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Dying for a Smoke
By Sophie Yu
M2, Harvard Medical School
This piece was first inspired by the annual wildfires I experienced
when living in Northern California. I distinctly remember
the bleak gray skies that would persist for days and wondering
how breathing this air long-term would impact my community’s
health. In one of our first-year medical school courses, as we
began to unpack the underlying pathophysiology of lower and
upper respiratory disease, specifically in the context of smoking,
I began to think more critically about the air we breathe.
Using visual art to combine the vivid images of gross anatomy
specimens, the smoke-filled skies in California, and the articles
I had been reading, helped me to engage with and process this
challenging material.
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