Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Alabama

  • Out of the mouths of moms

    Alan BlumTuscaloosa, Alabama, United States For family physicians, even a routine well-baby check-up can be a heart-warming experience. Not only do we hear about the infant’s progress and catch up on things at home, but we also savor the unguarded moments such as those I tried to capture in these sketches. Click on an image…

  • Ladies in hats

    Alan BlumTuscaloosa, Alabama, United States I was encouraging an overweight patient in patent leather shoes with two-inch heels to start wearing sneakers instead, when she calmly reached into her totebag and pulled out a pair of Nikes. The pumps, she explained, were her “comin’-to-the-doctor shoes.” Her finest footwear was a sign of respect. Hats, too,…

  • Hematoxylin and Eosin Abstraction

    Lily MahlerBirmingham, Alabama, United States Hematoxylin and Eosin Abstraction is a watercolor piece inspired by the histopathology of a liver affected by hereditary hemochromatosis. Bands of deep blue iron deposits cut through a verdant garden of hepatocytes in this composition. LILY MAHLER is a fourth-year medical student at the University of Alabama School of Medicine…

  • Presentism

    Jayant RadhakrishnanChicago, Illinois, United States The Oxford English Dictionary defines presentism as “uncritical adherence to present-day attitudes, especially the tendency to interpret past events in terms of modern values and concepts.” The term may have been used as far back as the 1870s and applies to acts, beliefs, and people that were acceptable or even…

  • Alabama and the healing of memories

    Jack Coulehan Stony Brook, New York, United States T.S. Eliot’s poem “Burnt Norton” begins with the famous lines: “Time present and time past / Are both perhaps present in time future, / And time future contained in time past.” 1My memories  are a part of my present experience. I recall clinical experiences of all sorts, good…