Tag: physician
-
On becoming a disabled physician
Mel EbelingBirmingham, Alabama, United States The same prominent scar blemishes each foot: beginning two inches below my big toe, it slithers along the medial aspect of my foot, making a hairpin turn around my ankle before coming to an abrupt halt on the opposite side, two inches below my pinky toe. I have bilateral congenital…
-
The use of force in medicine
Angad TiwariIndiaMallika KhuranaJapan William Carlos Williams (1883-1963), regarded as “the most important literary doctor since Chekhov,” was an American Pulitzer prize-winning writer and poet who stands amongst the few full-time practicing physicians to have achieved literary distinction.1 He regarded art and medicine as “two parts of a whole,” and the intimate doctor-patient interface proved a…
-
The Lewis and Clark Expedition: Medical ethics in uncharted territory
David BlitzerNew York, New York, United StatesAlvise GuarientoToronto, Ontario, CanadaRobert M. SadeCharleston, South Carolina, United States In 1803, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, with the backing of President Jefferson and the federal government of the newly created United States, set out to find the coveted Northwest Passage, an all-water route through North America. The primary…
-
Charles Richard Box: physician, pathologist, and infectious disease pioneer
Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, UK The name Charles Richard Box is perhaps not as well-known as some of the medical contemporaries of his time. He had a brilliant career in medicine at his alma mater but his nature and personality did not result in popularity and fame in society circles. As Alex Munthe, the author of…
-
Doctor Schiller
Nicolas Roberto RoblesBadajoz, Spain Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was born on November 10, 1759 in Marbach, Württemberg, Germany. His father, Johann Caspar Schiller, was a regimental surgeon in the service of Duke Karl Eugen of Württemberg. Schiller (1759–1805) is best known for his immense influence on German literature. In his relatively short life, he…
-
Blood under the moon: The role of astrology in surgery
Margareta-Erminia CassaniMichigan, United States Imagine your doctor telling you that you need surgery. Then they follow that unsettling news with something, well, a little strange sounding. They tell you that the date picked for your surgery needs to occur during a waning moon to control bleeding. After you have stared blankly at them for a…
-
Gymnopédie
Mark TanNorthwest Deanery, UK Oblique et coupant l’ombre un torrent éclatantRuisselait en flots d’or sur la dalle polieOù les atomes d’ambre au feu se miroitantMêlaient leur sarabande à la gymnopédie [English translation]: Slanting and shadow-cutting a bursting streamTrickled in gusts of gold on the shiny flagstoneWhere the amber atoms in the fire gleamingMingled their sarabande…
-
Mrs. M’s refusal
Ladan GolestanehBronx, New York, United States My role as a physician includes foregoing a prescriptive approach to some patients in favor of a supportive one. Yielding to a belief system that does not fit the structure of my many years of training feels like a personal failure. But sometimes I know I have to listen…