Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: foot amputation

  • To my friend with diabetes, on losing her foot

    Anna Kander Iowa City, IA, USA   The author’s friend, almost sixty years ago–when she was first diagnosed with Type I Diabetes and told she probably wouldn’t survive to adulthood. You walk sixty-seven years while childhood diabetes, against your iron will, poisons your peripheral nerves with sugar, and the muscles of your feet, starved of circulation,…

  • My first (do no harm) patient

    Paul Karagiannis Chicago, Illinois, United States   The door to room 7403 was opened slightly, and a TV inside hummed the midday news—nervous but resolute, we knocked and crossed the threshold. Inside, sitting knees-up in bed, his height accentuating the awkward angularity of his position, sat Mr. C., Bed No. 2, United States Veteran, my…