Tag: Joseph deBettencourt
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History repeated: child abuse in the United States
Joseph deBettencourt Chicago, Illinois, United States U.S. Border Patrol agents conduct intake of illegal border crossers at the Central Processing Center in McAllen, Texas, Sunday, June 17, 2018. Q: Did you see any place for this child to sleep in? A: No, Sir, except in one corner. The child told me she slept up…
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Theo’s marvelous medicine
Joseph deBettencourtChicago, Illinois, USA On a cool December day in 1960, a nanny was pushing an infant in a stroller down 85th Street in New York City. Stepping into the road, the nanny saw a taxi whip around the corner and before she could react, the stroller was struck by the taxi and knocked into…
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Korotkov’s Sound
Joseph deBettencourt Chicago, Illinois, United States A portrait of Nikolai Sergeevich Korotkov I’m watching, knees bending, Looking meek, my heart quiet, Drifting away are the shadows Of fussy world affairs While I’m envisioning, dreaming of voices from other worlds -Aleksandr Blok, untitled poem, July 3, 1901a Stepping off the train in northern…
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Stephen Hales: belief and blood pressure
Joseph deBettencourtChicago, Illinois, United States “It would but ill become us in this our State of Uncertainty, to treat the Errors and Mistakes of others with Scorn and Contempt, when we ourselves see Things but as through a Glass darkly, and are very far from any Pretensions to Infallibility”— Stephen Hales, Haemastatics Stephen Hales’ father…
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The founding of Rush Medical College
Joseph deBettencourtChicago, Illinois, United States Act I: Dr. Daniel Brainard Beneath the impressive shadow of Notre Dame, a young American cut a path through the winding cobblestone maze of the Île de la Cité to the doors of the Hôtel Dieu, Paris’ oldest hospital. The young man carried with him a diploma from a small…
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A hospital for sick children
Joseph deBettencourt Chicago, Illinois, United States An artist’s rendering of the original Great Ormond Street Hospital building in 1882, before it was demolished. “49 Great Ormond Street, London, in course of demolition.” J.P. Emslie, 1882, Wellcome Collection, UK Wellcome Collection. Down a narrow street in an old London neighborhood sat a large, forgotten house.…