Tag Archives: heart disease

Grokking: Cardiac rehabilitation by another name

March 5, 2018

Janice Kehler Chris Kehler Middleton, Wisconsin, United States   Grokking: to understand with empathy “It is a life-saving intervention,” said Dr. Randall Thomas, the director of the Cardiac Rehabilitation Program at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, adding that participation rates were abysmal. Only 20% of eligible patients over the age of sixty-five enroll in cardiac […]

Struggles, gratitude, and love

March 9, 2017

Jeconda Harris David G. Thoele Park Ridge, Illinois, USA   Poet’s statement: Jeconda Harris, my patient for 17 years, gave me a collection of her poetry and expressed her desire to have it published. Regretfully, this did not happen within her lifetime, but, with her mother Barbara’s consent, her wish has finally come true. “Life’s […]

Paul Dudley White

January 27, 2017

Philip R. Liebson Chicago, Illinois, United States   In September 1955 President Dwight Eisenhower suffered a myocardial infarction. Dr. Paul Dudley White (1886–1973) was called in to attend to him. For a time, Dr. White was probably the most famous cardiologist in the US because of his attendance to the president. A noted photograph of […]

Paul Wood: In Memoriam

January 27, 2017

George Dunea Chicago, Illinois, United States   Paul Wood (1907–1962) Dr. Paul Wood, the greatest British cardiologist of his time, died in London on July 13, 1962—half a century ago.1 Born in 1907, he went to school in Australia, took his internship in New Zealand, and after a stint as cardiologist in London, served with […]

Sir Thomas Lewis: the promise of electrocardiography

January 27, 2017

In republishing an account of clinical electrocardiography, I do so from conviction that this method of examination is essential to the modern study of heart disease. When some twenty-seven years ago I began to study disorders of the heart with the aid of the “string galvanometer” the method was in its early infancy and unknown […]

No Good Options

January 23, 2017

David G. Thoele Park Ridge, Illinois, USA Poet’s statement: This poem is about my patient Aaron, who was born, immediately became very sick and blue, and later the same day, died in his parents’ arms. Aaron had severe congenital heart disease, which we ultimately concluded was not compatible with life. Aaron’s parents and I made […]