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tdbrothers.bsky.social
Tommy Brothers
@tdbrothers.bsky.social
810 followers 310 following 16 posts
MD, PhD, FRCPC | general internal medicine & addiction medicine doctor | social epidemiologist & health services researcher | Nova Scotian
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tdbrothers.bsky.social
December 6, 2025 at 2:14 AM
tdbrothers.bsky.social
From Halifax, it was a pleasure to work with my colleague Landon "Morty" Morton from Mainline Needle Exchange (mainlineneedleexchange.ca)

In addition to contributing throughout the paper, his perspective as a person with lived expertise of endocarditis is summarized in Box 1
Box 1.Perspective of a person with lived experience of injection drug use-associated endocarditis. I had endocarditis 8 years ago and I still have a vegetation on my pulmonic heart valve. I now work for a harm reduction organization providing support to other people who use drugs, including people who are admitted to hospital with endocarditis. I encourage health care providers to look at the patient as a human-being first and foremost, before dismissing them as someone who uses drugs. This is a population that does not trust health care services, based on generations of horrible and stigmatizing experiences. You need to do more than build trust, but find ways to overcome that mistrust that has built up over time. If someone is supported by community organizations, it can be very helpful to reach out to them and invite them into the hospital if the patient consents. People have lives outside the hospital and when you meet them in the hospital for a short time they may be scared, isolated, and alone. I have seen a big contributor to poor quality and inconsistent care is providers’ lack of education and discomfort related to drug use. They want to do what is right, but they don’t know how so they end up guessing. For example, they might take away someone’s sterile injecting equipment in hospital because they feel like they’re helping, but that leads people to re-use used needles from sharps bins and getting new bacterial infections in hospital. When I give presentations at the hospital, doctors and nurses often tell me they are learning basic information for the first time related to substance use and pain management for people who use drugs. It is important to have conversations with your patients about their treatment goals- and not to push your own treatment goals onto them. If you force someone to get sober, or make them promise to be abstinent to get a life-saving surgery, they’ll just end up hiding their drug use. I would tell people whatever I think they want t…
December 5, 2025 at 4:46 PM
tdbrothers.bsky.social
November 30, 2023 at 8:51 PM
tdbrothers.bsky.social
November 13, 2023 at 11:30 AM