Category: Surgery
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William Bradley Coley: Visionary or snake oil salesman?
Jayant RadhakrishnanChicago, Illinois, United States Dr. William Bradley Coley graduated with a B.A. in the Classics from Yale College. He then taught Latin and Greek in Portland, Oregon, for two years before entering Harvard Medical School. After completing the three-year Harvard course in two years, he passed a competitive examination and was appointed an intern…
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The surgeon
Joseph RumenappChicago, Illinois, United States He kicked the scrub sink again—only a trickle. He missed the smell of the iodine in the morning, almost as much as he missed the chill of the operating room itself. “Don’t bother, Doc,” the scrub nurse chimed behind him. “You won’t be touching sterile anyway.” He walked into the…
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Burn
Arthur WilliamsCincinnati, Ohio, United States Adapted from a chapter of the novel Krooked Ketamine (self-published, 2024) by Arthur Williams. As a surgeon, I have performed a fair amount of skin grafts over the years. To need a skin graft, a person has to have sustained a serious injury, usually a terribly painful burn or an…
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Sushruta, the father of rhinoplasty
Matthew TurnerHershey, Pennsylvania, United States From around 1000–800 BC, a golden age of medicine dawned in ancient India, where ayurveda, the “science of life,” flourished.1 At the heart of this revolution was the legendary physician Sushruta, whose writings in the famous Samhita describe surgeries from cataract removal to treatment of bladder stones, diseases including diabetes…
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Bioarchaeological findings support ancient representations of surgical limb amputation, part two: Examples from the New World
Peter de SmetNijmegen, Netherlands See Part One for examples from the Old World Case 4: Finger amputation among the ancient Maya Iconography1 The vessel in Fig. 1 is in the collections of the Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin (inv.no. IV Ca 15186 a). It was found to contain the phalanges of a little finger together with…
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Bioarchaeological findings support ancient representations of surgical limb amputation, part one: Examples from the Old World
Peter de SmetNijmegen, Netherlands See Part Two for examples from the New World Surgical amputation is defined here as the cutting or chopping off a protruding part of the body (as a whole or partial limb). It has been known for a long time that surgical amputees can be represented in the artifacts of ancient…
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Ophthalmic surgeon Evan Harries Harries-Jones
Frederick O’DellNorthampton, United Kingdom “If Evan Harries Harries-Jones had lived for one more day, he would have completed half-a-century’s service as ophthalmic surgeon to the Northampton General Hospital…”1 Born in 1874 in Rhyl, in the county of Flintshire, Wales, Harries-Jones was proud of being Welsh and was fluent in the Welsh language.2 He commenced his…
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The scorn of slow stitches
Anthony GulottaBethesda, Maryland, United States As a third-year medical student on my first surgery rotation, I had been standing consecutively for almost three hours. Until now, I had stood silent, watching as the attending surgeon excised a gangrenous gallbladder. Then, my focus was rapidly disrupted. “Over here!” bellowed the surgeon. I was being called to suture for the very…
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The name of gratitude
Giulio NicitaFlorence, Italy Florence was covered in a blanket of snow. Only three patients were sitting in Guido’s waiting room. Others had canceled because of the weather. A young pregnant woman waited with her husband and was soon ushered into the office. When the couple was seated at the doctor’s desk, he asked the woman…
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Denis Burkitt, surgeon and epidemiologist (1911–1993)
At the age of forty-three, Denis Burkitt acquired eponymous immortality by having an important disease named after him. Born in Northern Ireland in 1911, he received an early education in a highly religious family that emphasized prayer, study of the Bible, and service to others. At age eleven he suffered a serious accident when someone…