Month: March 2018
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Pursuit of immortality: Dr. Amosov
Olena LupaloBursa, Turkey In 1962, after his visit to the USA, heart surgeon Nikolai Amosov (1913-2002) became obsessed by artificial heart valves. There were no opportunities for this in the Soviet Union – neither information nor technology. Amosov sewed his first cusp of the artificial heart valve from a nylon shirt he bought with personal…
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A love story
Kate RowlandChicago, Illinois, United States “Is that her partner in there with her?” Ankita, a second-year resident, and I had just finished seeing a new patient, Marian. Marian’s detailed problem list had required an equally detailed visit, and Ankita had addressed her urgent issues: uncontrolled diabetes, cirrhosis, and stage 3 congestive heart failure. As a…
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The last talk
Inge Marry ShikangalaWindhoek, Namibia In April 2016, I took my father to Engela State Hospital at the northern border of Namibia. This was the nearest hospital, but still twenty kilometers away from where my father lived. My two cousins helped me get my very tall father in and out of my small car, which in…
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Washington’s deadliest enemy
Kathryn ToneWiesbaden, Germany As Commander of the Continental Army, General George Washington is famously remembered for the surprise 1776 Christmas attack on the Hessian garrison in Trenton, New Jersey. A bold, relatively spontaneous decision, the attack was a last-ditch effort to salvage some sort of victory after some punishing eight months of humiliating defeats from…
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Women changing medicine
Lesley CampbellDarlinghurst, New South Wales, Australia This is my account of three generations of women doctors in my family who in different times and different places were subjected to persecution or at least discrimination because of their race, religion, and gender. The account is written in the hope that society in general and medicine in…
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The seeds of resilience
Bryanne StandiferRedford, Michigan, United States One Friday morning in high school, I counted fourteen murders in one week in the city that I call home. I was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. Not the cool, trendy Detroit we know now, but the Detroit that made us lock our doors at night and look both…
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Dance with death
Marianne RogoffKentfield, California, USA Stephanie lived alone in a rented cottage at the back of a garden path. When she was dying at age fifty of ovarian cancer, her only vow was not to die alone, so she assembled an army of friends to sign up for two-hour shifts, 24/7, to keep her company. She…
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The healing art of listening
Charles PaccioneOslo, Norway Throughout my years of working with patients, both as a therapist and as a clinical researcher, I have been consistently reminded of the important role storytelling plays in fortifying a healing bond between patient and caregiver. Listening to patient stories of illness remission and recurrence, of risky treatments and procedures, and of…
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The battle of the vivisected dog
Jack EffronBagmara, Bangladesh Medical education has not always been left to the professionals. In the past, and especially in London in the first decade of the twentieth century, it has become a political issue and caused rioting in the streets. On February 2, 1903, at the University College in University of London in a physiology…