cfenoglio's blog

Sometimes accidents just happen.

For Ruth Ann Potter, 70, it didn’t matter whether Poncho, her big, black Labrador was to blame. What mattered most was that she had quick access to excellent medical care for her injuries.

“About three years ago my husband Doug and I were walking Poncho through our neighborhood in Rio Rancho,” Ruth Ann recalled, “when a rat ran in front of our garage door. Poncho took off and I started running and falling after him, as his leash was wrapped around my left arm.”

When Daniel Shaw, a 62-year-old science teacher at Albuquerque’s Bosque School, leads his students into the desert to collect data on North American porcupines, he often talks about the power of information: what did you observe; what did you find; what conclusions can you draw from the data?

When Daniel and his doctors discussed his long-time gastrointestinal problems, they used the same kind of questions: what are his symptoms; what treatments have worked; and what can be done in the future to alleviate his pain and side effects?

When Beth Kaczmarek and her husband Bryan Craig moved back to her hometown of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Beth planned on delivering their baby in the same hospital where she was born. Their daughter Eloise, however, had other plans.

“We were living in Napa County, California when we decided to start a family,” said Beth, 38. “We had moved back to the States after living abroad and I was in the midst of a big editorial project.”

According to the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), more than one-third of adults in the U.S. experience heartburn at least once a month.

Heartburn is a burning sensation in the chest that occurs when stomach acids travel back up the esophagus. Some patients may also experience a bitter or sour taste in the throat and mouth. Symptoms of heartburn may get worse after eating or when lying down.

When “delivery day” finally arrived for Ashley and Enrique Lucero, residents of Rio Rancho, Ashley walked into the hospital and introduced herself to the receptionist. “Oh,” she said, “you must be the triplet mom!”