Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Lea Dacy

  • Medical Spanish at Mayo Clinic

    Lea DacyRochester, Minnesota, United States The anesthesiologist was thrilled when she asked a Spanish-speaking post-surgery patient to wiggle his toes, and he understood and complied. A medical secretary appropriately triaged a caller from Caracas. Other colleagues on their lunchbreaks were able to direct Spanish-speaking visitors to the nearest restroom or coffee shop. These Mayo Clinic…

  • Maria Callas—her inner voice revealed

    Eelco WijdicksLea DacyRochester, Minnesota, United States In Prima Donna: The Psychology of Maria Callas, Paul Wink convincingly concludes—based on largely secondary sources—that Maria Callas was not only a wildly ambitious operator who was not known for an emollient manner, but a prime example of narcissism. Wink, a professor of psychology at Wellesley College, used conventional…

  • Milwaukee’s unlikely public health advocate

    Lea DacyRochester, MN, United States The story of my mother’s possible childhood episode of pertussis (also known as whooping cough) has lived on in family lore because of its link with a notorious legendary figure in Milwaukee history. One Sunday afternoon, Helen Cromell (she later changed it to Cromwell), or “Dirty Helen” as she is…

  • The finality in their voices II: Physiology-defying violent opera death

    Lea C. DacyEelco F.M. WijdicksRochester, Minnesota, United States In a previous article, we reviewed the plausibility of opera deaths in wasting diseases such as that of Violetta in La Traviata. But operatic death is not always gentle: murder, suicide, and executions regularly befall operatic heroes and villains. These often make a great impression but do…

  • The interrupted concerto: Jacqueline du Pré and MS

    Lea C. DacyMoses RodriguezRochester, Minnesota, United States Although promoted as a “comeback,” it was almost her last public performance. In February 1973, the late Jacqueline du Pré performed the Elgar Cello Concerto in London with the New Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Zubin Mehta. The concerto had been closely associated with du Pré since her landmark…

  • “Heard it through the grapevine”: The black barbershop as a source of health information

    Joyce Balls-BerryLea DacyRochester, Minnesota, USAJames BallsSt. Louis, Missouri, USA Barbering is an ancient profession and early records indicate that barbers played a role as community leaders. Elevated almost to the role of priests or medicine men, they typically offered bloodletting, tooth extraction, cauterization, and tonsorial surgery as well as grooming.1 As medicine advanced, they did…