{"id":30349,"date":"2025-06-24T09:00:29","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T09:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=30349"},"modified":"2025-06-24T09:28:16","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T09:28:16","slug":"real-doctors-of-new-york-spill-their-guts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=30349","title":{"rendered":"Real Doctors of New York Spill Their Guts"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

E.R. doctors want you to know that they are people, too. At an event called Airway, one confessed, \u201cI do not like these big, high stakes, bloody, messy, risky procedures.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Grace Glassman took the mic. A 56-year-old emergency physician, she launched into a story of the day she was preparing to do a rare and gruesome procedure called a lateral canthotomy.<\/p>\n

The patient was an intoxicated male who had tried to hang himself with his bedsheets the previous night. Now he had a bloody mass behind his eyeball. \u201cIf people are squeamish, I suggest you get your AirPods out, put them in and you turn up your music now,\u201d Glassman said. \u201cDon\u2019t say I didn\u2019t warn you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nine doctors were gathered at a Brooklyn Public Library branch in Fort Greene on a Saturday night to tell true stories at an event called Airway. All work in Brooklyn at Maimonides Health, most of them in the hospital\u2019s emergency room. They were taking the night off to try to talk honestly about the pride and occasional inadequacy they felt in their work. In concept, Airway is like the Moth \u2014 ordinary people telling everyday stories \u2014 but with all the v\u00e9rit\u00e9 drama of HBO Max\u2019s scripted E.R. show \u201cThe Pitt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Glassman continued. The lateral canthotomy \u2014 a cut, then a probe and snip under the skin at the outer corner of the eye \u2014 would save the patient\u2019s vision. If done correctly, the eyeball would \u201cnot come, like, out <\/em>out, like roll off the table,\u201d she said, with a canny smile. It would merely relieve the pressure on the optic nerve by loosening the eyeball in its socket. The audience \u2014 doctors intermingled with members of the lay public \u2014 laughed uneasily.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n
\n

This physician wanted to convey the mounting stress she felt to the 150 friends and strangers packed into the hot, bright room. An E.R. doctor for 20 years, she had taught the lateral canthotomy to residents by PowerPoint but had never performed one herself. With 90 minutes to spare until the patient lost sight in one eye, she prepped by watching YouTube videos. \u201cI\u2019m not a cowboy like a lot of my colleagues,\u201d she admitted. \u201cAnd I do not like these big, high stakes, bloody, messy, risky procedures.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>
Dee Luo telling stories of the emergency department.<\/span>Laila Stevens for The New York Times<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>
Audience members joined hands as they listened to speakers.<\/span>Laila Stevens for The New York Times<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.<\/p>\n

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into<\/a>\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe<\/a>\u00a0for all of The Times.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.<\/p>\n

Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

E.R. doctors want you to know that they are people, too. At an event called Airway, one confessed, \u201cI do not like these big, high stakes, bloody, messy, risky procedures.\u201dGrace Glassman took the mic. A 56-year-old emergency physician, she launched into a story of the day she was preparing to do a rare and gruesome procedure called a lateral canthotomy.The patient was an intoxicated male who had tried to hang himself with his bedsheets the previous night. Now he had a bloody mass behind his eyeball. \u201cIf people are squeamish, I suggest you get your AirPods out, put them in and you turn up your music now,\u201d Glassman said. \u201cDon\u2019t say I didn\u2019t warn you.\u201dNine doctors were gathered at a Brooklyn Public Library branch in Fort Greene on a Saturday night to tell true stories at an event called Airway. All work in Brooklyn at Maimonides Health, most of them in the hospital\u2019s emergency room. They were taking the night off to try to talk honestly about the pride and occasional inadequacy they felt in their work. In concept, Airway is like the Moth \u2014 ordinary people telling everyday stories \u2014 but with all the v\u00e9rit\u00e9 drama of HBO Max\u2019s scripted E.R. show \u201cThe Pitt.\u201dGlassman continued. The lateral canthotomy \u2014 a cut, then a probe and snip under the skin at the outer corner of the eye \u2014 would save the patient\u2019s vision. If done correctly, the eyeball would \u201cnot come, like, out out, like roll off the table,\u201d she said, with a canny smile. It would merely relieve the pressure on the optic nerve by loosening the eyeball in its socket. The audience \u2014 doctors intermingled with members of the lay public \u2014 laughed uneasily.This physician wanted to convey the mounting stress she felt to the 150 friends and strangers packed into the hot, bright room. An E.R. doctor for 20 years, she had taught the lateral canthotomy to residents by PowerPoint but had never performed one herself. With 90 minutes to spare until the patient lost sight in one eye, she prepped by watching YouTube videos. \u201cI\u2019m not a cowboy like a lot of my colleagues,\u201d she admitted. \u201cAnd I do not like these big, high stakes, bloody, messy, risky procedures.\u201dDee Luo telling stories of the emergency department.Laila Stevens for The New York TimesAudience members joined hands as they listened to speakers.Laila Stevens for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30351,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30349"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30352,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30349\/revisions\/30352"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}