Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Dostoevsky

  • Battling poverty, injustice, ignorance and fear, and despair

    Tonse N. K. RajuGaithersburg, Maryland, United States At the entrance hall of the Library of the Health Sciences of the University of Illinois Medical Campus in Chicago, one can see an ensemble of surgical and anesthetic equipment such as knives, forceps, speculum, towel clips, hemostats, kidney trays, IV poles, crutches, x-ray films, anesthetic balloon bags,…

  • “The GBM in Room 9”: On the objectifying power of naming and diagnosing

    Atara MessingerToronto, Ontario, Canada I wheeled the patient through the double doors into the operating room. As I parked the hospital bed next to the operating table, I quickly glanced at the patient’s chart. NAME: ‘J.’ AGE: 28. HISTORY: Progressive headaches, visual changes, and right-sided weakness. IMAGING: MRI of the brain shows contrast-enhancing mass with…