are affected by uncommon, unknown or undiagnosed diseases. Some appear at birth, others emerge in adulthood. Many are genetic in origin and there is often scant  information in the medical literature about them.  It can take years to get an accurate diagnosis, which is too late for many patients. There are also few effective treatments much less cures for these diseases. In this episode, we will meet a woman whose family has been dogged by a mysterious disease for generations, what it took to crack its genetic code and the search for a cure. Guests:  Lisa Miller and Mary Miller Kenney             Dr. Ernesto Ayala,  a hematologist and oncologist in the Department of Internal Medicine at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida. He specializes in stem cell transplantation.     Kerry Hughes, executive director of Harmony4Hope. For more information on the great educational  and advocacy work on rare diseases:  https://harmony4hope.org/ [https://harmony4hope.org/] For more information on the groundbreaking work bring on genomic medicine: https://www.mayo.edu/research/centers-programs/center-individualized-medicine [https://www.mayo.edu/research/centers-programs/center-individualized-medicine] For more information on adult-onset leukoencephalopathy: https://sistershopefoundation.org/ [https://sistershopefoundation.org/] Before you go, please tell me what you thought about this podcast. Did you like the story? Not too excited about it? Why? You can contact me at https://cathywurzer.com/ [https://cathywurzer.com/] Thanks for listening and please share this podcast with others.

Caring and Compassion: Humanizing Medicine

Hospitals have Grand Rounds where residents and medical students present a patient’s case to senior physicians. It’s an important part of medical education. Now consider how such a gathering might be different if the case was presented and analyzed not from a medical point of view…but through the lens of human emotion. There is such a thing and it’s called Schwartz Rounds. Our guests: Dr. Beth Lown, Medical Director for the Schwartz Center for Compassionate Healthcare, Boston, MA.  Beba Tata-Mbeng, Manager of Spiritual Care, Mayo Clinic Jacksonville, FL For more information: https://www.theschwartzcenter.org/ [https://www.theschwartzcenter.org/] Before you go, please tell me what you thought about this podcast. Did you like the story? Not too excited about it? Why? You can contact me at https://cathywurzer.com/ [https://cathywurzer.com/] Thanks for listening and please share this podcast with others.

Caring for the Spirit: Hospital Chaplains

Medical science tends the body but hospital chaplains tend the soul, helping patients and families make sense of pain and suffering, disease and death. That's the focus of this episode of "Conversations of the Heart: Prescriptions for Healing" made possible by the Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation [https://www.schulzefamilyfoundation.org/] and donors to the End in Mind Project. [https://www.endinmindproject.org/] Our guests: --Abbie Engelstad,  an interfaith chaplain and Manager of the CPE Program at Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital in St. Louis Park, MN. --Rev. Stacey Jutila is the Director of Chaplaincy at Essentia Health, East Market based in Duluth, Minnesota. --Rev. Susie Putzke was a chaplain at CentraCare St. Cloud hospital specializing in Adult and Pediatric Palliative Care. She is now serving a local United Methodist Church in the St. Cloud Community. Before you go, please tell me what you thought about this podcast. Did you like the story? Not too excited about it? Why? You can contact me at https://cathywurzer.com/ [https://cathywurzer.com/] Thanks for listening and please share this podcast with others.

Life in the Balance: The Intensivist

Critical care is one of the most stressful of medical specialties. It takes a unique individual to navigate the challenges of an ICU. In this episode, we meet Christina Bastin DeJong  of Duluth, Minnesota, who is a veteran ICU physician and even under the intense pressure of the COVID-19 pandemic, can't think of a better job to have.  Before you go, please tell me what you thought about this podcast. Did you like the story? Not too excited about it? Why? You can contact me at https://cathywurzer.com/ [https://cathywurzer.com/] Thanks for listening and please share this podcast with others.