Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Croatia

  • The Emperor Maximilian II and his physicians

    Maximilian II (1527–1576) of the House of Habsburg was Holy Roman Emperor as well as king of Bohemia, Croatia, and Hungary. The Emperor . . . had long suffered from gout, from heart attacks, from bouts of “kidney colic,” [and] quite possibly syphilis, that had been sweeping across Europe since the turn of the 16th century.…

  • Learning medicine by writing letters

    Matko MarušićCroatia It was Tony, a learned doctor from the USA, who gave me the idea of having students write letters to their patients. He mentioned he had first heard about this some sixty years ago at Yale. At first he did not take seriously my immediate elation and determination to introduce it at the…

  • Studying medicine

    Matko MarusicCroatia The author studied medicine from 1965 to 1970, at the Zagreb University School of Medicine, the capital city of Croatia, in the country that at that time was called Yugoslavia. It was under communist rule (until 1990). The home town of the author is Split, on the Adriatic coast, some 200 miles south…

  • A message

    Mira Talaja Split, Croatia Standing in a clearing on Lake Peruca, I awaited the completion of the negotiations and approval to pass through occupied territory. It was late autumn 1993, and I accompanied the Red Cross medical corps and served as a translator. International forces came to the area to reach a ceasefire agreement, facilitate entry,…

  • The splints

    Ivana BokanSplit, Croatia I remember my experience in the Homeland War clear as day. It was the spring of 1991, and the war was just starting. As a medical nurse in the Crisis Health Center, my task was delivering medical equipment and medicines in preparation for the possible attack. “They are definitely going to attack…