Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Joel L. Chinitz

  • There is a time

    Joel L. ChinitzPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, United States When the doors flew open, the noisy hoard—many in dirty, white jackets and floppy, bloodstained, green pants—circled the nurses’ station and overran the medical Intensive Care Unit. Wednesday renal rounds had begun. As two aides jumped back and fell into a linen cart, the unrelenting column spilled down the…

  • The Gone-A-Gram

    Joel L. ChinitzPhiladelphia Physicians for Social Responsibility, Pennsylvania, United States “Have I got this right? When you . . . eh . . . reach eighty points . . . you’re gone.” “Yes sir. That’s right.” “But if you have seventy-nine . . . you’re still here.” Harry Crenshaw looked into the faces around the…