Bleeding Out with Rasha Khoury, MD
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What is the purpose of the Nocturnist’s COVID‑19 audio diary initiative?
Hey everyone, it's Emily recording again from my bedroom with an update about some of the work that we're doing around the COVID pandemic. Last Tuesday, we put out a call for healthcare workers who are interested in keeping an audio diary about their experience on the front lines of this crisis. And we were really overwhelmed to receive over 50 responses within the first 24 hours. And we continue to get people messaging us who want to participate. And I think what we're realizing is that the Nocturnist platform is can continue to serve as a creative outlet for you in this time, as an expressive outlet for you in this time, as a place to come and talk about how you're feeling, what you're afraid of, what you're excited about, what you're joyful about, what you're dreading.
We also just think it's really important that this unprecedented moment in medical history be documented. And what we're looking at now is really putting together an oral history of the COVID-19 pandemic. So if you're interested in learning more about this and being a part of it, you can visit our website at thenocturnist.com. And if you know someone who might bring a unique perspective to this project, connect us. In the meantime, I hope everybody is staying as safe and healthy as humanly possible. I know that I'm going back to work on Thursday and definitely feeling pretty nervous about that. And it's a scary, it's a scary time, but we'll get through it together. And we will continue to keep you posted on everything that's going on on our end of things.
And we hope you'll continue to do the same. All right, that's it. Enjoy this episode.
At The Nocturnist, we are careful to ensure that all stories comply with healthcare privacy laws. Details may have been changed to ensure patient confidentiality. All views expressed are those of the person speaking and not their employer.
The Nocturnist is made possible by the California Medical Association.
It's easy to think that when it comes to medical care, there's a right way and a wrong way to do things. But drop yourself into rural Afghanistan, and all our objective ideas about medicine may not seem so objective after all. This is The Nocturnists, stories from the world of medicine. I'm Emily Silverman. On today's episode, Rasha Khoury will take us behind the walls of a Doctors Without Borders hospital and show us what it takes to save a life. After the story, I talk to Rasha about what happens when her beliefs come into conflict with the beliefs of the people she
serves. You know, I'm the provider with the skills to take care of this person, but ultimately the care that I provide has to be the care that they want. I can't force them in any way. Here's Rasha. When I remember this morning in Afghanistan, I remember it in my body. I remember the blast of cold as I rolled out from under my pile of blankets on my mattress on the floor into the shipping container that was my sleeping quarters. My phone was ringing. It was my Nokia flip phone, which is my on-call phone, how my team in the delivery room could reach me. And the midwife said, doctor, come, patient not well, and hung up immediately. This was code for a catastrophic event on labor and delivery, and I threw on my hijab, and I was in my long dress scrubs, which are very similar to this, but with longer sleeves, and I ran the four minutes it takes to get to our delivery room.
As I ran, I was breathless from the four-minute run in the cold, and I could hear the call to prayer, which always has a very calming effect on me because it reminds me of home. I'm an obstetrician gynecologist, and I work for Doctors Without Borders. I was working in our project in Afghanistan in an area called Khost, which is a very rural part of Afghanistan. And it's our biggest obstetric project in the world. We deliver 24,000 women and babies a year, which is staggering when you compare it to places I've worked in both the U.S. and the Middle East. I'm from the Middle East, and I grew up in an area actually where MSF, Doctors Without Borders, works and has worked since the 80s.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is the purpose of the Nocturnist’s COVID‑19 audio diary initiative?
0:00–7:28
2
How did Rasha Khoury become a doctor‑activist with Doctors Without Borders?
7:28–15:32
3
What does a typical day look like for an MSF obstetrician in rural Afghanistan?
15:32–26:08
4
How did Rasha handle the life‑threatening postpartum hemorrhage case?
26:08–32:19
5
How do cultural norms and family dynamics affect informed consent in MSF projects?
32:19–36:06
6
Why is community blood donation so critical to saving lives in Khost?
36:06–37:30
7
How does MSF manage security risks and potential attacks on its hospitals?
37:30–38:33