Health Story Type: Newspaper or Magazine

Eric Clapton’s “This Has Gotta Stop”

British rock star Eric Clapton’s 2021 song “This Has Gotta Stop” expresses his apparent discontent with COVID-19 pandemic restrictions and vaccines. Known as the “anti-vax anthem” the lyrics detail his reported adverse reactions to the AstraZeneca vaccine. Clapton, who has been critical of vaccines and lockdowns since 2020, published a note in May outlining his negative experiences after the first dose. He expressed reservations about performing for a "discriminated audience" and reserved the right to cancel shows unless all people were allowed to attend. The song's music video features animated graphics of protesters and supports the British anti-lockdown group Jam for Freedom. This song could be used to spark conversation about anti-vaccine sentiments and the role of media and music in expressing opinions on social and political issues. The citation is to a news story about the music video; the URL is to the video posted on YouTube.

“A Deep and Hollowing Pain”: Parents Share Stories of Caring for a Sick Child

The article compiles brief quotations from interviews with parents sharing their experiences and lessons learned while dealing with their children's cancer diagnoses. The parents express the shock and emotional turmoil upon receiving the news, describing the physical and emotional impact of such moments. The struggles include grappling with the unfairness of the situation, the abrupt disruption of daily life, and the challenge of balancing personal well-being with the demands of caregiving.Some parents reflect on how they coped with the stress, sharing coping mechanisms such as engaging in activities with their children, seeking support from friends and medical professionals, and finding moments of joy amidst the pain. The article emphasizes the importance of self-care and highlights the physical toll that prolonged stress takes on caregivers. Although the quotations are very brief, and we don’t know much about the individuals who contributed them, they are interesting to consider as micro-stories or story fragments; taken together, the collection provides varying perspectives and voices of parent experience.

Caring for a Parent in my Home

This article describes Beth's caregiving story as she cares for her elderly mother post-stroke. Beth's journey captures the complexities, sacrifices, and resilience inherent in caregiving roles. The narrative explores familial dynamics, emotional strains, and the importance of planning and seeking external support. Beth's evolving experience offers valuable lessons for educators seeking to illustrate the intersection of health, family dynamics, and personal well-being in caregiving narratives. Caregiver.com aims to provide community and support for nontraditional caregivers, such as children caring for their aging parents. As such, the story emphasizes the significance of communication, planning, and self-care.

Living with HIV: Six Very Different Stories

This article from The Guardian features six diverse narratives of individuals living with HIV, highlighting the evolution of the HIV/AIDS experience over the past 30 years in Britain. For example, Jonathan, diagnosed during the early epidemic in the 1980s, reflects on living with HIV for over half of his life, explaining how he managed without medication until 1996 and has come to embrace life with HIV through activism. Another example is Jo, diagnosed at 60, who discusses how she navigated the shock of her diagnosis and the perceptions associated with being an older woman with HIV. She’s open about her diagnosis because she wants to change perceptions about people living with HIV. This article offers students an opportunity to reflect on diverse experiences with the same illness, and brings up topics such as stigma, activism, and media representation of illness and how these change through time.

To Preserve My Health, I Had to Learn to Truly Do Nothing. It’s Harder Than It Sounds

In "To Preserve My Health, I Had to Learn to Truly Do Nothing. It's Harder Than It Sounds," Anastasia Chipelski shares a personal journey of navigating the challenges of chronic illness. She does not specify which chronic illness(es) she has, but explores a general experience of needing to ration energy when one’s body doesn’t work how it should. She tells about the ways she struggled before diagnosis, oftentimes just collapsing on the floor after work, and how she manages it now, like propping her arm up while brushing her teeth. She reflects on the necessity of embracing periods of rest and idleness to manage their health effectively. Chipelski explores the difficulty of societal expectations that prioritize constant productivity and the struggle of redefining success in the context of chronic illness. The article provides insight into the author's experiences and the broader societal attitudes toward rest and wellness in the face of chronic health conditions. With this, she explains how the world can view sick people as lazy, especially when it is an invisible illness, raising questions about how and why we see illness. She proposes patience and rest for people with chronic illnesses, beginning a conversation of how a community can also be utilized to support those with chronic illnesses. This could be used in a course interested in exploring disability, chronic illness, and invisible illness. Students could discuss Anastasia’s story, and the importance of reading a casual, first person narrative that does not address one illness in particular, but rather, her individual experience with chronic illness in general. This could be a useful piece to read for people in healthcare or studying healthcare to understand the at home experience of someone with an invisible illness.

I Walked off Alone to get my Tubes Tied

In this informative essay, the author retells the stories of Gopli Gameti and Parvati Meghwal, two women in rural Udaipur from the Gameti community. Women in this community are often left behind as their husbands migrate for work. This story highlights the challenges faced by women in these rural areas in making health and life decisions independently.For example, women must seek healthcare (which can often be far away, expensive, or logistically difficult), navigate maternal choices like tubal ligation, and advocate for their own reproductive care on their own. Gopli also describes the sense of empowerment and liberation that comes with taking control of one's own health when possible. This narrative can be incorporated into a class focused on gender studies, public health, or sociology. It provides real-life examples of how women in rural settings navigate healthcare decisions and family planning, specifically in the context of male migration. It can facilitate discussions on the intersectionality of gender, migration, and health, allowing students to analyze the socio-cultural factors influencing women's choices.

What I’ve learned after living with HIV in secret for years

ABC News producer Tony Morrison shares his personal journey living with HIV in a powerful essay on the eighth anniversary of his diagnosis. He discusses the emotional challenges, societal stigma, and the impact on his dating life. Morrison emphasizes the importance of disclosure and understanding in relationships, and he challenges HIV-related stereotypes. His essay explores the impact of societal attitudes and stigmatization on mental health and the significance of self-acceptance and living openly. Morrison concludes with a message of resilience, choosing to celebrate life and an open dialogue surrounding HIV.

This narrative can stimulate discussions on topics like HIV education, destigmatization, and the importance of empathy and support for individuals living with stigmatized chronic illnesses. Teachers and students can use the essay to foster understanding, promote open dialogue, and encourage others to critically examine societal attitudes towards HIV and AIDs.

While teaching a fitness class, she had a massive heart attack

This is a news story recounting the experience of Ratona Harr, a 44 year old woman who had a heart attack in the midst of teaching a fitness class. It follows her from when symptoms first began, to when she called 911, to the hospital, to recovery. Including quotes from both Harr and her doctors as well as pictures of Harr and the tattoos she got after the incident, the article gives a personal account of what it is like to suffer a severe heart attack and then cope with recurring conditions over the next three years. It also describes the mental health struggles she faced after the fact, including her fears about going back to teaching. This would be a useful short reading material for med students to discuss the different ways that heart attacks present in men and women, as it describes a much more gradual onset of pain than we typically associate with the archetypal male heart attack. It could also be a helpful case study to integrate into a unit about what realistic long term recovery options may look like for a patient so they can sensitively inform them. While these lessons could be taught in other ways, this resource would be helpful because it gives the perspective of bystanders, healthcare providers, and the patient before, during, and after an emergency.

What Does It Mean to Die?

“What Does It Mean to Die?,” an article written by Rachel Aviv, chronicles the conflict between the Winkfield family and the medical staff who declared Jahi Winkfield deceased from brain-death. After a tonsil removal surgery, Jahi began coughing up blood and bleeding from her nose profusely. Her mother, Nalilah, the principal interview throughout the article, described how her daughter was not receiving proper care, which Nalilah attributes to racial discrimination. After continued neglect in the ICU, Jahi’s heart stopped, and two days later, she was declared brain-dead. She was put on a ventilator, but in California, there is a limited amount of time a hospital will allow a patient to remain in care. Due to the malpractice that had already occurred in her daughter’s care before “death,” and religious bases, Nalilah argued for her daughter’s right to remain on the ventilar and be cared for. The article offers contextual information regarding California law and insights from bioethics experts, as well as working physicians. After deciding to move to New Jersey due to their laws regarding religious-based continuation of care laws. Aviv details the controversy that emerged from this case, especially from the interest of the press and the pushback from medical professionals. Jahi continued to receive care from nurses and remained on a ventilator. Nalilah, her family, and some medical professionals believe that Jahi still is not “dead;” Jahi has physical responses, menstruates, and has a lowered heart rate at the sound of her mother’s voice. These facts prove, for some, as evidence for her right to care. However, some argue that this could be a shared delusion in the family. Regardless, the article presents many perspectives that ask the audience to understand the situation from different sides, while still staying grounded in Jahi’s story and Nalilah’s fight for care. This story could be used in discussions of modern-day bioethics, especially in discussion of continued discrimination of BIPOC patients and families. Furthermore, it could lead to a discussion about the right to care and how we define “death” in different contexts.

In need of a prayer

Physician's story of visit to a suspected-COVID patient from early days of pandemic. Details the stress of not knowing how to protect herself, patients' isolation from his family, lack of treatment options, frantic pace of ER when infections and frequent deaths taxed medical professionals' emotional and physical stamina. Relates patients' conditions to her own father. Vivid starting point to discuss burnout (contrast with simple exhaustion and overwork), remind all audiences of what early months of uncontrollable COVID were like as memories fade. Ends by evoking a Celine Dion/Andrea Bocelli song about prayer that could contribute to discussion of music in healing.