The invisible manager
Javishkar Reddy Johannesburg, South Africa Photo by meo from Pexels When I was twelve, I was hit on the head by a cricket ball. A few days later, I had my first seizure. Over the years, I have had many attacks, which have resulted in three chipped teeth, a cracked skull, a dislocated shoulder, […]
Spirituality in medicine
Gautam Sen Kolkata, India Doctor-patient bonhomie is beneficial for both. Photo by Thirdman from Pexels. Imagine a hospitalized patient in the advanced stages of a difficult disease. He wonders whether he will survive and, if he does, in what state he will spend the remainder of his life. Alone in bed, he sometimes finds […]
Doctor-patient reunions
Anthony Papagiannis Thessaloniki, Greece Sunset. Photo by Anthony Papagiannis The upper half of the face I could see behind the Covid-dictated mask did not tell me much, but the surname she gave rang a clear bell. I had seen several members of a family of the same name in the past, and looking into […]
In sickness and in health: misogyny in medicine
Shreya Sharma Ontario, Canada Image by Rene Asmussen from Pixabay “You see, he does not believe I am sick! And what can one do?”1 These words, spoken by the unnamed narrator of Charlotte Perkin Gilman’s 1892 short story The Yellow Wallpaper, could have been articulated by many women about their medical experiences. Women have […]
A confession from a patient of atopic dermatitis
Yen-Hsiang Wang Taipei, Taiwan Photo by the author I am one of the ten to twenty percent of people in the world with atopic dermatitis. Allergies to environmental factors such as dust mites and certain foods contribute to this condition. Immune function is also an important factor, as evidenced by immunoglobulin E (IgE) and […]
Painting an ICU
Mark Tan Northwest Deanery, England, United Kingdom Claude Monet’s Japanese Bridge and Water Lilies from 1899. Princeton University Art Museum. Wikipedia. “[Monet was] only an eye – yet what an eye.” — Paul Cézanne Much has been written about Claude Monet’s ophthalmic pathology.1-4 However, attributing his stylistic development to cataracts alone seems an overly […]
The man who hated hospital
Emeka Chibuikem V. Enugu State, Nigeria Our Beautiful Life. Photo by Yusuff Suleiman. 2018. CC BY-SA 4.0. Via Wikimedia. An emergency patient was in critical condition. The staff nurse on duty moved swiftly to attend to him. Then she went to the waiting hall to meet with the patient’s family and asked them why […]
Closed mouth, open heart
Ellen Hitt Tucson, Arizona, United States One of the many beautiful symbols of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, marking the entrance to their health department. Photo by author, Ellen Hitt As a child, my life was uprooted every three years. I said goodbye to my friends, my school, and life as I knew it as […]
Memories of a West Virginia coal camp
Calvin Kunin Columbus, Ohio, United States Coal town, Eastern Kentucky. Photo by Don Sniegowski. March 21, 2018. Via Flickr. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 This is a brief account of my experience as a physician at a coal mining camp in rural West Virginia. It is based on my memory of events that took place almost […]
Hispanic, Latin, Latino, Latina, or Latinx?
Bernardo Ng Imperial County, California, United States Hispanic/Latinx Heritage Month Celebration 2019. Photo by CSUF Photos. Via Flickr. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. The first time I became aware of a scientific group using the term Latinx was in 2018 during a meeting in Austin, Texas. It is a gender-neutral alternative to Latino or Latina that […]