Tag: Jack Coulehan
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Moral judgment in medicine: “Sensibility of heart”
Jack CoulehanStony Brook, New York, United States I want to reflect on the role of emotions, or “sensibility of heart,” in medical judgment. I take the term “judgment,” in general, to refer to the human capacity of assessing, analyzing, and reaching a conclusion with regard to any point or course of action. Any specific conclusion…
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THEME
RUSSIAN LITERATURE Published in October, 2020 H E K T O R A M A . THE EDUCATION OF DOCTOR CHEKHOV Chekhov was neither an academic star, nor a social standout. There were, however, two areas in which he excelled. The first was his ability to listen to patients…
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Prayer to St. Roch, patron of plague sufferers
Jack CoulehanStony Brook, New York Please take your work to the next step, St. Roch, beyond being a friendly ghost to the lost. Bring us back from the edge. Pour out the healing grace of your touch at a distance, if possible. We beg you. Believe me, the people are skeptical. Continue making the sign of the cross to heal us, but add Islam’s crescent, David’s star,…
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The education of Doctor Chekhov
Jack CoulehanStony Brook, New York, USA October 1883. A fifth-year medical student at Moscow State University agonizes over his upcoming exam. “Woe is me!” he writes to his older brother, “I am forced to learn almost everything from the beginning… cadavers to be worked on, clinical studies, making the rounds of the hospital. I work…
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Alabama and the healing of memories
Jack Coulehan Stony Brook, New York, United States T.S. Eliot’s poem “Burnt Norton” begins with the famous lines: “Time present and time past / Are both perhaps present in time future, / And time future contained in time past.” 1My memories are a part of my present experience. I recall clinical experiences of all sorts, good…
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Walt Whitman: A difficult patient
Jack CoulehanStony Brook, New York, United States On June 15, 1888, the following notice appeared in the New York Times under the headline AGED POET SUFFERS RELAPSE: Prof. William Osler, of the University of Pennsylvania, was summoned by telegraph this afternoon to go to Walt Whitman’s bedside. The aged poet had a relapse, and it…
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Andreas Vesalius’ audience speaks out
Angela BelliQueens, New York, United States Andreas Vesalius’ The Fabric of the Human Body marks not only a milestone in medical history but, by virtue of its extraordinary illustrations, offers ample evidence of medicine and art complementing each other. The frontispiece of the work, depicting an audience witnessing a dissection performed by Vesalius, portrays a…