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“If I could go back 30 years, I wouldn’t become a doctor,” says Dr. Andrew Bush, whose practice, Central Carolina Orthopaedic Associates, operates in Sanford, North Carolina. “Looking back at life, this was the wrong choice.”/Eamon Queeney for KHN
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OONA TEMPEST/KHN
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DAVID CAVE IS A RECOVERY COACH ON AN ADDICTION SPECIALTY TEAM AT SALEM HOSPITAL, NORTH OF BOSTON./JESSE COSTA/WBUR
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GUNDULA VOGEL/PIXABAY
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PENNY WINGARD OF CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA, HAS SURVIVED BREAST CANCER, A BRAIN ANEURYSM, AND SURGERY ON BOTH EYES. FOR THE PAST EIGHT YEARS, SHE'S BEEN BATTLING TENS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS IN MEDICAL DEBT./ANERI PATTANI/KHN
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JEFF WHITE HAS BEEN ASSISTED SEVERAL TIMES IN RECENT YEARS BY CRISIS RESPONSE TEAMS THAT SERVE SOME RURAL COUNTIES IN IOWA. WHITE, WHO HAS DEPRESSION AND SCHIZOPHRENIA, CAN NOW CALL A STATE-RUN HOTLINE AND REQUEST A VISIT FROM MENTAL HEALTH WORKERS, RATHER THAN BEING ADMITTED TO A PSYCHIATRIC UNIT OR JAILED BY POLICE./KC MCGINNIS FOR KHN
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THOMAS BREHER/PIXABAY
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DAVID ZIPPRICH, A FORT WORTH FINANCIAL CONSULTANT AND GRANDFATHER, WAS FORCED OUT OF RETIREMENT AFTER HOSPITALIZATIONS LEFT HIM OWING MORE THAN $200,000./LAURA BUCKMAN FOR KHN AND NPR.
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DAVID CONFER’S DIGITIZED MEDICAL RECORDS SIT IN STACKS IN PRINTED FORM. PATIENTS HAVE HAD THE RIGHT TO REQUEST THEIR RECORDS SINCE THE 1990S, BUT THE ADVENT OF ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS MADE THAT PROCESS EASIER AND LESS COSTLY FOR THEM./LYNNE SHALLCROSS/KHN
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HOSPICE NURSE RAUL DIAZ CHECKS AARON MARTINEZ’S VITAL SIGNS. DESPITE HIS MOM’S SEEMINGLY HEALTHY PREGNANCY, AARON WAS BORN WITH MOST OF HIS BRAIN CELLS DEAD, THE RESULT OF TWO STROKES AND A MASSIVE BLEED THAT OCCURRED IN UTERO./HEIDI DE MARCO/KHN