Tag Archives: Joel Teelucksingh

As a newly minted doctor fresh from postgraduate training in the United Kingdom, I returned home brimming with confidence. I was brash, full of textbook knowledge and ready to tackle any medical challenge that came my way. Little did I know that one of my most memorable patients would teach …

The photographs were difficult to ignore. Long lines outside the Seventh-day Adventist Hospital. Elderly patients waiting patiently in chairs. Family members guiding parents and grandparents through crowds. Faces filled with hope, anxiety and exhaustion. All for cataract surgery. Not cosmetic surgery. Not experimental treatment. Not some futuristic robotic procedure available …

The MV Hondius, an expedition cruise vessel that promised adventure among glaciers, seabirds and remote islands, has become the centre of an international public health investigation after a suspected outbreak of hantavirus left multiple passengers critically ill and at least three dead. A cruise has become a floating epidemiology lecture. …

There is a quiet daily miracle. Not the kind that makes headlines. Not the kind that is measured in numbers, charts or statistics. The kind that lives in kitchens before sunrise, in whispered prayers at bedside, in sacrifices that are never announced, only felt. We call it motherhood. And if …

There is a phrase patients love to hear. And one that doctors are quietly relieved to say. “Your blood tests are normal.” It lands gently. Reassuring. Final. Almost like a verdict in your favour. You’re fine. Sometimes, you’re not. Because “normal” is one of the most comforting words in medicine. …

It has been one of those weeks. The kind that leaves a residue. Murders that shock, then settle uneasily into the background. A parliamentary inquiry that veers, unexpectedly, into something resembling theatre complete with shameless “track changes”—as if oversight itself required editing. And now, the reports from Cumuto. Each story …

There is something quietly disarming about watching a child see a giraffe in the zoo for the first time. The pause. The widening of the eyes. The small hand tightening around yours, as though this impossibly tall, gentle creature might suddenly look back. In that moment, something happens that medicine …

We trust Google more than doctors. And it is costing us. We are living in the most medically advanced time in human history. Unfortunately, trust in medicine has never felt more fragile. It has worsened since Covid. We can map the human genome. We can replace failing organs. We can …

There are many ways to kill a man. Some are sudden. Some are brutal. Some are mercifully brief. Crucifixion was a slow, deliberate medical death. The Romans may not have had physiology textbooks, blood gas analysis or intensive care units, but they understood something grimly practical about the human body: …

The danger was never the word. The danger… was that it sounded familiar. Once upon a time, leadership had a language. It was measured. It was deliberate. It understood that words, once spoken, carried weight far beyond the moment in which they were uttered. Today, it seems, we are learning …

At six o’clock one morning not too long ago, a woman sat quietly outside a public clinic with a numbered card in her hand. She had arrived before sunrise. Not because she wanted to—because she had to. Her eyes were failing for months. The headaches were becoming more frequent. Work …

Something strange has been happening in Trinidad and Tobago. Ask almost anyone how they are sleeping and the answer is rarely enthusiastic. “I not sleeping good these days.” It is said casually, often with a small shrug, as if poor sleep were simply another inconvenience of modern life. Covid exacerbated …