Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Kevin Loughlin

  • The privilege of caring for three Nobel laureates and learning from another

    Kevin LoughlinBoston, Massachusetts, United States My experience with Nobel laureates began on Monday, July 2, 1979. The previous weekend, I had started my urology residency at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston. The outgoing resident had signed out the urology service to me the evening before and mentioned, “Doctor Harrison has a suprapubic prostatectomy booked…

  • Strabismo di Venere—Michelangelo’s David

    Kevin R. LoughlinBoston, Massachusetts, United States It is one of the most recognizable sculptures in Western art, the work of an acclaimed Renaissance artist. For over 600 years, it has been viewed by millions of tourists and by millions more in photographs or books. Yet until recently, an obvious physical abnormality had gone largely unrecognized.…

  • W.W. Keen: Physician to the presidents

    Kevin R. LoughlinBoston, Massachusetts, United States William Williams Keen served in the American Civil War and was present at the first and second Battle of Bull Run and Antietam.1 His battlefield experience led him to publish in 1864 “Gunshot Wounds and other Injuries of the Nerves and Reflex Paralysis.” He would become one of the…

  • A history of blood transfusion: A confluence of science—in peace, in war, and in the laboratory

    Kevin R. LoughlinBoston, Massachusetts The rudimentary lights provided only dim illumination of the operative field. The three British army surgeons worked feverishly to save the life of the young soldier, Corporal Smith, who had a significant liver injury. He had already lost a liter of blood during transport from the front. As the surgeons continued…

  • It’s elementary: The addictions of Sherlock Holmes

    Kevin R. LoughlinBoston, Massachusetts, USA One might ask, why write about the addictions of a fictional character? The answer is that there is often a fine line between reality and fiction. The New York Times columnist Bret Stephens recently quoted a survey that found 20% of British teenagers thought that Winston Churchill was a fictional…

  • Harvard medical school and the body snatchers

    Kevin R. Loughlin Boston, Massachusetts, USA   Figure 1: Woodcut illustration from Fasciculus medicinae (1491) depicting a Lector, Ostensor, and Sector during a dissection Their silhouettes surely would have been seen against the backdrop of a moonlit night in 1796 as they entered the North Burying Ground in Boston. Their hearts were likely filled with…

  • Joseph Warren: The forgotten founder

    Kevin R. LoughlinBoston, Massachusetts, United States “If Warren had lived, Washington would have remained an obscurity.”– Peter Oliver, former chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court On June 17, a late spring New England morning, thousands of Bostonians will begin their day by traveling over the Zakim Bridge. Few will be aware of the significance…

  • Salk and Sabin: The disease, the rivalry and the vaccine

    Kevin R. LoughlinBoston, MA, United States Jonas Salk was born in a tenement in the East Harlem section of New York City. Albert Sabin was born in Poland and as a child immigrated to the United States with his parents. From these humble beginnings, they would emerge as two of the preeminent scientists of their…

  • The blade

    Kevin LoughlinBoston, Massachusetts, USA The blade slashes through the skinNot in violenceBut in cureIt is held not by an assailantBut by a surgeon The same instrumentBut with such cross purposesAs a surgeon, I know the fear and anticipationThat proceeds the strikeAssailants must feel the same Ironic, violence and healingBoth take training and skillMysteries both, which…

  • The imponderable ‘what-ifs’: Did the medical issues of three Confederate generals cause the South to lose the war?

    Kevin R. Loughlin  During the darkest days of World War II, Winston Churchill was credited as saying, “The imponderable ‘what- ifs’ accumulate”. Throughout history, imponderable what ifs have provoked the observer to consider how historical outcomes may have turned out differently. Such it is with the Civil War. It can be reasonably argued that the…