Month: August 2022
-
Jane Eyre and tuberculosis
Afsheen Zafar Rawalpindi, Pakistan I had just put down my pen after the last patient left the room. She somehow reminded me of the Brontë sisters. She had been diagnosed with tuberculous axillary lymphadenitis after a biopsy but otherwise seemed to be in perfect health. Apparently she was not much disturbed by the diagnosis…
-
Dr. Alice Miller on Hitler’s childhood
Howard Fischer Uppsala, Sweden “All it took was a Führer’s madness and several million well-raised Germans to extinguish the lives of countless millions of innocent human beings in the space of a few short years.” – Alice Miller, Ph.D. Jewish women and children removed from a bunker. From the Stroop Report, a report…
-
Out of the mouths of moms
Alan Blum Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States For family physicians, even a routine well-baby check-up can be a heart-warming experience. Not only do we hear about the infant’s progress and catch up on things at home, but we also savor the unguarded moments such as those I tried to capture in these sketches. Click on…
-
The surgeon’s photograph of the Loch Ness monster
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “Whatever is the truth, there is no denying that Nessie will continue to intrigue the world for years to come.”– Johnathan Bright, Oxford Internet Institute Loch Ness, at thirty-seven kilometers long and 230 meters deep at its deepest point, is the second largest lake in Scotland.1 Stories about a creature of great…
-
Book review: The Facemaker: One Surgeon’s Battle to Mend the Disfigured Soldiers of World War I
Howard Fischer Uppsala, Sweden Facsimile of a wax teaching model made by Sergeant Thomas H. Kelsey for the New Zealand Medical Corps facial and jaw injury unit, c. 1917. British National Army Museum Copyright, released under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. “A chirurgien should have…the harte of a lyin…the eyes of a hawke…[and] the hands…
-
Book review: Ethel Gordon Fenwick: Nursing Reformer and the First Registered Nurse
Arpan K. Banerjee Solihull, United Kingdom Book cover of Ethel Gordon Fenwick: Nursing Reformer and the First Registered Nurse by Jenny Main. With the exception of Florence Nightingale and more recently of Mary Seacole, relatively few biographies have been written about pioneering nurses. Yet there have been many others who made great contributions to…
-
Diagnosing Mona Lisa
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “Mona Lisa looks as if she has just been sick, or is about to be.”– Noel Coward Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) was a many-talented genius of the Italian Renaissance. He was a painter, anatomist, engineer, and inventor. One of his best known paintings, a portrait of a noblewoman, is called the Mona…