Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Spring 2013

  • All life is a gift

    “I am tired,” said Mr. Hale. “I’m fifty-five years of age, and that little fact of itself accounts for any loss of strength.”“Nonsense! I’m upward of sixty and feel no strength, either bodily or mental. Don’t let me hear you talking so. Fifty-five! Why, you’re quite a young man.”-Elisabeth Gaskell, North and South, 1855 At…

  • Does art belong in a doctor’s office?

    Sally MetzlerChicago, Illinois, United States Does art belong in a doctor’s office? According to Sinclair Lewis, a resounding Yes!—so long as the art hangs on antiseptic white walls. In his 1925 novel Arrowsmith, Lewis described the ideal medical reception room—a combination of two warring schools of thought, the Tapestry and the Antiseptic. His father was…

  • The doctor in bed with the patient

    Solomon PosenSydney, Australia The act of getting into bed with a patient, which would normally be regarded as indecent and highly unprofessional, may be totally free of lecherous implications. Strong’s doctor has been summoned to deliver an elderly primipara, who lives with her crofter husband in an isolated one-roomed cottage on an island off the…

  • The vindictive departmental chairman: a hospital tale of the 1970’s

    Solomon PosenSydney, Australia The main plot in Neil Ravin’s M.D.1 is the ongoing tension at Manhattan Hospital2 between two unevenly matched protagonists: Professor Maxwell Baptist, the Chairman of Medicine and Dr. William Ryan, a somewhat naïve resident who dislikes “kissing ass,” particularly Baptist’s ass. Predictably this attitude annoys the chairman, and Ryan pays the appropriate…

  • Mr. Hemphill

    Lynn DionNew York City, New York, USA Alles wandelt sich. Neu beginnenKannst du mit dem letzten Atemzug.Aber was geschehen, ist geschehen. Und das WasserDas du in den Wein gossest, kannst duNicht mehr herausschütten.Was geschehen, ist geschehen. Das WasserDas du in den Wein gossest, kannst duNicht mehr herausschütten, aberAlles wandelt sich. Neu beginnenKannst du mit dem…

  • Humanism in medicine

    Annie YehLouisiana, New Orleans, USA As medical students, we are taught the “art of medicine” and the importance of gathering a thorough patient history. “Ninety percent of your diagnosis comes from the history,” we are told. And to do so, we must establish a rapport with our patients. We enter the lives of patients at…

  • The last of the “just”

    R. SteinbergCambridge, Massachusetts, United States My dentist approached the chair to crown one of my favorite teeth. I am a retired orthopedic surgeon, and a fearful dental patient. I smiled sadly, and opened. When she removed the swab, I proposed a challenge. “Could you get through one day of patients without saying ‘just’?” She grinned.…

  • Reflections on the practice of treatment for drug dependence

    Carla TreloarAustralia The funeral was on a stifling January day in Sydney. The formal, stiff clothes I had put on that morning were damp and limp within minutes outside the air-conditioned car. I greeted the few people I knew who were milling outside the chapel awaiting the arrival of the family and the undertaker’s car.…

  • The heart in Star Trek

    Victor GrechTal-Qroqq Star Trek (ST) is a fictional utopian future history depicting how humanity might develop up to the 24th century. The series and movies comprise a metanarrative that encompasses 735 hours of viewing time, and thereby provides a fertile ground for analysis of various areas of critical study. In several ST episodes, the heart…

  • Saving hearts and art

    Maria Serratto-BenvenutoRiccardo BenvenutoChicago, Illinois, United States In 1960 a girl was born in the small commune of Mele, some 25 miles from Genoa. She had a heart murmur and her skin was blue. The doctors in Italy declared her condition inoperable, and according to the practice of the time she was confined to her bed.…