Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: heparin

  • A medical visionary

    David GreenChicago, Illinois, United States The year was 1967. My father had just had his prostate removed and was having considerable post-surgical pain. On the fifth post-operative day, he collapsed suddenly and could not be resuscitated. The post-mortem examination showed multiple fresh blood clots in his lungs. I was devastated but should not have been…

  • The discovery of heparin

    Mostafa ElbabaDoha, Qatar The sulfated glycosaminoglycan known as heparin is the most common anticoagulant used in clinical medicine. Its therapeutic role is to increase antithrombin activity. While its physiologic role in humans is not fully understood, heparin is stored and secreted from mast cells at sites of tissue injury and is believed to provide local…

  • Erik Jorpes: from Kökar to Helsingfors, Moscow, and Stockholm

    Frank A. WollheimLund, Sweden Johan Erik Johansson was born in 1894 in Jorpesgården in the village of Overbroad on the small, barren island of Kökar in the archipelago of Åland, a Swedish-speaking part of Finland. His father, Johan Eriksson, was a fisherman and his mother struggled on the lean, arable farm. When Erik was six…

  • The early history of anticoagulants: 1915–1948

    Philip R. LiebsonChicago, Illinois, United States Dedicated to the memories of Irving S. Wright and Stephen S. Scheidt, former colleagues at the New York Hospital-Cornell University Medical Center. Much of the background for this essay was provided by the Mueller-Scheidt Special Report, to which I am grateful.1 Steve Scheidt was a colleague of mine at…