Tag: Cook County Hospital
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Beloved physicians: three unsung heroes
John Raffensperger Fort Meyers, Florida, United States Illustration by J. Raffensperger Few doctors, especially those who practice in small communities across the land, are remembered for their selfless, unstinting devotion to their patients. They are not considered heroes in the usual sense and sadly, for the most part, are now replaced by dehumanizing corporate…
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Nicholas Senn, the great master of abdominal surgery
Photo of Nicholas Senn. From A group of distinguished physicians and surgeons of Chicago… by F.M. Sperry. 1904. Via Wikimedia. Public Domain. Nicholas Senn was a man with an extraordinary capacity for work, an innovator, always trying new methods, even new experiments that he first conducted on himself. Born in 1844 in St. Gaul, Switzerland,…
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Omentum: much more than “policeman of the abdomen”
Ashok Singh Chicago, Illinois, United States Histology of activated omentum 3 days after placing a 5 cc slurry of inert polydextran particles of approx. 100 micron diameter (1 million particles) in the abdominal cavity of rats. Note the dramatic change in the size and quality of the omentum. While the native omentum is fatty…
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Dr. Will and Dr. Charlie: William James Mayo, (1861-1938) and Charles Horace Mayo (1865-1939)
John Raffensperger Fort Meyers, Florida, United States Portrait of William Worrell Mayo and his sons: Charles Mayo (right) and William James Mayo (left). Credit: Wellcome Collection. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) The father of the Mayo brothers, William Worall Mayo, was born in a village near Manchester, England, in 1819. His father died when…
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From Baghdad to Chicago by Asad A. Bakir
The title of Dr. Bakir’s erudite and engaging book brings to mind another book with a similar title. It is From Bagdad to Stambul (1892), one of the series of adventures that places its heroes in the city where Dr. Bakir was born almost exactly half a century later. The author of these stories was…
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The surgery of pyloric stenosis in Chicago
John Raffensperger Fort Meyers, Florida, United States Arthur Dean Bevan, MD, FACS, 1861-1943. Circa 1915. From the Archives of the American College of Surgeons. Harald Hirschprung, a Danish pediatrician, in 1888 described the clinical course and pathology of two infants who died with congenital hypertrophic pyloric stenosis.1 Gastroenterostomy was adopted for the treatment of infants…
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Unlikely pioneers in renal transplantation: The Little Company of Mary Sisters
Jayant Radhakrishnan Darien, Illinois, United States The first kidney transplant was performed by Dr. Richard Lawler, Dr. James West, and Dr. Raymond Murphy at Little Company of Mary Hospital, Evergreen Park, IL. Photo courtesy of OSF Little Company of Mary Medical center. Dr. Joseph Murray deservedly received the Nobel Prize in 1990 for his magnificent pioneering…
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A history of blood transfusion: A confluence of science—in peace, in war, and in the laboratory
Kevin R. Loughlin Boston, Massachusetts Figure 1- Blood Transfusions -WWI East Sussex. Photo from Wellcome Images. Accessed October 15, 2019. The rudimentary lights provided only dim illumination of the operative field. The three British army surgeons worked feverishly to save the life of the young soldier, Corporal Smith, who had a significant liver injury.…
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Becoming a doctor in Chicago (c.1954)—Clerkship at Cook County Hospital
Peter H. Berczeller Edited by Paul Berczeller An excerpt from Dr. Peter Berczeller’s memoir, The Little White Coat. Post Mortem Examination by Prof. Ludvig Hektoen at the Cook County Morgue Chicago Ill. March 3rd 1897. Photographer unknown. Ward 64, the only female medical ward at Cook County Hospital, was to be the home base for…
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Becoming a doctor in Chicago (c.1954)—The Chicago Medical School
Peter Berczeller Edited by Paul Berczeller An excerpt from Dr. Peter Berczeller’s memoir, The Little White Coat. Compound monocular microscope. Graduated grey background. Credit: Science Museum, London. CC BY 4.0. Chicago Med was the poor relation among the medical schools ringing Cook County Hospital. The sooty three-story building was dwarfed by the high rises of…