Month: October 2018
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Pierre Marie (1853-1940)
Pierre Marie (1853-1940) was a French neurologist and native of Paris who after finishing medical school started as an intern under the famous neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot, worked through the ranks, and eventually was appointd to the chair of neurology at the Faculty of Medicine from 1917-1925. One of Marie’s early contributions was a description of acromegaly…
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Dominic Corrigan (1802–1880)
In the days when students were expected to have at least a smattering of medical history, they would have known that Corrigan’s sign and pulse were indicative of aortic regurgitation and would have guessed that Corrigan was Irish. Very few, if any, would have known about Corrigan’s cirrhosis, Corrigan’s button, or the maladie de Corrigan.1…
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Margaret Edson’s W;t: lessons on person-centered care
Atara Messinger Toronto, Ontario, Canada “She slips off her bracelet. She loosens the ties and the top gown slides to the floor.” American playwright Margaret Edson’s 1998 play W;t has been described as “ninety minutes of suffering and death mitigated by a pelvic exam and a lecture on seventeenth-century poetry.”1 When W;t was…
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Hearkening back to Hippocrates: rediscovering “food as medicine” in the age of quinoa and kale
Shehryar R. Sheikh Cleveland, Ohio, United States Portrait of Hippocrates from the Magni Hippocratis Coi opera omnia. Credited to Lugduni Batavorum, 1665. Wellcome Library (London). In my opinion, nobody would have even sought for medicine, if the same diets (διαιτήµατα) had suited both the sick and those in health.”1 – Hippocrates, from the treatise…
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Jacarandas – a dream
In the year when the Olympic Games were held in Australia, the Jacarandas were in full bloom and their blue blossoms wafted through the air. At the Olympic campus an English boy and an Australian girl fell in love. Every night they would be seen walking through the cool air holding hands. Sometimes they went…
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Paul Ehrlich: from aniline dyes to the magic bullet
George Dunea Chicago, Illinois, United States Fig. 1, Phenylamine Fig. 2, Gown dyed with mauvine To understand Paul Ehrlich, the man who developed the first effective cure for syphilis, we must dial back to 1826. In that year, a German scientist called Otto Unverdoren isolated from indigo a volatile organic substance that smelled like…
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Nothing prepares you for this
Anne RooneyOak Park, Illinois, United States There are never enough beds. Seventy women lie side by side on the floor of a hospital ward intended for thirty patients. Some sleep on torn brown blankets on the cement floor. Those lucky enough to have a bed have neither sheets nor a pillow, only a wafer thin…
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Until I get my strength back
Anne L. Rooney Oak Park, Illinois, USA Hospice hands The emaciated woman lay scrunched in a fetal position with her back to me. I stood in the doorway to her cramped bedroom. “Hello, Loretta. Can I come in?” Loretta rolled over, squinting with suspicion. “You a nurse?” I nodded. “I’m a nurse who visits…
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Addressing hunger in Tamilnadu
Dhastagir Sultan Sheriff Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India “There’s enough food on this planet for everyone’s needs but not for everyone’s greed.” – Mohandas Gandhi Around 800 million people suffer from hunger globally, a number that may double by 2050. Chronic hunger creates a vicious cycle of malnutrition, stunted growth, and childhood death before the…
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He is not coming back
Jack Riggs Morgantown, West Virginia, United States US Military Hospital Kuwait (2005) surrounded by large concrete barriers with “seating” at base. These relatively private seats were the frequent site for all sorts of meetings; counseling sessions, grief reactions, friendly meetings, unfriendly meetings, gripe sessions, etc. (Author is middle individual in photo). “Good evening,…