Tag: Doctors Patients and Diseases
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Public health awareness of cataract
Hosam Halim Amal Halim Menna Elbendary Walaa Asaad Salah Eldean Elsherbini Dalia SabryEgypt During our humanitarian medical outreach campaigns in poor and remote areas, we observed a high prevalence of visual impairment among many patients who presented with advanced medical, surgical, and oncological diseases. Their family members are preoccupied with earning a livelihood, and no…
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The treatment of achalasia: A historical analysis
Piyush PillarisettiPennsylvania, United States Achalasia is an esophageal motility disorder characterized by impaired lower esophageal sphincter (LES) relaxation and absent or spastic esophageal peristalsis. Typically, the condition leads to solid and liquid dysphagia at symptom onset. After the pathophysiology of achalasia was described in the 1900s, treatment modalities have converged on one goal: reduce LES…
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The deal and discharges
Vartika MishraLucknow, India “This is all I have ever wanted. I have worked hard for this, and now is the time to rise and shine,” I reminded myself as I entered the shabby gates of the hospital. As a first-year resident in obstetrics and gynecology, inspiring myself to get out of bed every day had…
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Snake bite in Panama
Enrique Chaves-CarballoKansas City, Kansas, United States Rikki-tikki had a right to be proud of himself. But he did not grow too proud, and he kept that garden as a mongoose should keep it, with tooth and jump and spring and bite, till never a cobra dared show its head inside the walls.—Rudyard Kipling, “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi,” The…
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Side-by-side
Nicholas ChongBoston, Massachusetts, United States “I will hurt you if you touch my legs.” My hand stopped midair, hovering inches from his shin. The patient lay rigid in bed, eyes fixed on the ceiling, his voice edged with pain and warning. For a moment, I was unsure whether he was speaking out of anger or…
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The silence of Dona Zefa
Guilherme CoelhoSão Paulo, Brazil Josefa Maria do Carmo—Dona Zefa to everyone—was the kind of woman you knew before you met her. The whole favela spoke of her like a patron saint: with respect, affection, and a reasonable fear of not wanting to disappoint her. Seventy-two years old, the widow of Seu Agenor, she was mother…
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Thoughts in a hospital elevator
Anthony PapagiannisThessaloniki, Greece It is New Year’s Eve, the last day of the year, and as I ride the hospital elevator down to the underground car park, oddly but not inexplicably I think about life and death. Ever since I started medical practice, at the end of each year, I go through my records and…
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Pulling up a chair: The past and future of the patient-physician relationship
Neal ChanBoston, Massachusetts, United States Pulling up a chair On my fourth year Cardiology rotation, I cared for an elderly patient with atrial fibrillation and worsening heart failure. On rounds, a plan was made to attempt cardioversion and pursue rhythm control of his atrial fibrillation with amiodarone. As we entered the room, we found a…
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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…