Tag: code
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The night the emergency room staff vanished
Edward TaborBethesda, Maryland One of the strangest events of my medical career occurred on a spring evening in 1975. It was during one of my outpatient months as a pediatric resident at a large medical center in New York City. During the day, I took… Read more
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Jaws and galeophobia
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “Ignorance is the parent of fear.”– Herman Melville, Moby Dick The 1975 thriller film, Jaws, takes place in a New England summer resort town. People flock to the beach, and two swimmers are killed by sharks. A marine biologist brought in to… Read more
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“No one should approach the temple of science with the soul of a money-changer”: Who said it first?
Robert SchellBrooklyn, New York In these days of rampant biomedical commercialization, the Bible-inspired admonition “No one should approach the temple of science with the soul of a money-changer” takes on added urgency. The quotation’s usual attribution to Sir Thomas Browne, the seventeenth-century English physician-writer, gives… Read more
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George Redmayne Murray and “myxœdema”
JMS PearceHull, England The transformation from myxedema to normal health is one of the most satisfying experiences for patient and physician that medicine has to offer. Yet until the end of the nineteenth century, the function of the thyroid gland was unknown. In the wake… Read more
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“You will be alright”
Swetha KannanAjman, United Arab Emirates “Will my daughter be alright?” asked the anxious mother, trying to hold back her tears. A young girl in her early twenties, so petite and frail that her body seemed to be like a sole pearl in a large sea.… Read more
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Wounded healer
Brandon MuncanStony Brook, New York Since Plato, the notion of a sufferer helping the suffering has been proposed as one of the more skillful ways of helping a patient through an illness.1 Although this concept has been discussed since the time of Athenian philosophy, the… Read more
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Dr. David Hartley and the benevolent AI
Erik AndersonHouston, Texas Question posed to ChatGPT: What is the “Golden Rule”?ChatGPT answer*: The “Golden Rule” is a principle found in many different cultures and ethical traditions and often phrased as “Treat others as you would like to be treated.”1 Presently, artificial intelligence (AI) applications… Read more
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The fainting medical student
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “Fall backward if you faint, and not across the patient.”1—Surgeon Sir Lancelot Sprat, in the film Doctor in the House The squeamishness of the beginning medical student or intern during the dissection of a cadaver or in the operating room has become… Read more
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Is a bigger brain better?
Matimba Molly ChilalaNdola, Zambia Does intelligence depend on the size and dimensions of the brain? According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, intelligence can be defined as the ability to understand or deal with novel or trying situations. It is also described as a mental quality that… Read more
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The two Sylvius anatomists
Buried deep in the cobwebs of medical history lies the persisting misconception that a single person called Sylvius made important advances in the discipline of anatomy. But in fact, there were two persons remembered by that name. There was Jacobus, whose name is most commonly… Read more
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Jean-Françoise Champollion—Revisiting his illnesses and death
Maureen HirthlerRichard HutchisonBradenton, Florida “I’ve found it!” In 1822, Jean-Françoise Champollion (December 23, 1790 – March 4, 1832) told his brother he had a breakthrough in deciphering the Rosetta Stone, then collapsed to the floor. He had been ill for most of his life with… Read more