Healing with Dr. Newman

What do you do when the doctors give your mother less than a 1% chance of survival and your faith says otherwise?In this episode of Healing with Dr. Newman, Dr. Sherika Newman sits down with her longtime friend Bo to talk about the hardest season of his life: watching his mother and best friend, go from prolonged post operative recovery to kidney failure to and ICU admission to to septic shock with three organ systems failing. Bo opens up about the moment He got the message no one wants to get, the prayer that changed how he showed up as a caregiver, and the tiny words from his mother, "I'm gonna be okay" that became the turning point in a fight doctors didn't think could be won.This is a raw conversation about the collision of medicine and faith, what it really means to advocate for a loved one in the ICU, why it's so hard for caregivers to accept help, and what healing actually looks like when it's not just physical. If you've ever cared for a sick parent, sat in a hospital room not knowing what to pray for, or wondered how faith and medicine can work together instead of against each other, this episode is for you.🎙️ Healing with Dr. Newman — new episodes every month.

"The healthcare system killed both my parents."That's not a hyperbole from Rich Goldstein, it's his reality. His father died of sepsis after being sent home with a fever. His mother spent 15 years in a hospital bed after a surgery she never should have had. Both were intelligent, resourced, capable people. The system still failed them.In this episode, Dr. Newman sits down with Rich, a healthcare data and advocacy expert, to unpack why having money and intelligence isn't enough to protect you inside a system built for billing, not healing. They dig into the CARES Act's unintended consequences, why medicine has shifted from relational to transactional, and the four things Rich says can measurably improve your outcomes in any healthcare encounter.In this episode:Why "people of means" are not immune to medical system failureThe CARES Act: progress, and its unintended anxietyWhy most people remember only 10-25% of what's said in a doctor's appointmentThe 4 pillars of better outcomes: personalization, continuity, engagement, and literacyWhy doctors are not God -- and why uncertainty is part of medicineWhat Rich's company, Tanara, is building to help patients self-advocate

What does it take for a Black woman to finally stop pushing through?For Marlene, it took a resident in an assisted living hallway offering her a walker.In this episode, Dr. Newman sits down with Marlene, a lupus warrior navigating five years of chronic illness -- diagnosed in the middle of COVID, while changing jobs, managing properties, and showing up to work too exhausted to hold her head up. Marlene opens up about the moment everything shifted, what no one tells you about invisible illness, and how lupus ultimately led her to her purpose.They also get into the uncomfortable truth about "Black Girl Magic" -- and why anything that pushes us to not rest isn't magic at all.In this episode:How COVID symptoms masked early lupus signsWhy being connected in healthcare made all the differenceThe real cost of the "push through" mentality on Black women's healthWhat Marlene wishes she'd known about chronic illness and relationshipsWhy healing isn't fixing -- it's sitting still"Lupus forced me to sit still. And in that stillness, I found my purpose." -- Marlene

The conversation delves into the journey of a cancer diagnosis, the impact on the individual and family, the challenges in healthcare, the importance of advocacy, and the concept of healing. It highlights the significance of listening to doctors and understanding the role of spirituality in medicine.TakeawaysAdvocacy in healthcareImportance of listening to doctors