Month: March 2024
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George Orwell: An attempt at a diagnosis
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “It’s better to die violently and not too old…‘natural’ death, almost by definition, means something slow, smelly and painful.”– George Orwell, “How the poor die,” 1946 Many readers of the English author George Orwell (1903–1950) know that he died of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB). He wrote Animal Farm, 1984, four other novels, three…
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Unequal encounter: An initiation
Hugh Tunstall-PedoeDundee, Scotland In October 1961, I started at Guy’s Hospital Medical School in London for three years of clinical training. I was at the very bottom of the clinical hierarchy and put straight onto a surgical ward as a first-year ward clerk responsible for clerking admissions, junior to the third-year senior dressers on the…
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Encephalitis lethargica: The sweating sickness of the 1920s?
Philip LiebsonChicago, Illinois, United States Epidemics may come and go, magically disappear, and sometimes recur. An example of this was the “sweating sickness” of sixteenth century Europe. Another example closer to our time was encephalitis lethargica, occurring as an epidemic in the late 1910s and early 1920s followed by only sporadic cases. Sporadic cases of…
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Musings from my first, on doctor-patient relationships
Hugh Tunstall-PedoeDundee, Scotland It was my very first patient. I had started my clinical training at Guy’s Hospital medical school in 1961 in London by being put straight onto a surgical ward. The patient was a Bermondsey Cockney dock worker who had a benign tumour to be removed—a neurofibroma. I examined him and read it…
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Room 460
Megan RizerGainesville, Florida, United States Every time I walked by Mr. L’s hospital room, I heard the Game Show Network blasting on television. The Price is Right, Press Your Luck, Wheel of Fortune—some rerun of an old game show was always on. I had been helping to take care of him for several weeks, rounding…
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The Bancroft doctors: Edward, Daniel, and Nathaniel
Jonathan DavidsonDurham, North Carolina, United States Quercitin is a flavonoid compound derived from quercitron, found in many plants and vegetables. It possesses anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and other effects and has possible therapeutic value.1 Quercitin not only has medicinal properties, but for almost 100 years was the chief coloring agent used in the textile and printing industry.…
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Rene Favaloro—Father of cardiac bypass surgery
Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, England Over the last century, there have been many important contributions to medicine made by Argentinians. Of these Rene Geronimo Favaloro’s must surely be of the greatest, and his work on cardiac bypass surgery has saved countless of lives. Born of Sicilian ancestry on July 12, 1923, in La Plata, Argentina, Favaloro…
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Notable achievements by people who have lost an upper limb
Avi OhryTel Aviv, Israel Working for the last fifty years in rehabilitation medicine and playing the drums in two jazz bands, I have always looked for stories of people who, in spite of chronic illness or disability, have accomplished much in art, music, politics, or science.1-3 Some of these include those who have achieved without…
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Carl Linnaeus—The young botanist, natural scientist, and physician
Göran WettrellLund, Sweden Carolus Linnaeus, ennobled Carl von Linné in 1761, is one of the great sons of Sweden. At an early age, he demonstrated an interest in nature and plants. His lifelong passion was the ordering and classification of plants, animals, minerals, and diseases. Young Linnaeus Linnaeus was born in a small village in…
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Dialysis
Saher LalaniToronto, Canada for Bapu He is eighty and on dialysis.Bound to machines andfrequents the hospital. He gasps while coughing.All I can do is give himwater and some tissue. He wipes his mouth, seatedupright, resting in a chair.Then, silence ensues. He points to the table.Remember the Eid feast? Foodie at heart,he must crave foodsnow not…