Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: physicians

  • The pandemic: A medical student’s perspective

    Saira Elizabeth AlexHouston, Texas, United States As medical students, we eagerly await the start of clinical rotations since the first day of school; we anticipate building memorable connections with our colleagues and patients. This is an account of my days as a medical student, three months into clinical rotations, during the COVID-19 pandemic. I write…

  • The bedside manners of Ingmar Bergman’s celluloid physicians

    Eelco WijdicksRochester, Minnesota, United States The great humanitarian filmmaker and auteur Ingmar Bergman used physicians in his films much more frequently than his peers. Bergman’s full filmography, including two films (Thirst and Brink of Life) directed by but not written by Bergman, features sixteen physicians in thirteen films. Excluding the family doctor in Fanny and…

  • The Plague and physician burnout

    Geoffrey RubinMark AbramsD. Edmund AnsteyNew York, New York, United States In Albert Camus’ novel The Plague,1 Doctor Rieux is a consummate physician, a hero and a “true healer.” His main charge is to compassionately perform his duty—a matter, in his words, of “common decency”—despite the personal risk of infection and death. Rieux embodies the Oslerian…

  • Ernest Henry Starling and the birth of English Physiology

    JMS Pearce Hull, England Science has only one language, quantity, and only one argument, the experiment-EH Starling Ernest Henry Starling (1866-1927) (Fig 1) was an outstanding figure in the development of physiology whose prolific contributions made him one of the foremost scientists of his time. He was born on 17 April 1866 at 2 Barnsbury Square,…

  • Hippocrates, abortion, and cutting for stone

    John RaffenspergerFort Meyers, Florida, United States Physicians who take The Oath of Hippocrates swear not to perform abortions or operate for bladder stones: Similarly, I will not give to a woman a pessary to cause abortion. But I will keep pure and holy both in my life and art. I will not use the knife,…

  • Certifying clinical competence: principles from the caliphate of al-Muqtadir

    Faraze NiaziJack RiggsMorgantown, West Virginia, United States “The devil is always in the details.”“Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.”—Two Old Wise Sayings Certifying clinical competence has virtually universal support. After all, who does not want their doctor to be competent? Moreover, how many physicians feel that they are incompetent? Despite…

  • Blood is the life

    Saameer Pani Sydney, Australia Vampire—the very word itself conjures up images of supernatural creatures who look not unlike you and me, prowl about at night, prey on unsuspecting souls, and sink their fangs into innumerable, hapless victims to quench their thirst for blood. Monstrous but beautiful, repulsive yet magnetic, vampires have fascinated us for centuries…

  • John Arbuthnot: physician, wit, and creator of John Bull

    JMS PearceHull, England, United Kingdom In the light of recent British parliamentary chaos, by chance I discovered this irresistible quotation: “All political parties die at last of swallowing their own lies”-John Arbuthnot At a time when in most westernized countries physicians and many others are disenchanted by politicians’ self-aggrandizement and expansionist policies, this little aphorism…

  • There is power in the blood

    Mark TanNorthwest Deanery, UK “Carne fa carne e vino fa sango” [Meat makes flesh and wine makes blood]—Italian proverb Laura was covered in blood when the paramedics arrived at her house. Her husband, in a state of shock, had gathered every available towel in the vicinity, but it seemed too little and too late. Blood…

  • Bloodletting with leeches: More dangerous than meeting Dracula

    S. Sabrina Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan Since time immemorial physicians have treated patients by removing various amounts of blood from the circulatory system. For this purpose they used objects that could cut the skin, such as sharpened pieces of wood, stones, teeth of wild animals, or even the feathers of birds. These tools changed over time, and…