Tag: Jack Riggs
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J. Marion Sims and the reputation-character distinction
Jack E. RiggsMatthew S. SmithMorgantown, West Virginia, United States “Reputation is what men and women think of us;character is what God and angels know of us.”— Thomas Paine (likely inaccurate attribution) Few medical legacies have been more controversial than that of J. Marion Sims, the Father of American Gynecology.1-3 Sims rose from humble and obscure…
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Neurophobia or neuroavoidance: a student or educator issue?
Kelsey AndrewsJack Riggs Morgantown, West Virginia, United States “It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.”– Albert Einstein Jozefowicz introduced a new term in neurology education literature in 1994, defining “neurophobia” as “a fear of the neurosciences and clinical neurology that is due to the student’s inability…
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Discrimination: From Blues to Amazing Grace to sleeves
Lauren E. HillWalnut Cove, North Carolina, United StatesJack E. RiggsMorgantown, West Virginia, United States “Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd.” – Bertrand Russell, from “An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish” “Now I know you’re a Blue, but these old eyes don’t…
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“An ounce of prevention”: past and present
Jack E. RiggsMorgantown, West Virginia, United States Donald R. NewcomerGlendale, Arizona, United States Being old and lame of my Hands, and thereby uncapable of assisting my Fellow Citizens, when their Houses are on Fire; I must beg them to take in good Part the following Hints . . . In the first Place, as an…
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Hammond, Lincoln, and the emergence of American neurology
Jack RiggsMorgantown, West Virginia, United States All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts.– William Shakespeare Shakespeare’s words describe the extraordinary life of William Alexander Hammond.1-8 LC McHenry, a historian of neurology, dubbed Hammond…
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Psychological preparation for war: Early life experiences
Jack RiggsMorgantown, West Virginia, United States I suspect that few early life experiences fully prepare one psychologically for the realities of war. Mine certainly did not. However, my introduction to post-traumatic stress and moral injury, frequent war sequelae, occurred at home while I was growing up. When I was nine years old, my younger brother…
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Combat hospital chaplain
Jack RiggsMorgantown, West Virginia, United States “Chaps, how would you like the opportunity to leave your family and your church for a year?” I asked over the phone in an almost gleeful tone. “Jack, if the question was not coming from you, I would think your question was a joke.” I had served with this…
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He is not coming back
Jack RiggsMorgantown, West Virginia, United States “Good evening, skipper.” Several of my senior officers were smoking an evening cigar, seated on the base of one of the large concrete barriers that surrounded our tent hospital. An evening gripe session of the ACC (Arijan Cigar Club) was in full swing. No one stood or saluted, nor…
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Signs
Jack RiggsMorgantown, West Virginia, United States “This is no way to treat soldiers!” The lieutenant colonel was furious as he screamed at me over the phone. After sufficient venting had occurred, I ventured a nonthreatening interjection. “Colonel, I was not there. Tell me what happened with your soldier.” The lieutenant colonel’s battalion has just completed…
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Negotiation
Jack RiggsMorgantown, West Virginia, USA “We appreciate what you Americans have done for us in the past. But we will not allow you to come into our hospital uniformed and armed.” It was their country, their hospital, and their rules. She was the hospital administrator, a woman in a Muslim country but clearly the unchallenged…