Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Alabama

  • Out of the mouths of moms

    Alan Blum Tuscaloosa, 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…

  • Ladies in hats

    Alan Blum Tuscaloosa, 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.…

  • Hematoxylin and Eosin Abstraction

    Lily Mahler Birmingham, 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. Hematoxylin and Eosin Abstraction (2020) Lily Mahler, MS4 at University of Alabama School of…

  • Presentism

    Jayant Radhakrishnan Chicago, Illinois, United States   “Elihu Yale; William Cavendish, the second Duke of Devonshire; Lord James Cavendish; Mr. Tunstal; and an Enslaved Servant” Previously hung at Woodbridge Hall of Yale University. Now at the Yale center for British Art. Yale Center for British Art, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons  The Oxford English Dictionary…

  • Alabama and the healing of memories

    Jack Coulehan  Stony Brook, New York, United States   Hospital ward, circa 1969. 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…