Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Platelets

  • The sight of blood

    Joanne JacobsonNew York, New York, United States None of us live to adulthood without seeing our own blood—growing up, I witnessed my blood flow free of my body too many times to count. The bleeding knee picked clean of leaves and gravel after my father sent me spinning down the driveway on my birthday bike;…

  • Where the unusual was usual: The Cook County Hospital blood bank

    Jayant Radhakrishnan Chicago, Illinois, United States   Surgical resident, Dr. Bohdan Iwanetz, trying to coax a recalcitrant little girl to drink her bottle. May 1977 Pediatric Surgery Ward 46 in the Cook County Children’s Hospital There are those who claim that the first blood collection and transfusion services were started by Percy Oliver of the…

  • The time between our hands

    Samantha Below Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States   The hospital. Photo by Piron Guillaume on Unsplash Thread passes from the tools in your hands to be pulled by mine. You suture the vessels. I clear the path of knots. Our posture is separated by inches, our hearts by hand-breadths. Our hands are identical in the vibrations…