Month: December 2017
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Pink Skies
Gurbaksh ShergillFlint, Michigan, United States I stared silently out the window and took in my surroundings. The sun was slowly making its way into the sky, stretching as if waking up from a long slumber. The gold and pink tones of the sky were still hiding behind clouds, not quite ready to come out from…
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Religio Medici
Stefan GrebeRochester, Minnesota, United States Mama, take this badge off of me / I can’t use it anymore. / It’s gettin’ dark, too dark to see / I feel I’m knockin’ on heaven’s door“Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” Bob Dylan If the injured deputy in Bob Dylan’s lyrics had been living in today’s United States, he would have…
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The Changi diary and paintings: The partnership of a doctor and an artist
Robert CraigBrisbane, Queensland, Australia Three paintings and a diary in a handwritten exercise book are in the collection of the Marks Hirschfeld Medical Museum in Brisbane, Australia. They represent an episode of extraordinary courage, survival, cooperation, and perseverance by two prisoners of war (Vaughan Murray Griffin and Dr. Burnett Clarke) during World War Two (Clarke 1989).…
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Body matters
Grace LucasCambridge, UK I had this friend once. She was around for a long time – years. I do not remember the first time I met her, but suddenly she was there, omnipresent. She was thrilling and intoxicating to be with, and made me feel high, light, and free. I was on a journey with…
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Fifty years on an Englishman recalls Cook County Hospital
Simon CohenLondon In 1968 I was a senior registrar at a London teaching hospital. My ambition was to become a staff member at a major London institution and at that time one of the requirements was a qualification known as the BTA (Been to America). My chief, probably correctly, recognized that I was not much…
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Anosognosia
Michael Ellman Chicago, IL, United States “Joseph Cable, at your service! U.S. Marines, World War Two, retired—at ease, Doctor. Let’s be casual, shall we?” My patient is tall and ramrod stiff, his hair an isthmus of bristle above his forehead. The psychiatry unit interview room is small—a tired square table and two wooden straight-backed chairs. The…