Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Cancer

  • A good man

    Tuhina Raman Philadelphia, PA, USA   The Liquor Bar by Wharton H. Esherick. Illustration for the book Song of the Broad-Axe by Walt Whitman. c. 1923. Philadelphia Museum of Art. My heart sank as soon as I saw it—tumor nodules in the trachea and a mass eroding through the stent in his airway. I had…

  • Maimed

    Laura Wendorff Platteville, Wisconsin, United States   Your friend says, Photo by Laura Wendorff think of the Amazons who cut off their right breasts in order to easily draw back their bows. But the loss is not like that. It’s more like a flower dug out of the ground, soil still clinging to its roots…

  • Chemo room

    Sarah Smith Pike Road, Alabama, United States   Chemotherapy iv. National Cancer Institute. Photo Credit: Linda Bartlett Cancer makes me glad I am fat. Mr. Weiss, two chairs down from Jack and me today, does not agree. Two months ago, Mr. Weiss tried to convince me of the importance of keeping in shape and maintaining a healthy…

  • Taking a History in the ICU: Social: Does your husband still smoke?

    Sophia Valesca Görgens Atlanta, Georgia, United States   Photo by Alex Blăjan on Unsplash He smokes when he thinks I’m not looking, she tells me, then glances at him as if expecting him to contradict her but the ventilator is pressed to his face and his eyes are lidded dim with midazolam for sedation, fentanyl…

  • Campbell de Morgan (1811-1876)

    Bust of Campbell De Morgan, presented to the Middlesex Hospital by John Graham Lough Described as a man of great accomplishment and unusual ability, Campbell de Morgan was a surgeon and a professor at the Middlesex Hospital in London. His main interest was neoplasia, and he participated in the debate on whether cancer arises locally…

  • here

    Slavena Salve Nissan New York, New York, United States   “with her grandfather in the lobby of the cancer building“ this is the third time this week a baby girl in a pink hat with her grandfather in the lobby of the cancer building me at the table next to them tuna sandwich unwrapped but…

  • Margaret Edson’s W;t: lessons on person-centered care

    Atara Messinger Toronto, Ontario, Canada     “She slips off her bracelet. She loosens the ties and the top gown slides to the floor.” American playwright Margaret Edson’s 1998 play W;t has been described as “ninety minutes of suffering and death mitigated by a pelvic exam and a lecture on seventeenth-century poetry.”1 When W;t was…

  • Shaking hands

    Anthony Papagiannis Thessaloniki, Greece     Alonissos Island, the Aegean, Greece There is a fine but clearly visible tremor in the pale, smooth, well-groomed hands of my visitor. He makes an effort to keep his face still and composed, lips forcedly stiff, eyes unsmiling, the whole look somber. “I have had a new scan,” he…

  • Not by blood

    Simon EdberPittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States Raven knows exactly how she joined the family: “She didn’t want me so she took me to the hospital, and then you came and bought me from the hospital.” Well, almost exactly. “I didn’t buy you,” Cathy corrects her from across the room, smiling but not daring to laugh. Even…

  • Aspects of distancing

    Anthony Papagiannis Thessaloniki, Greece   Corfu Island, Greece. Author Photo. I will call him Bill. We had been unaware of each other’s existence until we first met as elected members of a professional committee in our local medical association. In this capacity we had been working together for several years, convening every two or three months…