Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: endoscopy

  • Through hardship comes success—Life of Adolph Kussmaul

    Hina HaqCayon, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Caribbean Adolph Kussmaul was born in Graben, Germany in 1822.1 He came from a long line of physicians and grew up in a beautiful place where miles of lush vegetation stretched out to nurture crops and create homes for pasture.2 Although he was born into privilege, he had to…

  • America’s first bronchoscopist

    J. Gordon FriersonPalo Alto, California, United States One day, in the tough coal-mining city of Pittsburgh of the early 1900s, two Sisters of Mercy brought an emaciated, severely dehydrated, seven-year-old girl to a doctor’s office. Sometime earlier the girl had swallowed lye, thinking it was sugar, and the ensuing inflammation and scarring had all but…