Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Fall 2012

  • Fish story

    Tim Chapman  Chicago, Illinois, United States   You can get to know a person pretty well when you’re helping them wipe their ass. My name is Ernie Fischetti. I was named after “Mr. Cub,” Ernie Banks. I used to hate the Cubs. In fact, until this year, I hated baseball altogether. I hated hearing guys…

  • The midwives of San Gimignano, 1336

    Mary A. Osborne Chicago, Illinois, United States Before the story line for Alchemy’s Daughter flew into my imagination, the idea of writing historical fiction had not occurred to me. I had penned a number of short stories, often inspired by my experiences as a home care nurse, and two semiautobiographical novels that no publisher wanted.…

  • Apple Tree – Baby Poems

    Jeanne Bryner Cortland, Ohio, United States Poet’s statement: Working in pediatrics, I find children’s bodies/spirits revealed in nature and my art. A child’s presence brings light to a room and hope to our world.   Apple tree Here, in the backyard, beyond the clothesline where I hang my sheets, my eyes are drawn to the…

  • The Montreal Children’s Hospital

    Barry Pless Montreal, Canada   Montreal Children’s Hospital Hospitals are more than bricks and mortar. The Montreal Children’s Hospital (MCH) is no exception. Like all famous hospitals, there is little about the buildings themselves that warrant acclaim. It is the accomplishments and contributions of the staff that make them respected. Accordingly, this account focuses on…

  • “How the Poor Die” by George Orwell, 1946

    The next moment . . . the doctor and the students came across to my bed, hoisted me upright and without a word began applying the same set of glasses, which had not been sterilized in any way. A few feeble protests that I uttered got no more response than if I had been an…

  • Death lullabies in Russian culture

    Tatiana Novikova Russia Traditionally, the lullaby has been defined as a sweet, gentle song that a mother sings to coax her child to sleep. It is generally seen as a strong bonding experience for both mother and child, through which the child receives a powerful charge of emotions. In Russian folklore, however, there is a…

  • Ludwik Fleck, physician in Lwow Ghetto

    George M. Weisz Sydney, Australia Andrzej Grzybowski Poland   Dr. Ludwik Fleck, a pioneer in the early diagnosis of infectious diseases, was born in 1896 in Lwow, then known as Lemberg and until World War I, part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Graduating from Lwow University Medical School, Dr. Fleck became interested in medical research and…

  • History of nephrology: beginnings

    George Dunea Chicago, Illinois, United States   Introduction In the second half of the 20th century nephrology became a fully-fledged specialty owing largely to the development of renal biopsy, dialysis, and kidney transplantation.1 Yet the seeds of these great advances were sown centuries earlier, based on the work and observations of scientists and clinicians dating…

  • History of nephrology: the middle period

    George Dunea Chicago, Illinois, United States   Domenico Cotugno Coagulable urine Despite centuries of medical progress, the presence of abnormal amounts of albumin in the urine remains to this day the most sensitive and widely used indicator of renal disease. Described by Hippocrates as “bubbles on the surface of the urine” and known to medieval…

  • When angels sing

    Mary SommersChicago, Illinois, United States All living things have a natural urge to sing. Humans and other mammals, birds, insects, and even the great, extinct woolly mammoth sing special songs to call their children home. Though singing is universal, many people feel uncomfortable singing, as if we’ll be judged the moment we expose our voices.…