Tag Archives: pediatrics

Potts and Pott

July 8, 2020

John Raffensperger Fort Meyer, Florida, United States   Portrait of Percivall Pott by George Romney, unsigned, 1788. From the Hunterian Museum, Royal College of Surgeons, London. Willis Potts and Percival Pott were both highly skilled surgeons, prolific authors, and contributed to the surgical care of children.   Percival Pott (1714–1788) Percival Pott, at age fifteen, […]

Heartbreak in the nursery

June 18, 2020

Shruthi Ravishankar Chennai, India   Image description: Cherry red spot as seen in Tay Sachs disease. The center of the fovea appears bright red because it is surrounded by a milky halo. Photo by Jonathan Trobe, MD. 6 September 2011. Public Domain. Source I began the long drive to the pediatric hospital on a route peppered […]

Are we culturally tone-deaf?

March 2, 2020

Clara Koo New York, United States   Hahoe Folk Village Mask Dance. Ian Sewell. July 2008. Accessed via Wikimedia. CC BY-SA 2.5 The cultural norms of American medicine are speciously like those of traditional Korean culture, but the differences place Korean-American students at a disadvantage. When I began my third year of medical school, a […]

Charles-Michel Billard, an overlooked pediatric pioneer

August 28, 2019

Stanford Shulman Chicago, Illinois   Fig. 1 N Corvisart, F.X Bichat, and Rene Laennec are each shown on a commemorative postage stamp of France. From the author’s collection of medical history stamps. Introduction During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries medicine transitioned into a more science-based discipline. This was primarily the result of gross […]

Swaddling: Forever bound in controversy?

April 30, 2019

Jennifer Borst Hammonds Plains, Nova Scotia   The Virgin with the Swaddled Child. Albrecht Dürer, German. 1520. As a bleary-eyed new parent, I found myself embracing the quiescence and prolonged slumber swaddling offered my restless and sleepless first-born. Strategic bundling subsequently proved disappointingly ineffective with my second colicky child and unnecessary with my jovial, naturally […]

Two hearts beating: the history and benefits of “Kangaroo Care”

April 22, 2019

Nursan Cinar Hamide Zengin Sakarya, Turkey   Mother and her baby during kangaroo care  Two Hearts Beat at the Same Time Photograph: Hamide Zengin The rate of preterm birth is between 5 and 18% worldwide. Prematurity is the most important cause of neonatal mortality and morbidity, especially in developing countries. According to the World Health […]

Edvard Munch: The child who never grew up

April 9, 2019

Michael Yafi Houston, Texas   Figure 1: The Dead Mother The paintings of Edvard Munch are often used as an example of the association between creativity and mental illness. Can we, however, analyze them from the perspective of the feelings of a child? Traumatized by the death of his mother when he was only five […]

La Pieta

March 27, 2019

Rachel Fleishman Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States   La Pieta, 1498–1499, Michelangelo, St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City. Via Wikipedia. CC BY 2.5. A mother holds her dead child. His body flops open without resistance, freshly dead. His head is cocked back, shoulder lifted, arms release the last vestige of grip. Her face sullen, her hand beside […]

The incubator

January 30, 2017

MAS Ahmed Natasja Vandepitte London   The Nursling, by Pierre Budin, translated by William Maloney. London: Caxton Publishing Co.; 1907.   The incubator is a common sight in every Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Its history is of interest because of its influence on patient care and on the ensuing societal change. Babies were an […]

Mildred Thornton Stahlman, pioneer in neonatology

January 27, 2017

Corey Reese Nashville, Tennessee, United States   Mildred Stahlman, Professor of Pediatrics and Pathology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine holds a newborn infant. She was the director of the division of Neonatology 1961-1989. This photo was taken in the 1980s at Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville, TN. In the 1950s and early 1960s, Mildred Thornton […]