Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Category: Doctors Patients and Diseases

  • Room 460

    Megan RizerGainesville, Florida, United States Every time I walked by Mr. L’s hospital room, I heard the Game Show Network blasting on television. The Price is Right, Press Your Luck, Wheel of Fortune—some rerun of an old game show was always on. I had been helping to take care of him for several weeks, rounding…

  • The Bancroft doctors: Edward, Daniel, and Nathaniel

    Jonathan DavidsonDurham, North Carolina, United States Quercitin is a flavonoid compound derived from quercitron, found in many plants and vegetables. It possesses anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and other effects and has possible therapeutic value.1 Quercitin not only has medicinal properties, but for almost 100 years was the chief coloring agent used in the textile and printing industry.…

  • The root of all problems

    Anthony PapagiannisThessaloniki, Greece Several years ago, I had a neighbor in his eighties who was also my patient. Whenever the need arose I would visit him at home after office hours, and we would have an informal chat as his children were friends of mine from our school years. One evening, he asked me to…

  • Healing: A word that connects or separates patients from their doctors

    Fergus ShanahanCork, Ireland “He is cured by faith who is sick of fate.”James Joyce (Finnegans Wake, 482)1 In Brian Friel’s play Faith Healer, Francis “Frank” Hardy has self-doubts.2 Is his power to heal diminishing? Is it real, autosuggestion, or chance? Does it require faith? People who come to see Frank are desperate, but whether they…

  • Physic

    JMS PearceHull, England Amongst the General Medical Council records of 300 medical specialties hides “physician”, a word we all use with but little thought about its origins. Samuel Johnson defined physician as one who professes the art of healing.1 He also included physician as A man skilled in any profession; or Any able or learned…

  • Healing beyond the sterile chamber

    Brody FoglemanSpartanburg, South Carolina, United States A senior resident once shared with me: “Patients don’t heal in the hospital; they get sicker. Our goal is to stabilize, medically optimize, and discharge.” Though I was surprised by such a statement, it became truer the more patients I encountered as a medical student.  A patient admitted, a…

  • Endurance

    Anthony Papagiannis Thessaloniki, Greece One of the things we learn in medicine, not from books but from the daily encounters with patients over the years, and which never stops pleasantly surprising us, is man’s endurance in all kinds of adversity and hardship, including serious health problems. No diagnostic test, biological marker or imaging modality, however…

  • Physician associates and independent prescribers

    JMS PearceHull, England A recent high-profile death in London has led to doctors’ concerns about medical associate professions.1,2 A thirty-year-old woman died from a pulmonary embolism after seeing a physician associate (PA). This led to the case being discussed widely in the media, on social media, and in Parliament by Barbara Keeley MP: Emily Chesterton…

  • A Hispanic amulet against disease in infants

    Edward TaborBethesda, Maryland, United States In my pediatric residency at a New York City hospital many years ago, I noticed that half of my Hispanic infant patients, as well as some toddlers, wore a small black and red amulet that their parents hoped would protect against disease. When I asked other residents and attending physicians…

  • Synesthesia, empathy, and the “art” of medicine

    Maeve Pascoe Cleveland, Ohio, United States   Mind of the Beholder (click to view). Artwork by Maeve Pascoe, November 16, 2016. Presented at the 2017 Helicon History of Art Undergraduate Society “Synesthesia” student art exhibition at the University of Michigan. “Do my name next!” people would exclaim as I tried to explain that I am…