Intensivist, Bioethicist, Poet (ICU Pandemic Diary, An ICU Doctor’s Reflections; Words that Matter); Writer (The Law of Acute Care Medicine), Violinist
🇨🇦🇺🇦
Joined February 2014
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Laura Hawryluck retweeted
Abolish the Indian Act. We have nothing to lose but our chains.
We will, of course, need new legislation that is an interface between the Federal government and First Nations. And this MUST be created alongside Chiefs and First Nation governments every step of the way. But it is time to move past the era of this outdated, racist, and patriarchal legislation.
I support Prime Minister Carney’s work to position Canada as a global leader in human rights and democracy. The Indian Act is inconsistent with achieving that vision.
Our laws at home should reflect the values we champion around the world.
It’s time for a relationship with First Nations people that reflects who we are as Canadians today, recognizes nationhood, and lives up to the true nature of reconciliation.
Laura Hawryluck retweeted
Judiciary dems report on Trump and Epstein
democrats-judiciary.house.go…
Laura Hawryluck retweeted
Russian ballistic missiles struck the grounds of a university in Kyiv and the area around it – effectively the campus, Kyoto Park, the area near a metro station, and residential buildings. The exact number of casualties is not yet known. But tragically, there are victims. There are people injured. Rescue operations are underway. There is extensive damage, and there are also reports that people may be trapped under the rubble. All emergency services are at the scene and doing their work – saving lives. The missiles hit very crowded areas, and there is not a single military facility nearby. This was a strike directly on the city, on its infrastructure. Unfortunately, there may be more strikes coming. The attack with “shaheds” is also continuing – against Kyiv and our other cities and communities.
And it is precisely under such circumstances, when the threat is constant, when strikes can come at any moment and target cities and villages directly, that artificial delays in providing air defense to Ukraine help terror. It is important that political agreements be implemented promptly at the team level. It is important that our partners understand that Ukraine needs the proper tools to destroy Russian ballistic missile launchers. This would be the most effective way to save lives. It is important that the world sees that Russia is showing nothing but a desire to kill and continue waging war. Ukraine must not be left to face this alone, and it is solely Russia’s fault that the war is still going on and people are still dying. Please take care of yourselves. All partners should stand with Ukraine – with the protection of lives.
Laura Hawryluck retweeted
Last night, Putin “the humanitarian” attacked Kyiv once again. Presumably to confirm Trump's words from yesterday that "we are closer to peace than ever." And I want to draw attention to one important point.
Russia struck the historic center of Kyiv with an Iskander ballistic missile carrying a K5 cluster warhead. This warhead is designed specifically to inflict maximum damage on people and equipment across an area of 400 by 400 meters. It detonates above the ground so that its 58 submunitions burst in the air.
There is no legitimate reason to use such a weapon against civilians. Nor is there any military necessity. The Russians did it simply because they could.
Photo Yan Dobronosov
Laura Hawryluck retweeted
Three waves of ballistic missiles have been launched at Kyiv by Russian “humanitarians” since yesterday evening. They used 21 missiles. Unfortunately, numerous sites across the city have been hit and damaged: ordinary residential buildings, energy facilities, infrastructure at one of the railway stations and the metro, shopping malls, and businesses. Even a monastery is among the damaged sites. Our emergency services are working at all the affected locations. Twelve of our regions came under Russian attack overnight. In Kyiv and across the regions, 34 people were injured, including five children. As of now, two people have been confirmed killed. My condolences to their families and loved ones.
Almost immediately after another round of talks, Russia launched a pointed attack. This means there has been no real change in its attitude toward everything that is happening. It is important to keep trying to find the right solutions to end this war. But when Russia responds to negotiations with ballistic missiles, real pressure on Russia is needed to bring about different steps – steps toward ending the killing. Stronger air defenses and the rapid delivery of missiles, the ability to destroy ballistic missile launchers, sanctions over the war – all of this must be in place. I am grateful to everyone who sees the situation for what it is and acknowledges the reality. The aggressor deserves to be treated accordingly. Ukraine deserves support. People's lives deserve protection. Thank you to everyone who stands with Ukraine!
Laura Hawryluck retweeted
I have read dozens of outraged posts because the US special envoy Witkoff called Putin a "humanist." But no one is writing about the fact that the American negotiators are simply not doing their job. Let me explain.
Peace negotiations are important in their own right. Even if they do not lead to a lasting peace, the process itself is an opportunity to resolve urgent humanitarian issues. If, of course, the human dimension is a priority for the negotiators. But it is entirely obvious that neither Witkoff nor Kushner cares about people's fates in this war.
The Pope calls on Putin to save thousands of people from starvation in occupied Oleshky and the surrounding villages. The UN speaks about a humanitarian catastrophe and asks Russia to allow the evacuation of the civilian population. European Parliament Vice-President Pina Picierno goes on a hunger strike to draw attention to this tragedy unfolding before the eyes of the whole world.
And what are Witkoff and Kushner doing?
That's right, almost nothing.
Except for passing along greetings from Putin’s aide to the First Lady.
Thousands of people are already eating grass to survive and begging to save their lives. The Ukrainian side raises the issue of Oleshky at every meeting. And I can name dozens of such urgent humanitarian issues off the top of my head where American negotiators must be proactive.
Trump’s peace negotiations have already gone down in history as the deadliest years for Ukraine’s civilian population since the start of the full-scale invasion.
I don’t know if anyone will remember the names of Witkoff and Kushner.
But history will certainly record how American negotiators, who had the opportunity to save a huge number of people, refused to raise uncomfortable questions before "humanist Putin."
The poet Robert Frost spoke of the sense of sound and the sound of sense. “Fast things are fast and slow things are slow” in medicine are a poetic truth. Recognizing what is a crisis (to stabilize 1st) + when you need to slow down, take more time to think it through saves lives.
An emergency physician was about to send a man with minor complaints out of the ED. He asked one more question. A CT then showed blood all over the right hemisphere of the man’s brain.
Drew Remignanti (@DRemignanti), a retired emergency physician, had picked up that patient because his physician director told him to take one more at the end of his shift and boost his numbers. The man said, “I’m a hemophiliac. I’m afraid I’m bleeding in my brain.” There had been no head trauma, and it was unrelated to everything else he had said.
Remignanti ordered the scan reluctantly, just to get it done. He says he would have missed the bleed had he not slowed down at the end and asked that last question. When he told his emergency department director, he expected to hear that the director was glad he worked at the right pace. The director went back to the productivity issue.
How the measuring worked, in his telling: departments kept data on patients per hour and averaged it over weeks, months, and years. He calls it a somewhat useless number, because it depends on how sick the patients are. It came up at every annual review, where he was compared with his co-workers. His annual bonuses were tied to productivity and to patient satisfaction questionnaires, many of them about things like wait times and nursing care that he had no control over.
The people measuring him were board-certified emergency physicians who had practiced clinically before moving into administration. When they asked for his feedback, he told them: “You really need to be a clinician first and an administrator second.”
He got through 40 years of practice by holding to his own standard, and he says that is easier to say now that he is no longer employed.
“Fast things are fast, and slow things are slow, and it’s up to me to determine what I can move faster and what I can move slow.”
What is the last question you ask before a patient leaves?
Listen to the full conversation on The Podcast by KevinMD. Link in the replies.
Search "The Podcast by KevinMD" wherever you listen to podcasts.
#PatientSafety #ThePodcastbyKevinMD
ALT Dark red card with white text: Told to pick up one more patient to boost his numbers, an ER doctor met a man afraid he was bleeding in his brain. Blood all over the right hemisphere. "Fast things are fast, and slow things are slow." The Podcast by KevinMD.
Laura Hawryluck retweeted
It’s time to stand up for Canada.
Everything we’ve accomplished is proof that we’re stronger together.
Laura Hawryluck retweeted
Canada is worth fighting for.
Watch the video: youtu.be/tUTe5oJmSRo
Laura Hawryluck retweeted
I spoke with Prime Minister @MarkJCarney. Thank you, Canada! I briefed him on the latest Russian strike on Kyiv and no advance warning from our partners about the ballistic missile launch. This is the second time Ukraine has received no warning this week.
A rescue operation is underway – the strike damaged a residential building, and the fire engulfed apartments on the first through eighth floors. All emergency services are on the scene, and residents are being evacuated. So far, one person has been reported killed and six injured. My condolences to their families and loved ones.
There was also a strike on the grounds of an energy facility – one of Kyiv’s main power plants. We are counting on our partners’ support.
We also discussed contacts with the United States and diplomatic developments that may take place this week. It is important that the world clearly supports an end to this war and real steps toward de-escalation – genuine steps that Russia will actually take to bring its war and its killings to an end.
Laura Hawryluck retweeted
Have a great Thanksgiving, Canada.
One of the most ancient of all celebrations, of harvest time. Share it with others if you can. Enjoy the weekend!
Laura Hawryluck retweeted
« Meditazione » sort aujourd’hui !
🎻 Faites défiler pour découvrir les coulisses de l’enregistrement du nouvel album en studio.
Troisième mouvement du Concerto pour violoncelle de Danny Elfman, Meditazione est l’un des moments les plus intimes de l’œuvre, où le violoncelle semble presque chanter.
Écoutez le nouveau single dès maintenant
👉🏻 WarnerClassics.lnk.to/dannye…
"Meditazione” is out today!
🎻 Swipe through for a look inside our studio sessions recording the new album.
Meditazione is the third movement of Danny Elfman’s Cello Concerto, one of the most intimate moments of the piece, with the cello almost singing throughout.
Listen to the new single
👉🏻 WarnerClassics.lnk.to/dannye…
#GautierCapucon #DannyElfman #Cello
@dannyelfman @WarnerClassics
@LionelBringuier @BBCCO
Laura Hawryluck retweeted
The most peaceful way to end each performance... 🌿
Inspired by Edvard Munch’s landscape paintings, Bryce Dessner wrote "Towards the Forest" as a reflection on nature’s quiet generosity. Playing it as my encore over the last few months has been pure magic.
So thrilled to share that Gaïa, the album for which this incredible piece was commissioned, is officially up for GRAMMY® Awards consideration for Classical Compendium! 🏆
Listen to "Towards the Forest" on Gaïa 🎧✨👉🏻 w.lnk.to/gacugaiaIA
@WarnerClassics @rb_artists @KDSchmid @bryce_dessner
#Gaïa #Grammy #GautierCapucon #GrammyAwards #Music #classicalmusic
Laura Hawryluck retweeted
In awarding this year’s #NobelPeacePrize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wants to remind the world that the rule of law – national and international – underpins the system we have set up to ensure peace and resolve conflicts non-violently. Peace requires justice.
History has shown that a world operating without the rule of law is unjust, unwise and inhumane. The judges – those who guard the thin red line between order and chaos – are therefore highly deserving of our praise. But today, as these same judges are sanctioned, and their institutions are attacked, we need people of courage, vision and determination – qualities that 2026 peace laureate Navi Pillay demonstrates in her work on the bench.
#NobelPrize
Laura Hawryluck retweeted
A state medical board can review a doctor’s case, find nothing wrong, and close it, and the report to the National Practitioner Data Bank still stays.
That’s what Aysun Alagoz, an OB/GYN in Texas, says happened to her.
In 2011 she had a solo practice in a small town, about nine years in. A hospital executive called and told her to come to an urgent meeting. Nobody would say what it was about. She was accused of mismanaging a colleague’s patient while she was on call, a pregnant woman with high blood pressure. She wasn’t allowed to see the written complaint, and in two days there was no way to get a lawyer.
She was given a summary suspension and walked off the premises. She had until Monday to resign her privileges or be reported to the data bank. She says a summary suspension is an automatic referral anyway, so she refused, to keep a paper trail of her side.
What followed, in her account:
1. A small committee of physicians reviewed the case and wrote that she should be allowed to resign rather than be reported.
2. The executive committee reported her anyway. The board of directors gave the same answer, with no explanation.
3. The Texas Medical Board took about a year, found nothing wrong, and closed the case.
4. The data bank entry stayed. She was told she could add her own comments, but she says nobody reads those. She couldn’t find a job for about two years and lost several jobs once they queried the data bank.
She says the patient’s diagnosis turned out to be a migraine headache, and the colleague who filed the complaint never called her to ask a question. Her bylaws allowed an outside review, she says, and none happened.
Her argument about why this keeps happening: the Health Care Quality Improvement Act of 1986 makes people who sit on peer review committees immune to lawsuits. She has heard of doctors who sued for bad faith, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, and lost.
Her advice if you get the call:
Delay the meeting if you can.
Go with a lawyer, or at least consult one who represents doctors in peer review.
Don’t agree to anything.
Don’t be afraid.
The line she was given about the data bank: “Once it’s on the data bank it stays on the data bank.”
Listen to the full conversation on The Podcast by KevinMD. Link in the replies.
Search "The Podcast by KevinMD" wherever you listen to podcasts
What would you do in the first hour after a call to an urgent peer review meeting with no reason given? #ThePodcastbyKevinMD
ALT Cream card with black text: A doctor got a call to an urgent meeting nobody would explain. Within two days, she was walked off the hospital premises. She had until Monday to resign or be reported to a national data bank. "It’s not a peer review, it’s a weapon." The Podcast by KevinMD.
Laura Hawryluck retweeted
Newly awarded #NobelPrize laureate Anne Carson published a series of notable works in the 1990s. Among these is ‘The Glass Essay’ in ‘Glass, Irony, and God’ (1995), which demonstrates the potential of the long poem where genre boundaries are seen to blur.
The same decade saw the publication of another work, often heralded as Carson’s greatest, entitled ‘Autobiography of Red: A Novel in Verse’ (1998).
Throughout her entire authorship, Carson with a light touch explores the possibilities of writing, a process by which the literary sketch has become of particular value to her.
Her collaborations with visual artists and choreographers and with opera and theatre directors demonstrate the freedom with which she relates to literary expectations and rule systems. It is this that lies behind the outstanding importance her work since the 1990s has had for the international art and literature scene.
Laura Hawryluck retweeted
Margaret Hamilton, who led the 100-person team that wrote the onboard software for the Apollo missions, has died. nyti.ms/3U9IrTj
Laura Hawryluck retweeted
BREAKING NEWS
The 2026 #NobelPrize in Literature is awarded to the Canadian author Anne Carson, “for her bold and inventive oeuvre that, in playful dialogue with the classical tradition, has created new forms for contemporary literature.”
Laura Hawryluck retweeted
To understand how the brain forms memories, feelings and behaviours has long been a dream for researchers.
Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel have been awarded the 2026 #NobelPrize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries leading to optogenetics, which makes it possible to switch on, or off, the activity of individual nerve cells in a living brain.
This method is now being used in laboratories around the world to reveal the brain’s mysteries.
