Laya Jalilian-Khave

Nov 8, 2023 | kevinmd.com | Laya Jalilian-Khave |Monique Tello |Edwin Leap |Elizabeth M. Barreras-Rivest

“When and how much?” I tried to recall the list of questions for intoxicated patients. A middle-aged man, much older than the demographics printed on the documents I hold, was writhing in pain, vomiting, and sobbing. The paper stated: chief complaint – mouse poison pellet ingestion, attempting suicide. “How and why?” I kept asking. I was his first encounter upon entering the emergency room, a terrified fifth-year medical student at a hospital in Tehran.

Nov 1, 2023 | visiblemagazine.com | Laya Jalilian-Khave

I am a newly graduated medical doctor. I’m serving at a remote hospital as a sole doctor in the emergency room. We are in Iran, about a half a mile from the border, staring at the walls at the end of the hospital’s yard, a little farther behind it, the border between Iran and Afghanistan, and a little farther, the war. It’s August 2021, the latest fall of the Afghanistan government.