February, 2021 - Hektoen International

Winston Churchill’s Illnesses

February 25, 2021

Arpan K. Banerjee Solihull, United Kingdom Cover: Winston Churchill’s Illnesses by A. Vale and J. Scadding. Winston Churchill was one of the most important political figures of the twentieth century. As such, it is not surprising that he has been the subject of many biographies that have chronicled his life and many achievements, most […]

The trouble with the belly button

February 25, 2021

Tonse N. K. Raju Gaithersburg, Maryland, United States It is a simple dimple in the mid-abdomen. Yet for medieval artists, it caused mighty headaches while painting portraits of Adam and Eve. Painting the dimple as a natural anatomic feature could be construed as sacrilegious, implying that Adam and Eve were connected by umbilical cords […]

Hematoxylin and Eosin Abstraction

February 24, 2021

Lily Mahler Birmingham, Alabama, United States Hematoxylin and Eosin Abstraction is a watercolor piece inspired by the histopathology of a liver affected by hereditary hemochromatosis. Bands of deep blue iron deposits cut through a verdant garden of hepatocytes in this composition. Hematoxylin and Eosin Abstraction (2020) Lily Mahler, MS4 at University of Alabama School of […]

Goals of care

February 23, 2021

Leah Grant Portland, Oregon Photo by Jake Thacker on Unsplash It was the beginning of my intern year and I felt like an impostor. Facing new responsibilities in both the hospital and clinic, I was aware of my lack of experience when patients asked for my medical opinion. But as I began to see […]

Lawson Tait, father of aseptic surgery and gynecology

February 22, 2021

Robert Lawson Tait. via Wikimedia. Robert Lawson Tait was fifth in a dynasty of pioneers who helped transform surgery from a primitive craft to a sophisticated life-saving art. They all worked for a time at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary—James Syme (the “Napoleon of Surgery”), Robert Liston (“time me, gentlemen”), James Simpson (“made childbirth painless”), and […]

Milwaukee’s unlikely public health advocate

February 18, 2021

Lea Dacy Rochester, MN, United States Upper left: The author’s mother, Rita Troiano, a year or so after the incident at the Sunflower Inn; Lower left: the author’s grandparents, Philip and Evelyn Troiano, ca. 1928, both from the author’s personal collection. Right: Helen Cromwell at the Sunflower Inn, Feral House Publishing, used with permission. […]

A note on medical metaphors

February 18, 2021

JMS Pearce Hull, England Cafe au lait patches in NF1. © 1993-2021, University of Washington, Seattle. From GeneReviews. Source. When Winston Churchill memorably referred to his bouts of depression as “black dog,” in two words he painted a picture that embraced feelings, which otherwise would have taken hundreds of words to describe. I have to […]

Twins

February 18, 2021

John Graham-Pole Clydesdale, Nova Scotia, Canada Artwork by Susan Napier. Published with permission. Why was she taken? While you remain to question me for your school project? Renee had a project. Her seventh-grade class had been set the task of composing an essay on some aspect of American society. She had settled on tackling […]

Abraham Lincoln’s smallpox

February 17, 2021

Howard Fischer Uppsala, Sweden Abraham Lincoln and his son Tad looking at an album of photographs. Anthony Berger. 1864. Library of Congress. A brutal, bloody civil war had been tearing the United States of America apart for two years when President Abraham Lincoln arrived in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on November 19, 1863. Four months before […]

Giorgio Baglivi and The Practice of Physick

February 16, 2021

James Marcum Waco, Texas, United States Figure 1. Illustration of Giorgio Baglivi from The Practice of Physick by Giorgio Baglivi. Scan courtesy of James A. Marcum “To form a right Judgment of Diseases, is a very difficult Matter.” With this opening sentence, Giorgio Baglivi (Figure 1) began his 1696 treatise De Praxi Medica, which […]