2017 - Hektoen International

Pink Skies

December 12, 2017

Gurbaksh Shergill Flint, 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 […]

Religio Medici

December 11, 2017

Stefan K. G. Grebe Rochester, 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 The main foyer of the Gonda building, Mayo Clinic by Stefan Grebe […]

The Changi diary and paintings: the partnership of a doctor and an artist

December 11, 2017

Robert Craig Brisbane, Queensland, Australia Malnutrition, Pellagra (left), Tropical Ulcersa, Avitaminosis (middle), Glossitis, and Solar Dermatosis (right) in Australian prisoners of war. 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 […]

Body matters

December 8, 2017

Grace Lucas Cambridge, UK Thinking from the ground up 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 […]

Fifty years on an Englishman recalls Cook County Hospital

December 4, 2017

Simon Cohen London Cook County Hospital, Chicago, IL 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 […]

Anosognosia

December 1, 2017

Michael Ellman Chicago, IL, United States South Pacific, 1950. Joseph Cable (William Tabbert) watches as Bloody Mary (Juanita Hall, top) and Liat (Betta St. John) perform the song “Happy Talk” “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 […]

Groote Schuur Hospital, location, lineage and legacy

November 29, 2017

Annabelle S. Slingerland Leiden, the Netherlands Façade of Groote Schuur Hospital Beginnings The Groote Schuur Hospital in South Africa’s Cape Town sits on a site first discovered in 1488 by the Portuguese Bartolomeu Dias. He called the peninsula Cabo Tormentosa (Cape of Storms), a good description of a site where the notorious South-Easter wind […]

The Joslin Diabetes Center

November 27, 2017

Annabelle S. Slingerland Leiden, the Netherlands Matthew Brown Boston, Massachusetts, United States Bay State Road- cca. 1920 Of the many hospitals that have risen to fame because of the accomplishments of their staff, the Joslin Diabetes Center is one of the most iconic. Founded at a time when diabetes was largely untreatable and often […]

Left-handedness: Is it the winner’s curse?

November 27, 2017

Isuri Wimalasiri Kandawela Estate, Ratmalana, Sri Lanka Writing left-handed. Photo by *Physalis on Flickr. CC BY-SA 2.0. Most human beings, some 85% to 95%, are right-handed, and the remainder consists mainly of left-handers and a negligibly small number of ambidextrous people. Hand orientation is decided during intrauterine life, but if a child shows hand preference […]

Hieronymus Fabricius of Acquapendente (1537-1619)

November 22, 2017

The Bursa of Fabricius is a sac-like organ responsible for producing immunogenic B-lymphocytes and present only in the cloaca of birds. But the man who described it, far from being an obscure ornithologist, was a reputed professor of anatomy and surgery. Born in 1537 near Orvieto in central Italy, he had as a youngster a […]