Personal Narratives - Hektoen International

Revising my bargain with the deity

March 24, 2022

Barry Perlman New York, New York, United States Photo by S. Tsuchiya on Unsplash. My parents lived into their nineties. Before they died, they endured years of dementia. Aware of my potential genetic inheritance, I have long harbored a deep dread of what my future might hold. If my curved pinky fingers were inherited […]

On the way to school

October 22, 2021

Mary Jumbelic Syracuse, New York, United States Illustration by Joshua Jumbles. Published with permission. A thin line of blood oozed from a shallow cut in the skin, like the first stroke of an artist’s brush on a blank canvas. The second and third incisions intersected the first to form a large Y-shape. Sanguinous fluid […]

A moment of philosophy

August 11, 2021

Nishitha Bujala Hyderabad, Telangana, India Photo by cottonbro from Pexels I seem to be in a constant state of anxiety these days. With my one-year plans and goals seemingly disrupted by the pandemic, my medical licensing exams postponed, my ability to focus shrunk to the size of a peanut, my interest to study equaling […]

Early lessons

May 27, 2021

Howard Fischer Uppsala, Sweden Virginia Emergency Room, image from “Historic VCU: A VCU Images Special Collection” VCU Libraries from Richmond, VA, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons Finally, it was my first day in a US hospital after studying medicine in Europe for five and a half years. A medical education at the […]

Rehearsing lines

December 9, 2020

Catalina Florina Florescu Hoboken, New Jersey, United States Coffee Queen. Iulia Şchiopu. Permission granted by artist. CHARACTERS: Eve Ana TIME AND SETTING: Now, here. Two women are seated on a bench. That’s all you need to know. Plus that their name is a palindrome. Mirrored names. Make what you want out of this. […]

The tortoise and the hare: a pandemic perspective

August 24, 2020

Pranita Rao Pune, India The Tortoise and the Hare. Illustration From The Æsop for Children, by Æsop, illustrated by Milo Winter. Project Gutenberg. “Are you ready to lose again?” smirked the hare, looking down at the tortoise who was warming up for their weekly running challenge. The tortoise spent his days training body and mind to win races against the […]

Life and death of a dog

August 12, 2020

Hugh Tunstall-Pedoe Dundee, Scotland Photograph of Petra, courtesy of the author. We learn from the life and death of family pets, a microcosm of our own existence. We nurtured Petra, a guide-dog puppy, in our family home for more than a year, after which we handed her over for her formal training. She was […]

When I heard the learn’d epidemiologist

July 9, 2020

Dean Gianakos Lynchburg, Virginia, United States Photo by prottoy hassan on Unsplash Sitting on the maroon recliner in my den, I am having trouble concentrating on the epidemiologist who is talking on the television. He points to a Covid hot zone on a color-coded map of the United States. The screen changes before I can locate Virginia. […]

Cancer warrior

June 3, 2020

Thanuja Subramaniam Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Photo by cottonbro from Pexels Eight months ago, my brother was diagnosed with stage 2 urothelial carcinoma. For months he had been telling me that his urine had “a tinge of red” to it. I dismissed it as dehydration, since he was young but did not take good care of himself. Some […]

A lesson in physiology

February 3, 2020

Anthony Papagiannis Thessaloniki, Greece Waterfront Promenade, Thessaloniki, Greece. Photograph by the author. The contours are quite familiar, both to the eye and the touch. My hand strokes its counterpart, its twin sibling: they have been working together ever since I first saw the light of the day in this world. They have washed, clasped, […]