Ep.1444: Challenging Pregnancy

Kathryn interviews Author and Attorney Genevieve Grabman, J.D., M.P.H .Recounting her stranger-than-fiction paradox of being a prisoner in her own body when her health and life became endangered by a rare and complex high-risk pregnancy, Genevieve Grabman had the exact education, connections and resources to get the help she needed, however the politics of the American healthcare system repeatedly blocked her as if in an Orwellian dystopia. She was pregnant with identical twins whose circulatory systems were connected in a rare condition called twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome. She was barred from taking every step necessary to save not only her babies' lives, but her own. Ultimately, national anti-abortion politics—not medicine or her own choices—determined the outcome of Grabman's pregnancy. Grabman is a 2022 District of Columbia Commission on the Arts and Humanities Fellow. She also has a master's in public health from Johns Hopkins University and a Juris Doctor from Georgetown University.Kathryn also interviews Author Lara Goitein, MD.More than 5 million patients are admitted to ICUs in the U.S. annually. Unfortunately, COVID-19 has only increased these numbers. Almost all of us will be touched by the ICU at some point, directly or indirectly. When your loved one is in the ICU, it's not only possible to be an advocate for your loved one, it's essential. However, for almost everyone, the ICU is an alien and intimidating world, full of confusing equipment and terminology. Family members are in desperate need of explanations that busy nurses and doctors may not always have time to give. Lara Goitein MD, a Harvard trained physician specializing in intensive care and lung medicine, shares with us some valuable information to help us navigate this uncharted territory. Dt. Goitein is an editorial board member and frequent writer for the medical journal JAMA Internal Medicine, and also writes in the lay press, including the New York Review of Books.