Another day of work at a small village clinic in northern Alaska was coming to a close. The final patients filed out the door as I wrapped up my clinic notes. The setting Arctic sun cast an orange glow on the snow dusting the remote village’s lead gray beaches. The days were becoming rapidly shorter as winter approached, and I sat back and imagined the Arctic Ocean, just outside the clinic windows, under a sheet of ice in just a few months.
An elderly woman walked in carrying an infant wrapped in blankets.
“He’s been breathing funny,” she said, her face completely calm.
I lay the tiny 6-week-old Inupiat boy on the exam table and removed his one-piece outfit. Michael was struggling to breathe. His respirations were rapid, and with each inhalation his nostrils flared and the muscles between his ribs strained for air. In my pediatrics training, one of ...
