Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Category: Cardiology

  • The vaudeville revue

    Terry WahlsIowa, United States My partner, Jackie, asks Grandma if she would like to come with her to watch the dress rehearsal for the Vaudeville Revue. Since my children, Zach and Zebby, were toddlers we have called my mom “Grandma.” I thought it was less confusing to my kids to have me use the term…

  • Defibrillation and Treadmill

    Stuart RosenbushChicago, Illinois, United States   Artist’s statement “Treadmill” tries to serve as a metaphor for human experiences, with varying paths and roads, ups and downs and surprises. “Defibrillation” is a pictorial representation of a disruptive, abnormal heart beat, triggering a potentially fatal, irregular heart rhythm—which is successfully restored to normal by an electrical discharge.…

  • Saving hearts and art

    Maria Serratto-BenvenutoRiccardo BenvenutoChicago, Illinois, United States In 1960 a girl was born in the small commune of Mele, some 25 miles from Genoa. She had a heart murmur and her skin was blue. The doctors in Italy declared her condition inoperable, and according to the practice of the time she was confined to her bed.…

  • History of endocarditis

    Ramin SamCalifornia, United States Until the advent of the 19th century there had been autopsy reports of patients who may had suffered from infective endocarditis, but little was known of the disease and there had been no description of it.1 By the beginning of the 20th century, however, infective endocarditis had become a well described…

  • Paul Dudley White

    Philip R. LiebsonChicago, Illinois, United States In September 1955 President Dwight Eisenhower suffered a myocardial infarction. Dr. Paul Dudley White (1886–1973) was called in to attend to him. For a time, Dr. White was probably the most famous cardiologist in the US because of his attendance to the president. A noted photograph of him at…

  • Samuel A. Levine

    Philip R. LiebsonChicago, Illinois, United States In an era where the use of imaging and other technological testing frequently takes the place of bedside diagnosis, it is intriguing to recall the state of cardiovascular diagnosis when the clinician relied on his or her eyes, ears, and hands—with a little help from the stethoscope and electrocardiogram.…

  • Dr. Robert E. Gross and first operations in cardiovascular surgery

    Philip R. LiebsonChicago, Illinois, United States There is a myth that Dr. Robert E. Gross (1905-1988), a Harvard surgeon, performed the first cardiovascular surgery. There is no question that he performed the first successful major operation on the great vessels near the heart in which the patient survived, the ligation of a patent ductus arteriosus…

  • Christiaan Barnard and the first heart transplant

    Philip R. LiebsonChicago, Illinois, United States In 1968 while I was a cardiology fellow at the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, there was a buzz of excitement—Christiaan Barnard was coming to talk about his heart transplants! Our chief cardiovascular surgeon at the time was C. Walton Lillehei, no slouch of a surgeon himself, who had…

  • Adrian Kantrowitz: The IABA and the LVAD

    Philip R. LiebsonChicago, Illinois, United States I first met Dr. Adrian Kantrowitz at my fourth-year surgery oral examination. He was one of three interviewers, and although I was sure that I failed the exam, he assured me that I had done well. I next met him almost 10 years later when I was a junior…

  • Cournand and Richards: Pioneers in cardiopulmonary physiology

    Philip R. LiebsonChicago, Illinois, United States During World War I among the allied forces were an artillery lieutenant just out of college and a medical student who acted as an auxiliary battle surgeon because of the high mortality among battalion surgeons. They were, respectively, Dickinson W. Richards, Jr. (1895—1973) and Andre Cournand (1895—1988). Eventually they…