October, 2020 - Hektoen International

Volume 12, Issue 4

October 29, 2020

Volume 12, Issue 4 – Fall 2020 ISSN 2155-3017 For information and announcements visit At a glance Frontispiece Ghirlandaio: the portrait of an elderly man and young boy, Vincent P. de Luise Syndrome de Lasthénie de Ferjol, Krishna G. Badami Learning about children, Canon Brodar Samuel Mudd MD: Good Samaritan or conspirator?, Kevin […]

The Siege

October 27, 2020

Glen P. Aylward Springfield, Illinois, United States The Siege reflects the battle society is currently waging against a formidable adversary—COVID-19. The colors indicate fear and frustration, but also hope. Front-line medical personnel wearing PPE are depicted in the background. The painting is acrylic on canvas. The Siege. Glen P. Aylward. Acrylic on canvas. […]

Parkinson’s

October 27, 2020

Glen P. Aylward Springfield, Illinois, United States In Parkinson’s, the colors express the emotional intensity and frustration experienced by those with Parkinson’s Disease, while the inflammation and anatomic components of the disease are also depicted by the shapes. I have experienced these emotions and symptoms since my diagnosis of PD 8 years ago. The […]

Notes on a first abortion

October 27, 2020

Henry Bair Stanford, California, United States Mother and Child by the Sea. Johan Christian Dahl. 1830. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public Domain. The first time I saw a late-term abortion by dilation and evacuation, I was surprised that it was a fairly minor procedure. I was to observe the termination at twenty-three weeks of […]

Best friends for never

October 27, 2020

Ariya Mobaraki Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States Three people contemplate the cadaver of Saint Petronilla. Etching by James Basire, 1764, after Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, il Guercino… Credit: Wellcome Collection. (CC BY 4.0) I stand looking over you, Wishing I could turn back time. Wondering what wisdom you would give me, Back in your prime. […]

Not as a Stranger: The desperate medical student

October 22, 2020

Howard Fischer Uppsala, Sweden Doctors or medical students listening to their heartbeats using a multiple stethoscope. Photograph. Credit: Wellcome Collection. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) In order to study medicine, a future doctor needs motivation, some intelligence, a medical school, and the ability to pay for the education. Morton Thompson’s 1954 novel Not […]

Schizophrenia in Nikolai Gogol’s Diary of a Madman and Lu Xun’s A Madman’s Diary

October 22, 2020

Janet Ming Guo Atlanta, Georgia, United States Photograph of Lu Xun on 8 October 1936, 11 days before his death, attending the Second Woodcarving Exhibition in Baxianqiao, Shanghai. Photograph taken by Sha Fei. Circa 8 October 1936. Public Domain. Wikimedia Commons. Lu Xun’s 狂人日記 (A Madman’s Diary; 1918)1 was inspired by Nikolai Gogol’s Записки […]

Coleridge and the albatross syndrome

October 21, 2020

Nicolás Roberto Robles Badajoz, Spain Figure 1. Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Contemporary portrait. Public Domain. Via Wikimedia Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the tenth and last child of the vicar of Ottery Saint Mary near Devonshire, England, was born on October 21, 1772. In vivid letters recounting his early years he describes himself as “a genuine Sans […]

“Looking at … Looking away”: a challenging and vital skill

October 21, 2020

Florence Gelo Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Alice Neel Self-Portrait. Alice Neel. 1980. Oil on canvas. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. © Estate of Alice Neel, 1980. For nearly a decade, I have used images of paintings to teach students in health care professions how to cultivate the skills of looking while learning to recognize their […]

Alfred Skirrow Robinson: the colorful life of a Roaring Twenties surgeon

October 20, 2020

Stephen Martin Durham, UK & Thailand Fig 1. Bentley Speed Six. Source: Craig Howell, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia In 1926 my grandfather started work for Dr. A.S. Robinson in Redcar, a small town on the Yorkshire coast. The doctor needed a driver—at least that was the plan at first. He sent him for a […]