Family practitioner Mark Ebell was 28 when he moved down from a prosperous part of Michigan to practice family medicine at a community health center in the tiny Georgia town of Colbert. Although many of the conditions he treated were much the same in the two states, his patients in rural Georgia lived vastly different…
It was July when everything started to go haywire, and Katie Ball was fed up. An angry rash had been creeping across her torso for the past two months, and now her face was breaking out in boils. The burning pain in her lower right side had become a constant companion. She’d had ovarian cysts…
This is the second in a series of articles about health care in Southwest Georgia, an area of the state that has great health needs and challenges, but also some innovative approaches to such problems. The series is the product of a collaboration between Georgia Health News and the health and medical journalism graduate program at UGA…
“I have cleaned bed pans. I have cleaned the potty chair,” says Carol Lively, pausing to think before counting off the next task on her fingers. “I have changed dressings. I got to learn about open wound care, and I learned about prosthetics when I was young.” Lively, who is 44 and lives in Watkinsville,…
A kid doesn’t have to bring an odd-looking homemade device to school to attract attention from the authorities. A prescription pill will do the trick. A child who pulls out an antibiotic capsule at the water fountain may be marched to the principal’s office for questioning. Schools have to comply with drug laws, and they…