Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Janet Wolter

  • Recollections of a polio ward

    Janet WolterChicago, Illinois, United States My first impression when I walked into the huge ward was of the strange rhythm/non-rhythm, visual and auditory, of ten rocking beds moving at different rates and inclinations, sometimes in synchrony but more often not, and the punctuating steady whoosh-whoosh of two iron lungs. The people in and on these…