Charts Unwritten is a reflective blog at the intersection of medicine, trauma-informed care, and public health — written by a future SAFE examiner and advocate for healing in clinical spaces.
Here you’ll find essays, insights, and personal reflections on what it means to show up — for patients, for systems, and for yourself.
Click the following links below to read the latest posts!
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September’s Just Begun—And I’m Already Tired
September has only just begun, and already I’m exhausted. Not from lack of sleep, but from watching, again, as healthcare becomes a political pawn—and patients become collateral. I’ve sat with survivors who can’t access…
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One Big, Beautiful Bill—for Dollars, But Not for Care
On July 3, 2025, the Senate passed a sweeping reconciliation package branded by some as “The One Big Beautiful Bill.” While the headlines tout economic vision, the reality for millions is bleak: the bill…
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What Emergency Medicine Can Learn from Crisis Advocates
When people think of emergency medicine, they picture constant motion. Movement. Noise. Code calls. Alarms. But sometimes, the most critical work happens in silence. In stillness. In presence. That’s something crisis advocates have known…
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Presence Is Clinical: What I’ve Learned from Sitting with Survivors
“Are you going to stay with me?” She asked in a whisper, barely audible over the fluorescent hum of the emergency room. Her gown hung loose around her shoulders, and her fists were clenched—not…
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The Fix We Owe: What the U.S. Can Learn from Countries That Keep Mothers Alive
Last month, we sat with the truth that the U.S. has the highest maternal mortality rate among high-income countries.⁰ We looked at the racial, geographic, and systemic disparities that drive that outcome — especially…
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The Cost of Carrying: Maternal Mortality, Health Disparities, and a Future Worth Matching Into
In the U.S., childbirth remains one of the most dangerous medical events a person can experience — and for Black women, it’s even more so. We’re long past pretending this is a problem of…
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Of Flesh and Law: When Public Health Is Not for the Living
In March 2025, public health in the United States is not simply shifting—it’s recalibrating in ways that feel eerily familiar to anyone who has ever read The Handmaid’s Tale. The election of a new…
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February Reflections: Healing Across Cultures and Confronting Medical Injustice
Honoring Lunar New Year: Cultural Travel, Family, and Safety February is a time of vibrant celebration for many Asian communities as Lunar New Year arrives. Across the world, families reunite, ancestral rituals are honored,…
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When the Cold Comes Home: Assault, Silence, and Safety During Winter Break
“She was just visiting home for winter break.” I hear some version of that sentence every January. And every time, it stops me. Maybe it’s because there’s an illusion of safety in coming home,…
