Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Royal Victoria Hospital

  • Book review: Frank Pantridge MC

    Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, United Kingdom Frank Pantridge is not a name that is widely known. His most important legacy is the design of the portable defibrillator, a device that has saved countless lives. In this biography, Cecil Lowry tells the story of this remarkable doctor from Belfast, Northern Ireland. Pantridge survived as a prisoner of…

  • Blood on the road

    Anne Marie Appelgren Málaga, Spain “The wounded are dying, searching for blood. Now the blood can move, now the blood can search out the wounded.” – Norman Bethune “Bethune was a man of destiny. He lived and died for blood.” – Hazen Sise On a gray evening in London in the fall of 1936, a…

  • The night the troubles erupted in Belfast

    Alun EvansBelfast, United Kingdom When I qualified in medicine at the Queen’s University of Belfast in 1968, Northern Ireland was a curious cocktail of sectarianism and garden parties. I soon discovered that winning the medal in surgery was not such a bright idea when I began my postgraduate career as Professor Harold Rodgers’ single-handed house…