Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: immigrants

  • Operation Pedro Pan: Saving Cuban children from communism

    Howard Fischer Uppsala, Sweden   Cuban children in line to emigrate. Photo via DEFELIX on Wikimedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. In 1959, lawyer and revolutionary Fidel Castro (1926–2016) overthrew the corrupt, US-supported government of Fulgencio Batista, the dictator of Cuba. Castro promised reforms and democracy. However, early in his regime, members of the Batista government were…

  • A life cut short

    Joshua Baru Benjamin Mba Chicago, Illinois, USA   The Schwartz Center Rounds program provides a forum for an interdisciplinary and interdepartmental case-based discussion of the emotional and interpersonal underpinnings of healthcare providers. The following is a description of a recent Schwartz Center Rounds session at Cook County Hospital. The case. A 23-year-old Indian man was…

  • An emigrant doctor’s linguistic journey on crutches

    Zeynel A. Karcioglu Charlottesville, Virginia, United States   Figure 1. A photograph of Kemal Atatürk unveiling the new Turkish alphabet in 1928. I am a linguistic cripple like many other immigrants. When I came to the United States as a foreign medical graduate I was rather young, but the neurocognitive linguistic skills of my Turkish…