Month: March 2018
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A story of the oppressed
Donia KhafagaCairo, Egypt Writers often use their novels as a social commentary to criticize a certain cultural context and advocate for change. Today women are still trying to attain equality and freedom. In many Arab countries, men are endowed with freedom and opportunities while women remain silenced and marginalized. One of the most notable authors…
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Trauma vicariously: a writer’s madness
Kirsten FoggToronto, Ontario, Canada It started with a lump in my throat. Actually, it started before that. Last year when I embarked on a project gathering stories of belonging, I tried to be witty and philosophical by quoting author Ben Okri. “Listening,” Okri had said in an ABC radio interview, “is quite close to suffering.”…
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The education of Doctor Chekhov
Jack CoulehanStony Brook, New York, USA October 1883. A fifth-year medical student at Moscow State University agonizes over his upcoming exam. “Woe is me!” he writes to his older brother, “I am forced to learn almost everything from the beginning… cadavers to be worked on, clinical studies, making the rounds of the hospital. I work…
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An emperor unclothed: The virtuous Osler
Patrick FiddesPaul A. KomesaroffMelbourne, Australia Apart from Hippocrates himself, William Osler was among the most praised physicians of all time. Like his Greek forerunner, Osler amassed a huge following of loyal supporters, for whom he could evidently do no wrong. One went so far as to suggest that Osler was: “the greatest physician of all…
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In Consultation: Rachmaninoff, his physician, and the genesis of a masterpiece
Vincent de LuiseNew Haven, Connecticut, United States “You need color to make music come alive. Without color, music is dead.” — Sergei Rachmaninoff There are piano concertos and then there are Piano Concertos. While favorites include the Tchaikovsky First, Mozart’s Twenty-first, the Beethoven Fifth (“Emperor”), and the first concertos of Brahms and Chopin, to many listeners…
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Song as a unit for physical activity: A-minor Proposal
Cillin CondonDublin, Ireland “Let us go singing as far as we go: the road will be less tedious.”— Virgil Physical inactivity is recognized as a significant risk factor for diseases such as stroke, diabetes, and cancer.1 Recommendations for adults include 150 minutes or more of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week, or at least 75…
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Evidence versus practice: The story of surgery in breast cancer
Robert BiggarBethesda, Maryland, United States “As to diseases, make a habit of two things — to help, or at least, to do no harm.”―Hippocrates (circa 400 BC) As a scientist, I see breast cancer as a biological process that starts with a single cell that becomes unregulated, then multiplies relentlessly until it kills the host,…
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Medical deafness or the madness of war: Goya’s motivation for creating the Black Paintings
Sarah BahrIndianapolis, Indiana, United States The Spanish painter Francisco Goya darkened the plaster walls of his rural Madrid farmhouse with leering witches, a gaggle of grimacing hags, and a man with bulging eyes devouring a human form. The latter painting, posthumously titled Saturn Devouring His Children, features a Titan plunging a bloody child whole into…
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Medicine as we know it
Ifediba NzubePort Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria In the last episode of one season of Grey’s Anatomy, a cyberterrorist hacks into the network of Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital and shuts down their cardiac monitors, CT scanners, elevators, and electronic medical records. The hacker demands 5000 bit coins and while the FBI tries to track him down,…