Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Month: October 2019

  • It is good to be the king: the French surgical revolution

    Julius Bonello Ayesha Hasan Peoria, Illinois, United States   Charles-François Tassy, Source: Wiki A belief held by the common people is that it is good to be royalty, a sentiment supported by descriptions in novels and depictions in movies. The best food, the finest clothes, and the most extravagant and opulent dwelling in the kingdom…

  • Medicinal leeches in art and literature

    Martin DukeMystic, Connecticut, United States For more than two thousand years, the extraordinary blood-sucking abilities of the medicinal leech (Hirudo medicinalis) provided physicians with an unusual if not bizarre alternative to venesection, cupping, and scarification for blood-letting their patients (Figure 1). This therapeutic use of leeches was described in the writings of Hippocrates, Galen, Nicander…

  • of little significance

    Vamsi ReddyKeri JonesAugusta, Georgia, United States VAMSI REDDY is a third-year medical student at the Medical College of Georgia. He completed his undergraduate education at Augusta University in the inaugural class of the BS/MD accelerated medical program. Vamsi enjoys the beauty which pervades through the medical field and has taken to trying to capture a glimpse…

  • The psychological impact of facial injury in the First World War: outcomes from the Queen’s Hospital, Sidcup

    Andrew Bamji Rye, East Sussex, UK   Figure 1. Aerial view of the Queen’s Hospital, c.1920. The operating theatres are in the horseshoe to the left centre of the photograph. Figure 2. The Plastic Theatre.   Modern warfare, and in particular the use of artillery employed against entrenched troops in the First World War, resulted…

  • From here

    Rasa Rafie Colorado, United States   Copies after Illustrations of Statues and Paintings (recto); Measurements for a Man’s Skeleton (verso). After Gerard de Lairesse. N.d. The Art Institute of Chicago. Public Domain. In college, we were the top of our class, the winners of scholarships and awards, the leaders of campus organizations. We were the…

  • Preparing for the unexpected

    Anthony Papagiannis Thessaloniki, Greece   Sunset in Halkidiki, Greece, Fall 2019. Photo by Anthony Papagiannis. Working in specialist medical practice one is familiar with the spectrum of clinical problems likely to appear in one’s regular professional menu. However, it is common knowledge that unexpected situations do occur: the human body and being is complex and…

  • Theme

    AMERICAN HEART PIONEERS Published in November, 2019 H E K T O R A M A     .     ALFRED BLALOCK & VIVIEN THOMAS     1930 Nashville. A twenty-year old African American man, honors student, and son of a carpenter had his eyes set on becoming a physician. This was not unfounded.…

  • Did Casimir Pulaski have 21-hydroxylase deficiency?

    Gregory RuteckiLyndhurst, Ohio, United States “. . . I could not submit to stoop before the sovereigns of Europe, so I came to hazard all the freedom of America, and desirous of passing the rest of my life in a country truly free and before settling as a citizen, to fight for liberty.”1 -Casimir Pulaski…

  • Should primary hyperaldosteronism be renamed Litynski-Conn Syndrome?

    Gregory RuteckiLyndhurst, Ohio, United States Michael Litynski M.D. was born in 1906 in Lodz, Poland. As a physician during World War II, he joined the Polish Resistance. He treated resistance fighters and was active during the infamous Warsaw Uprising in 1945. Dr. Litynski was also awarded the Yad Vashem medal for his brave efforts on…

  • “The Sick Child” in Scandinavian art

    Göran WettrellSweden Within Western figurative pictorial art there has long been an interest in showing sick children, their psychological attitudes, the effects on the family, and indeed the very reality of disease. One of the best known works on  this subject is by Gabriel Metsu (1629-1667) of the Dutch Golden Age of painting. Titled The…