October, 2021 - Hektoen International

Pursuing Hualapai tigers in the Mule Mountains

October 22, 2021

Stephen A. Klotz Justin O. Schmidt Tucson, Arizona, United States Figure 1. The culprit. Adult Triatoma recurva. Photo by Jillian Cowles. Published with permission. Every Monday afternoon after returning to my office from infectious disease clinic, I would find pickle jars and yogurt containers on my desk. Upon removing the lids and peering in, I […]

Gruesome traditional medical practices in Nigeria

October 21, 2021

Ofor, Joshua Obase-Otumoyi Calabar, Nigeria Hamar woman with scarification in Turmi, Ethiopia. 2012. Photo by Bernard Gagnon. Via Wikimedia. CC BY-SA 3.0. Among the various traditional practices that victimize women and girls in Nigeria, female genital mutilation (FGM) is the most reprehensible. It consists of removing part or all of the sensitive female genital […]

The Sufi healers of Sudan: caring for those without care

October 21, 2021

Ahmed Elhag Albany County, New York, United States Fig 1. Dervishes in Omdurman, Sudan gather at the Shrine of Shiekh Hamid Nil, a 19th century Sufi Saint of the Qadriyya Sufi order. Photo by the author. Traditional medicine has been the dominant form of healthcare for much of human history. To many today, traditional […]

Pain versus survival

October 21, 2021

Marissa Armoogam Trinidad & Tobago, West Indies Painting of Jan De Doot by Carel van Savoyen. 1650s. Portrait Collection of the Laboratory of Pathology, Leiden University. Via Wikimedia. Pain has long been a given in any surgical procedure, but thanks to the many advances in medicine and particularly in anesthesia, the experience of insurmountable […]

Modern day obstinacy: the persistence of pangalintaw

October 21, 2021

Halima Abdulmaguid North Cotabato, Philippines A Doctor’s Substitute by Mr. Jihad Pangandigan. In the first week of June, my mother was rushed to the hospital because her cough was getting worse and her shoulder pain no longer bearable. On her x-ray film we saw that half of her lungs were not visible; there was fluid […]

Sister Kenny: the forgotten Nightingale

October 21, 2021

Anand Raja Devaraj Sushama Kerala, India Elizabeth Kenny photographed in 1915. Unknown photographer. Item held by John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland. Medical practices flourish and fall out of favor with time. Some become the norm only to turn redundant later; others prevail after a hard battle for acceptance. A campaign is even […]

Handmaidens of anatomy

October 21, 2021

Elisabeth Brander St. Louis, Missouri, United States Fig. 1 Frontispiece of De humani corporis fabrica. Andreas Vesalius. De humani corporis fabrica. Basel: Johannes Oporinus, 1543. Image Credit: Bernard Becker Medical Library. Some of the most well-known images in the history of anatomy are the woodcut écorché figures that appear in Andreas Vesalius’s De humani […]

Dr. Joycelyn Elders: An unwelcome prophet

October 21, 2021

Howard Fischer Uppsala, Sweden Joycelyn Elders, former U.S. Surgeon General. From the National Institutes of Health. Via Wikimedia. Public domain. “No prophet is welcome in his hometown.” — The Gospel of Saint Luke, 4:24. New American Standard Bible Joycelyn Elders, MD (b. 1933) was Surgeon General of the United States of America from […]

Novice doctor at Guy’s Hospital in 1964

October 21, 2021

Hugh Tunstall-Pedoe Dundee, Scotland, United Kingdom Fig 1. “Entrance into that most noble Public Charity and admirable Medical Establishment Guy’s Hospital” Founded 1721 by Thomas Guy it was intended for the incurables rejected by neighboring St. Thomas’s Hospital—the foreground scene shows this restriction had ceased. The building on the east (left), Boland House was […]

Was Moses an alchemist?

October 21, 2021

S.E.S. Medina Benbrook, Texas, United States Worshiping the golden calf, as in Exodus 32:1-35. Illustration from a Bible card published 1901 by the Providence Lithograph Company. Via Wikimedia. “And he took the (golden) calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and scattered it upon the […]