Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Bronchoscopy

  • America’s first bronchoscopist

    J. Gordon FriersonPalo Alto, California, United States One day, in the tough coal-mining city of Pittsburgh of the early 1900s, two Sisters of Mercy brought an emaciated, severely dehydrated, seven-year-old girl to a doctor’s office. Sometime earlier the girl had swallowed lye, thinking it was sugar, and the ensuing inflammation and scarring had all but…

  • Brief encounters

    Anthony PapagiannisThessaloniki, Greece Doctor-patient relationships are as unique as the potential pairs of doctors and patients. At one end of the spectrum there is the one-time encounter, usually for some straightforward and self-limiting problem: the doctor may never see the patient again. At the other extreme, a lifelong bondage of chronic conditions may bring the…