Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Elie Najjar

  • She who heals: From goddess to surgeon

    Elie NajjarNottingham, United Kingdom Every incision carries two stories. One is written in anatomy. The other—in myth. In the theatre, the light hums softly above the table, and the air smells of antiseptic and electricity. Beneath the drapes, muscle and bone shimmer like hidden scripture. Surgery, I have learned, is not only science. It is…

  • Do machines dream of the human hand?

    Elie NajjarNottingham, United Kingdom Imagine this: a machine that can see your heartbeat, read your spine, and calculate your risk of death better than your doctor can. Now ask yourself: does it understand you? Does it care if you live or die? The question is not whether machines will replace us, but something more unsettling:…

  • Return to Lebanon

    Elie NajjarNottingham, United Kingdom “Dear passengers, we will be arriving soon at Beirut International Airport.” We had indeed arrived in Lebanon, the land also called Leb-Uh-Nunh and other names before that. Mesopotamians called it Chaddum Elum or “the fields of God.”1 The Greeks called it Phoenicia, attributed to the Tyrian purple dye. Phoeiké also means…

  • A walk on the pediatric floor

    Elie NajjarSt. Nottingham, United Kingdom I came to the pediatric floor to learn about medicine—the presentation, development, and resolution of diseases—but I found myself learning something that etched itself deeper into my soul. I learned about humanity and the great energy that even in the darkest of times still radiates from the faces of children.…