Category: Fiction
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Leaving medicine
Dean GianakosLynchburg, Virginia, United States It is February in Boston, and the snow is coming down hard. From his office window, Tom shakes his head and watches a car spin its wheels in the middle of the road. Next week, he will be in southern California for a medical meeting. “I’m so done with this,”…
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Meshamorphosis
Leo GordonLos Angeles, California, United States As Dr. Sylvia Samsa, Chief of Surgery at the Metropolitan Medical Center, awoke one morning from uneasy dreams, she found herself transformed in her bed into a piece of synthetic mesh. Dr. Sylvia Samsa, Chief of Surgery at the famed Metropolitan Medical Center, awoke last Tuesday morning, lying flat…
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Lonely physician
Dean GianakosLynchburg, Virginia, United States Jack wakes up early Sunday morning to walk along the Carolina shore. The sand feels cool under his bare feet. He passes a fisherman preparing flies for his pole. He stops to watch the brilliant orange sun rise over the horizon. The blue green ocean is still. Gently kicking the…
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Ambroise Paré, father of modern surgery
Trisha SebastianSan Jose, California, United States As I stepped into the field hospital I was met at once by the smell rotting of human flesh. I had seen these people die every day, and I wished I could to do something to prevent so many dead bodies from piling up in the nearby cathedral graveyard.…
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Momma’s rocking chair
Frances NadelPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, United States January 21, 1929 Poverty lurks in every corner of the Johnson’s one-room house. Even if mother and baby survive this night, winter will continue to prey at their door. The room grows darker as the fire falters to orange ash, and I place the last log—more like a thick branch—on…
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Jobber
Eli Daniel EhrenpreisSkokie, Illinois, United States One who performs odd jobs or piece work; a derogatory term for a wrestler who is booked to lose a match. “Thank you for seeing us.” “Of course, that’s what I do.” Her son sits quietly, holding a small toy plane that he moves around in wide arcs. Then he…
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The disease called poverty
Olufolakayomi Christiana ThomasLagos State, Nigeria It is a hot Friday afternoon in Lagos, Nigeria. Everyone is gearing up for the weekend and already starting to leave work. The clinic staff does this each week under the guise of attending Friday Jumat prayers, even though the clinic does not officially close for three more hours, and…
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Amy Sage
Eli EhrenpreisChicago, Illinois, United States During my medical training in the 90s, Amy Sage was a real standout. She was a fellow in the gastroenterology program at the university hospital. She was tall, muscular, and had blonde hair. She had quite a presence at work, parking her motorcycle on the street near the hospital, walking…
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Romantique
Jonathan B. FerriniLa Jolla, California, United States “I live in a world of spring showers of acrylic and watercolor droplets painting the score on the pavement of a Chopin nocturne.” These were the last words my brother Marshal spoke to me ten years ago at our dad’s funeral. I welcomed the opportunity to see him…
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A celebrated occasion
Eli EhrenpreisChicago, Illinois, United States She arrives at the office early, looking as if she stepped from a portrait. Her blue eyes glimmer with tears. “My gynecologist has been treating me for hemorrhoids, but the bleeding has been getting worse. It started when I had my boys.” This is not usually a serious problem at…