News & Politics
June 30, 1995
Roe v. World
Twenty-five years after Norma McCorvey joined the flight to legalize abortion, the battle is still raging—and so is she.
Health
Reporting and analysis about the innovation, trends, and business of medicine and health care
Health
May 31, 1995
Walk, Don’t Run
After years of arguing that vigorous activity is a key to good health, Kenneth Cooper is exercising his right to change his mind.
Health
May 31, 1995
Playing Doctor
Health
March 1, 1995
Not What the Doctor Ordered
How an old-fashioned Texas physician fought the takeover of modern medicine by heartless insurance companies—and lost.
Health
February 1, 1995
Hunger Pains
Without constant care, victims of an obscure genetic disorder would eat themselves to death.
Health
February 1, 1994
Love and Death on the Third Floor
She was the princess who wore Tiffany perfume. He was the middle-class guy who raced cars. But when they met on the cystic fibrosis wing of a Dallas hospital, romance bloomed.
Health
August 31, 1993
Altered State
A year after a grand mal seizure left me convulsing on the floor, I’m still finding my way back into everyday life.
Critters
March 1, 1993
Running Rabid
Five years ago, rabies was rare in South Texas. Now nearly three hundred animals have died and the epidemic is not abating.
Health
February 1, 1993
Essay: Myth-O-Maniacs
Twenty years ago, we were two-steppers. Now we’re twelve-steppers, thanks to a set of self-help gurus.
Health
September 30, 1992
Last Rights
My son ended his life after three years of madness and unbearable depression. Who am I to say he did the wrong thing?
Health
May 31, 1992
Heartless Behavior
Cardiologists Per and Peter Langsjoen sounded a warning.
Health
March 1, 1992
Rescue Mission
The politics of trauma.
Health
March 1, 1992
Flight for Your Life
When a few minutes matter, an EMS helicopter can make the difference between life and death.
Health
March 1, 1992
Hazardous Duty
My father loved his job at a Gulf Coast oil refinery. In fact, he loved it to death.
Health
December 1, 1991
Light My Fire
After struggling to give up smoking, I have come to a compromise: Never smoke more than one cigarette—at a time.
Health
May 31, 1990
Can Kids On Drugs Be Saved?
Drug treatment seldom works: at many centers, greedy entrepreneurs prey on frightened parents and troubled kids. But one teenager’s parents decided to take one last, desperate step: they sent their son to the toughest program in Texas.
Health
September 30, 1988
Medicine and Miracles
After learning that he had cancer, the author began a search for a cure that took him far beyond medical expertise.
Health
April 30, 1988
Dying for a Heart
For Ted Segal of Waco, the problem wasn’t getting a heart transplant; it was finding a donor. The delay was killing him.
Health
December 1, 1987
This Can’t Be Happening to Me
From the look on my doctor’s face, I knew the results of the biopsy. The lump in my breast was cancer.
Health
August 1, 1987
The Booming Business of AIDS
For some entrepreneurs, the dark cloud of AIDS has proved to have a silver lining
Health
January 1, 1987
The Coronary Bypass
In Texas, survivors of this life-and-death operation wear their scars like medals of honor.
Health
December 1, 1986
Touch Me, Feel Me, Heal Me!
I was curious when I found that three of my friends had delved into the mysteries of psychic surgery. After three “bloody operations” of my own, I knew what it was all about. About $30 a minute.
Health
May 1, 1986
Confessions of an Aging Pothead
I smoked marijuana all day every day for several years. It took me almost a year to quit—and now I wonder if I’ll ever get straight.
Health
March 1, 1986
Texas Primer: Cedar Fever
When cedars start to mate, Texans start to suffer.
Health
March 1, 1985
The Silver Lining
Age is a matter of mind. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.
Health
July 31, 1983
The Death Shift
The three-to-eleven evening shift, Bexar County Hospital, San Antonio: nurse Genene Jones was on duty in the pediatric intensive care unit, and for months babies kept having mysterious—sometimes fatal—emergencies. Why?
Health
November 1, 1981
So You Don’t Like The Way You Look?
To a plastic surgeon, your face is just the beginning.
Health
June 30, 1981
Fangs
Now is the time to unlearn everything you’ve ever heard about snakebite.
Health
April 30, 1981
Extreme Unctuousness
Without embalming you can have a simple, inexpensive funeral. That’s just what Texas morticians don’t want.
Health
April 30, 1981
The Cancer Belt
In the southeast corner of Texas, more people get cancer than anywhere else in the state. Why?
Health
April 1, 1981
Passing On
In her darkest, final hours, a young mother turns to a new kind of medical care for help.
Health
April 1, 1980
Little Boy Lost
Being autistic nearly ruined Michael Shipley’s life, but his parents sent him to a state mental hospital. Then Michael’s life was ruined for good.
Health
April 1, 1980
The Finish Line
As a doctor, Tony Seidenberg has become accustomed to death. Only this time it is different: he is the one who is dying.
Health
February 1, 1980
The Crack-Up
You learn one clear and not so very grim lesson by looking death in the face.
Health
January 1, 1980
Life Got You Down? Getting Nowhere? Wishing for Wealth? For Success? For Happiness?
My friend, you have come to the right place.
Health
January 1, 1980
The Baby Factory
At Houston’s Jefferson Davis Hospital, the wonders of modern medicine collide with the raw realities of birth, poverty, neglect and hope.
Health
December 1, 1979
Smokers Are People Too
You can always spot a smoker. He fiddles with matches, his shirt pocket bulges in a tiny rectangle, and fumes emerge from his mouth and nose. But what should we do about him?
Health
May 31, 1979
A Stitch in Time
A husband and wife decide sterilization is the best answer for birth control; the question is-who does it?
Health
April 1, 1979
What They Do All Day
Doctors are busy every minute. But what exactly are they up to ?
Health
April 1, 1979
Super Medicine
At the Texas Medical Center the best hospitals, doctors, researchers, and medical technology anywhere in the world have combined to transform doctors from healers into superstars.
Health
November 1, 1978
Old Folks at Home
We will all grow old; but, as Maurice Chevalier says, “That’s not so bad when you consider the alternative.”
Health
October 1, 1978
I Can’t Do It!
Some kids may fail at school and it’s not their fault.
Health
April 1, 1978
The Agony and the Allergy
You don’t have to move to Arizona to cure your allergies, but you may have to get rid of your cat.
Health
September 30, 1977
Jennie
A child with Down’s syndrome is neither Mongolian nor an idiot.
Health
May 31, 1977
The Power
Burning a candle a day keeps the hexes away.
Health
April 1, 1977
The Lifesavers
Every night at Ben Taub Hospital’s emergency room is a night of the living dead.
Health
March 1, 1977
Oops!
Everybody makes mistakes, but mistakes in the medical profession leave scars on everybody.
Health
December 1, 1976
In the Bin
A schizophrenic’s own story of his tour through asylums from Bellevue to Texas.
Health
November 1, 1976
Vanity Fair
The Greenhouse is where the rich and the chic go to play I spa.
Health
June 1, 1976
Physician, Heal Thyself
How a doctor got hooked on drugs, and how he got off.