Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Colorado

  • Pain versus survival

    Marissa ArmoogamTrinidad & Tobago, West Indies Pain has long been a given in any surgical procedure, but thanks to the many advances in medicine and particularly in anesthesia, the experience of insurmountable pain has been greatly quelled. There have been, however, cases when men or women have been thrown into the all-consuming grasp of pain…

  • Partial eclipse of the heart

    Perry DinardoCleveland Heights, Ohio, United States In early August 2017, the nation was buzzing about an upcoming total solar eclipse. I had been immersed in news about the eclipse for weeks, and decided it would be absolutely necessary for me to watch from the “Zone of Totality.” Within this zone, a diagonal path across the…

  • Dr. Avery, Medicine Woman

    Edward McSweeganKingston, Rhode, Island, United States In July 1878, astronomers headed into the American West to observe a total eclipse of the sun. Among them was America’s only woman astronomer, Maria Mitchell of Vassar College, and four of her former astronomy students. Lacking the federal support and discounted railroad tickets of her male colleagues, Mitchell…

  • Destination

    J Rush PierceLakewood, CO, United States It must have started some time before, but I was unaware of it on that pleasant September day, hiking in the rocky foothills of northern New Mexico with my daughter. Arriving back at the trailhead by late afternoon, we shucked our packs into my SUV and paused for a…

  • Theme

    EPIDEMICS Published in March, 2020 H E K T O R A M A   . The recent coronavirus outbreak inevitably brings to mind the Spanish flu, the deadly influenza pandemic of a century ago. Here we republish seven articles about this devastating viral disease that spread to the four corners of the world, killing…

  • Katherine Anne Porter and the 1918 influenza epidemic

    Cristóbal S. Berry-CabánFort Bragg, North Carolina, United States In Pale Horse, Pale Rider, Katherine Anne Porter weaves the horrors of the Great War, the 1918 influenza pandemic, and the near-death experience of a young woman in love with a doomed American soldier into a memorable novella.1 Porter was born on May 15, 1890, in the…