Tag: Doctors Patients and Diseases
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Survival of the happiest
Anthony PapagiannisThessaloniki, Greece It has been said that the impact of whatever happens to us owes 10% to the fact itself and 90% to our own response. Consequently, our happiness—or lack of it—under any circumstances is largely in our hands. This is quite obvious in the field of health and disease, as the following story…
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Childhood cancer: Where my shadow fell
John Graham-PoleAntigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada In this essay, I reflect on my journey as a pediatric oncologist—from a time when childhood cancer was nearly always fatal to the gradual emergence of cures. Drawing on personal experiences with patients and their families, I examine the medical milestones, ethical complexities, and emotional burdens that shaped my career…
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Tattoo stories
Alan BlumTuscaloosa, Alabama, United States A century before reality TV, there were circus sideshows, and one of the star attractions was the tattooed lady. Betty Broadbent was the most famous. The 1939 song “Lydia, the Tattooed Lady,” written by Yip Harburg and Harold Arlen and performed by Groucho Marx in At the Circus, was a…
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The mystery of the hoofbeats
Edward TaborBethesda, Maryland, United States All physicians get phone calls from time to time from friends asking for medical advice. I received one of these calls from a pharmacologist I knew. A few weeks prior, his wife had begun having memory loss and difficulty walking. The day before he called me, she began losing consciousness…
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Hulusi Behçet (1889–1948)
Umut AkovaAtlanta, Georgia, United States Hulusi Behçet is remembered for describing the rare disease that now bears his name. Born on February 20, 1889, in Istanbul, he moved to Damascus at a young age. He attended a French-speaking elementary school, learning French, Latin, and German. At age sixteen, in 1906, he enrolled at the Imperial…
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Making a difference in the AIDS epidemic
Sandro VentoPhnom Penh, Cambodia Enzo entered the room with hesitancy. A nurse drew his blood, then moved him to where a young doctor was waiting, looking serious. As he asked Enzo to sit down, he inspired confidence. Enzo answered his initial questions with few words, having told his story too many times to too many…
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A midnight call
Anthony PapagiannisThessaloniki, Greece We are halfway through Advent and looking forward to Christmas. As I am finishing some late-night computer work and seriously thinking about sleep, the cell phone goes off. I recognize the voice of a man I saw recently. His problem is trouble with breathing, that vital function whose perceived difficulty flashes warning…
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Patient choice—Is it always appropriate?
Denis ChenNewcastle-under-Lyme, United Kingdom Beauchamp and Childress published Principles of Biomedical Ethics in 1979, introducing the “Four Principles” of medical ethics: beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy, and justice.1 They argued that “best” treatment depends on patient preferences and applied to all cultures and societies. These principles were philosophically underpinned by the duty-based ethics of Immanuel Kant (1724–1804)…
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Medical education and family caregiving in immigrant populations
Mahnoor AyubDetroit, Michigan, United States According to the Kaiser Family Foundation,1 1 in 4 children in the US has an immigrant parent. South Asian (SA) countries are one of the main sources of international migration.2 The SA immigrant population in the US is heterogeneous and includes people from countries such as Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan,…