Emergency Medicine Resident at Kings County Hospital / SUNY Downstate
@KBirnbaumMD
It’s a dreary day in Brooklyn–cold and rainy with a cesspool of germs in the air–and Pod A sounds like a sweet symphony of hacking, moaning, and coughing. You pick up a patient with a chief complaint of ‘coughing up blood,’ and before you “don” you personal protective armor and face mask, you think about Read more…
It’s a beautiful fall day on your local college campus and the dudes and dudettes are out riding their longboards between classes. Suddenly– a pebble in the path, a wobble and screech of the board, and FOOSH!- down goes Mary Jane on her way to Sociology class. She comes in to Read more…
It’s a busy Monday at Downstate when EMS rolls in a 66 year old woman from her dialysis center. They tell you she was towards the end of her HD session when she became less responsive and vomited. Now she won’t answer your questions or follow commands but keeps saying Read more…
Let’s talk about the patient with HIV, who maybe presents with a fever, and says he doesn’t know his last CD4 count but thinks it’s ‘not good.’ Reach back into that fund of knowledge you’ve perhaps suppressed from your crazy, cramming, coffee-chugging days of Step 1 & 2, and tell me Read more…
A 33 year old woman presents to your ED complaining of 4 days of “stomach pain.” She says it started after a weekend of mandatory celebratory drinking for closing a deal at her fancy finance job, and that she had been super stressed at work before the deal closed. She says Read more…
An epic stuntman known as Evel Knievel presents to the ER with intense finger pain. He noticed the pain start yesterday, a day after he nicked his index finger doing a flying motorcycle stunt. Although he’s broken 433 bones in his lifetime (true story- he’s in the Guinness book of World Read more…
For this week’s Bored Review we are taking a little trip to my arid hometown of Phoenix, Arizona! You are out on a desert hike with your little rascal 8 year old cousin, whose curiousity got the best of him. He was reaching under a rock and suddenly screams in Read more…
It’s another bucolic day in NYC, and you’re stuck in the trenches of the ER with 10 deep to be seen. You pick your next patient, a 23 year-old guy, history of HIV, undomiciled, with a chief complaint of “mouth pain.” You go to the patient and ask what’s wrong, and Read more…
Willy Wonka is a 78 year-old dude with a history of BPH, HTN, and mild dementia, brought in from the Chocolate Factory Assisted Living for the Sweet & Elderly, with a golden ticket from EMS saying he’s been acting even weirder than usual and stopped walking on his own. Vital Read more…
Serena Williams strolls into your ED complaining of right eye pain for 2 days. She tells you that her right eye started hurting 2 day ago, after a tennis ball hit her face while practicing to dominate the US Open and win the 2015 Serena Slam. Since then she developed pain, photophobia, Read more…