Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: fainting

  • The fainting medical student

    Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “Fall backward if you faint, and not across the patient.”1– Surgeon Sir Lancelot Sprat, in the film Doctor in the House The squeamishness of the beginning medical student or intern during the dissection of a cadaver or in the operating room has become a cinematic cliché. In the films Not as a…

  • In sickness and in health: misogyny in medicine

    Shreya SharmaOntario, Canada “You see, he does not believe I am sick! And what can one do?”1 These words, spoken by the unnamed narrator of Charlotte Perkin Gilman’s 1892 short story The Yellow Wallpaper, could have been articulated by many women about their medical experiences. Women have long had to navigate a healthcare system designed…