Justin Lowenthal

Mar 30, 2024 | kevinmd.com | Resa E. Lewiss |Adaira I. Landry |Hussain Lalani |Justin Lowenthal

A patient, intoxicated with alcohol, comes into the emergency department complaining of chest pain. The nurse and the ECG tech need help as the patient is yelling, flailing his arms, and trying to stand up out of bed while stumbling. The nurse puts a blood pressure cuff on his arm and a pulse oximeter probe on his finger. With his other hand, he tries to grab her, pull her toward him, attempting to hug her, and calling her “hon.” This of course is not the name with which she introduced herself.

Jan 21, 2024 | kevinmd.com | Kate Morin |Hussain Lalani |Justin Lowenthal |Cole Edmonson

In 2013, I graduated with a BSN, drawn to nursing by a love for science and a passion for helping others. The promise of good pay, job security, and growth opportunities was a marketing pitch so convincing I never thought to question it. Before my first clinical experience, I vividly recall having to attend a self-defense class. At the time, it struck me as both odd and somewhat amusing that we were being trained for an eventuality that seemed so remote.

Jul 4, 2023 | kevinmd.com | Lauren Burgoon |Charles Nozicka |Hussain Lalani |Justin Lowenthal

It’s become my morning ritual on the way to the hospital. Cruising down a main Philadelphia stretch, just as the road crests and the hospital becomes visible, I steel myself for the line. Is it going to be long today? In just a few more blocks, my second reflexive check-in: Are there news vans outside of the hospital? Both glances are woven into the larger story of Philadelphia’s gun violence epidemic and how that epidemic is butchering the city’s children.

Jun 6, 2023 | kevinmd.com | Kimi Chernoby |Claire Dowell |Hussain Lalani |Justin Lowenthal

It is nearly universally agreed that the United States of America is a “great nation” with the world’s strongest economy, an expansive international presence, and being physically one of the largest countries in the world. The groundwork for this expansion, both in size and economically, was grounded in our concept of “manifest destiny” – the belief that as a nation, we were intended to span from ocean to ocean.

Feb 4, 2023 | kevinmd.com | Hussain Lalani |Justin Lowenthal |Mark Leeds |Nikki Kasal

In 2021, I spent the year before starting medical school calling and counseling the patients of a busy urban emergency department on the results of their sexually transmitted infection (STI) tests. “What exactly is gonorrhea?” some would ask. “Is there a cure?”“No one ever taught me about this,” one older gentleman lamented when we discussed using condoms to prevent the transmission of infection. Stories like his reflect our society’s hesitancy to discuss sex and sexual health.