Three a.m. Rural clinic. No backup for eighty miles. The kid's temperature hits 104.2°F and climbing. Strep throat that's gone systemic—I can see it in…

I watched a grown man cry in my ER last September. Not from pain—he'd driven himself ninety miles with a makeshift tourniquet on his leg…

Last February, a 47-year-old contractor showed up in my ER with his left hand wrapped in a bloody shop towel. Deep laceration from a table…

Last Tuesday, 3 AM. Guy comes in with his arm looking like ground beef—caught in collapsed garage door frame during that 5.2 tremor we had.…

Last Tuesday, 2 AM. Mom brings in her 4-year-old, fever of 103, been giving him "half an adult Tylenol" because that's all she had after…

3:17 AM. Kid comes in, twenty-three years old, leg swollen up like a balloon. You know what his prep plan was? He'd watched some disaster…