Dr Darria Long Gillespie

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United States
Atlanta, GA
Dr Darria Long Gillespie

ER Doc + Mom x3
Harvard & Yale MD/📖/📺
Prevent + prepare for life's little and big emergencies
(3)

10/14/2025

Your child gets a cut — S.C.A.N. before panicking!

Signs it will probably need closure (like stitches, staples, or glue)
- Length: > ½ inch
- Depth: Does it go beyond the outer layer of skin (ie more than just an abrasion)?
- Shape: is it crooked?
- Edges: are they ragged?
- Width: does it gape open if your child moves around? I always tell parents - the width of the cut, when you’re relaxed - that will (rule of thumb) be the width of the scar. Ie: if it gapes open, your scar could be that wide. If that’s not an acceptable size, get it checked.
- Location: we typically need stitches (or some closure) in these places:
The face (especially around eyes or mouth)
A joint (like over a knee or elbow so that the cut stretches when the leg / arm bends)
Hands
Ge***al areas
Scalp (often required to make them stop bleeding)
- Still bleeding after pressure? Typically needs some closure

Quick tip: Don’t Delay: After 18-24 hours or so (depending on type of wound, location, and person’s health), the risk of an infection rises if we try to close an old wound. So, if you think there’s a chance it will need closure, better to get it checked out sooner, rather than waiting a day and THEN coming in.

09/26/2025

My smile when I hit 5th gear in the brand-new Dark Horse Mustang… with Laurie Transou, Mustang Chief Program Engineer, coaching me on my stick-shift game (yes, I was driving in heels — and she told me that’s a skill in itself! 👠🚗).

But this trip wasn’t just about horsepower — it was about protecting our most precious passengers. For Child Passenger Safety Week, Ford brought together myself and some of the top parent influencers to dive deep on how we keep kids safe on every ride. I can’t share much - but we saw so many amazing innovations that I can’t wait to see in vehicles and on the road!

I spend my days in the ER seeing what happens when safety measures aren’t in place — so being part of conversations with automakers about designing vehicles with families first? That’s the work that changes outcomes before families ever get to me.

Huge gratitude the team for the invitation and for truly leading on safety — and to my fellow creators who are raising awareness in such powerful ways.

(Oh, and they even loaned me the Tremor in video to drive around while I was there — my husband is still jealous, since that’s the truck he’s been eyeing. 🙃)

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll just be daydreaming about rolling up to carpool in that Mustang… 😉

09/11/2025

9/11. Twenty-four years ago—and yet it feels like yesterday.

I was in medical school when we heard. Just weeks earlier, I’d been living in Manhattan. I had friends there I couldn’t reach, people I feared for. So I ran to our dean, Dr. Hundert, and we began organizing resources—blood drives, volunteers, doctors. We thought we could help.

But soon we learned the devastating truth: there were too few survivors for us to save. Blood and doctors weren’t what was needed that day.

What stayed with me was the conviction that emergency medicine was my calling. In the face of catastrophe, I wanted to be in the emergency room—doing whatever I could, for whomever I could. Not with the same courage of the firefighters and first responders who ran into burning buildings—but with the determination to run toward emergencies, not away. Even if I couldn’t save lives that day, I knew I wanted to save every life I could in the future.

We lost 2,977 lives that day. May we never forget their names, their families, and the bravery shown by so many.

This day doesn’t sting any less, even decades later. Perhaps sharing with each other is the one thing that helps.

Where were you when you first heard?

#911

08/28/2025

An appeal - from an ER doctor and mom, who has worked and lived in both Tennesssee (and grown up and lived among responsible gun owners) AND Massachusetts, which has some of the strictest gun laws (and lowest fi****ms death rates).

If you’d like more information on this, I urge you to check out some of the below experts who do amazing work in this space:

RAND Gun Policy in America

I know there are more - please feel free to tag them and I will add.

06/26/2025

It’s time to get started with my “Dr. Darria is going to be an aunt and I’m EXCITED” era! When you’re expecting your first baby, there’s just so much STUFF you need. When chatting with my amazing SIL, we were discussing a few favorite items - and I thought that their baby shower would be a great chance to shower YOU or your loved ones as well!! ❤️❤️❤️It’s a great way to celebrate!

Comment GIVEAWAY and we’ll send you the link to sign up for the giveaway! (And everyone who doesn’t win, will still receive coupon codes for all of these items, to share the love!)

(So looking forward to being the crazy aunt!)
X###x, Dr. Darria

05/27/2025

***GIVEAWAY ALERT!***Comment GIMME to be entered in the giveaway for a 6-month supply of Hiya.

My kids love these (and TBH, I sometimes sneak one myself). It’s so refreshing to find a brand that my kids LIKE, and that I can feel reassured because the company is applying their own stringent quality standards.

GIVEAWAY LOGISTICS: -Depending on your settings, you may need to be following the account to receive the message, or IG wont let it go through. - This giveaway is in no way sponsored, endorsed, or administered by Instagram, and solely run by and - To be eligible for giveaway, must comment below by 06:00am EST, June 2, 2025- Open only to residents of the US- No purchase necessary for entry- Winners will be announced in and stories, and will be emailed at the contact information given. - Prize will be shipped directly from Hiya Health to winner

12/15/2024

Welp, abnormal mammogram → . Stop, do not pass go.

NOTE: before I get to my story, if you’re in the same boat, or if you need to schedule your mammogram or followup biopsy or any test like this, and you’re dragging your feet, comment below. Comment anything you want - let me and let everyone here support you. We’ve got you, sister.

OK - back to the story. Not fun, but it has to be done. While I’m waiting, the doctor is late - not because she did anything wrong, but because “she’s in a cancer consultation, and it’s going long”, as the kind nurse tells me. And I’m both immensely grateful for her for caring so much for her patients, and simultaneously praying for that person currently having a conversation with her that I hope to never have.

Of course, I’m aware of the stats: for younger women, we’re more likely to have positive screening results on screening mammograms, due to the nature of younger tissue. So, that’s reassuring, but also in younger women is more aggressive - I’ve talked to my patients about this, and I’ve talked about it in TV segments on-air. Of course, no matter what, you’re never fully prepared.

Hubs came and waited with me, in his cute scrubs and surgical hat (his surgery center is just one building over from my doctor’s),- he was between surgeries, so he came and sat. He looked so handsome in his surgical garb, his blue eyes matching his scrubs, but I was too worried at the time and didn’t take a pic of him :)

So now we wait for results. I’m immensely grateful for the team at Breast Care Specialists in Atlanta, and my surgeon Dr. Brenda Simpson - they’re amazing - you get the mammogram or screening ultrasound, the radiologist reviews it while you wait, and you immediately get to talk with the doctor to discuss your results. In the past, that included Dr. Simpson bouncing in, smiling, and saying “you’re all good!”. This time, she told me I needed a biopsy, which is why we are here.

Again, if you’re in the same boat, if you’re nervous about scheduling your own exam - PLEASE comment below. It takes a village and I’m here to support you. We’ve got this.

All my love, Dr. D

11/19/2024

Congrats to our giveaway winners!! (We have contacted you each directly, including )! 🤩

TY to our amazing sponsors

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10/31/2024

Here’s how to make sure the only “scary” thing this year, is your kiddos sugar high…

Share this with others to help keep trick-or-treating fun for everyone!

Have a Happy (+ safe!) Halloween! 🎃

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http://www.DrDarria.com/

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