Balloons of Hope

A neurology fellow describes an emotionally draining workday beginning with a long commute delayed by a scene of accidental death. During patient rounds, the day continued with misery as this physician watched and declared brain death in two patients. Opioids took away the life of a young, loving father from his growing family. Opioids robbed an unborn child from seeing her mother. Opioids made this physician feel helpless and caused him to think, Why is this happening? How to stop it? And when does it end? This narrative essay illustrates, with words and art, the need to stamp out the opioid epidemic.