Veronica Bonales

Aug 8, 2024 | kevinmd.com | Veronica Bonales |Jay Wong |Leonard Wang |Curtis G. Graham

From the beginning of medical school, you are taught the rules of patient assessment; you are taught the “ABCs” – airway, breathing, and circulation. You don’t move on to B until you have established A. You don’t move on to C until B is established. If at any time you lose A or B, you go back to the beginning. Emergency medicine doctors are all about A. My first patient on Sunday night was all about A.

Aug 4, 2024 | kevinmd.com | Veronica Bonales |Michael McGuire |Sangrag Ganguli |Varun Mehta

Interior hospital: (Patient screaming and crying out as they are wheeled in through the ambulance bay and brought into a room …)Doctor: What brings you in today? Patient: You gotta help me, Doc … My chest hurts. I think I’m having a heart attack!Doctor: OK, sir. We’re going to do a series of tests, including an EKG and chest X-ray, and give you aspirin.

Mar 13, 2024 | kevinmd.com | Veronica Bonales |Oscar Chen |Sera Choi |Clara Seong

Fifteen years later and I can still see it. I wasn’t able to go to the scene that night, but several of my colleagues did. As morning broke, a new shift of my colleagues went to the scene. And on the next morning, I did. We were there to provide medical support to the hundreds of investigators, evidence collectors, workers, and firemen who were helping with the scene. We were working on a plane crash. As I arrived, I thought it would be bigger. Larger, somehow.

Nov 6, 2023 | kevinmd.com | Veronica Bonales |Michael Joyce |Martha Rosenberg |Lisa Abaid

It was the final hour of my shift, and I was cleaning up for my colleague who would be taking over. Glancing at the clock, I decided I could see one of the “easy” fast-track patients just to help offload the board a bit. I figured he wasn’t going to take long, as his complaint on the board was “sore throat.” What I came to find out was that he was being worked up for stomach cancer.

Jun 24, 2023 | kevinmd.com | Veronica Bonales |Austin Perlmutter |John Corsino |Robert Berry

As an emergency physician, I’m a strong proponent of living wills, POLST forms, and discussing uncomfortable topics with your loved ones. Even making decisions about your child being an organ donor, if, Heaven forbid, something happened. You never know when the “last time” might be. A recent case I had served as a reminder of this. The patient and their spouse came to the hospital for what was supposed to be a routine outpatient procedure.