Tag: Spring 2016
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Matushka’s ordeal
Sarah Irawa Parañaque City, Philippines Catherine the Great Stefan Zweig, Marie Antoinette’s biographer, wrote of his heroine as “the most signal example in history in which destiny will at times pluck a human being from obscurity and, with commanding hand, force the man or woman in question to overstep the bounds of mediocrity.” The…
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A forbidden truth
Bhupesh Prusty Würzburg, Germany It was a sultry Friday afternoon in India. Being a first year PhD student, I had to run to the outpatient department (OPD) of city’s biggest women’s hospital to collect fresh cervical biopsy samples. I was the excited, young, graduate student. I felt like a doctor, wearing a crisp white…
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Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilych, and the five stages of grief
Katharine LawrenceFlorida, United States Ivan Ilych saw that he was dying, and he was in continual despair. “Vermiform appendix! Kidney!” he said to himself. “It’s not a question of appendix or kidney, but of life and . . . death. Yes, life was there and now it is going, going and I cannot stop it.…
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Richard Selzer: the birth of literature and medicine
Mahala StriplingFort Worth, Texas, United States Richard Selzer was among the first physicians to understand the power of writing and reading fiction within medicine.He helped to open up this whole territory to those of us who came after. His legacy is, on the one hand, the text—what he’s written—and, on the other hand, what I…
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What November may bring: The first 37 days of surgical anesthesia
A.J. WrightBirmingham, Alabama, United States In medical history October 16 is known as “Ether Day” to commemorate dentist William Morton’s 1846 demonstration of ether inhalation for a surgical patient of Dr. John Collins Warren. The event is often described as the first public ether anesthetic because it took place before an audience of physicians and…
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Changing conceptions of the nightmare in medicine
Brian SharplessUnited States In contemporary parlance the word “nightmare” conjures up images of a scary dream that leaves us shaken and afraid. This fear usually subsides when we wake and realize that we are actually safe in our own bedroom. However, the original conception of the “Nightmare” was much more vivid and terrifying, even seen…
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The power of sound
Robert SiegelLos Angeles, California, United States Waking from a deep sleep or a dream can trigger a memory with an ethereal quality. This is especially true when the memory is more than 50 years old. I grew up in a home where nocturnal parties were frequent. These gatherings were attended by actors and artists, and…
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Alexander Scriabin: incarnations of mysticism and philosophies
Julia Price Irvine, California, United States Alexander Scriabin Since the brilliant creation of humanity on this planet, the mysteries of our universe have declared themselves instrumental to the question of who and what we are as life forms on this planet. Without thought the more we live. The more we begin to understand how…
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Saint John of God and the origins of nursing
Nicolas Roberto Robles Badajoz, Spain Figure 1: St John of God Hospital, Granada, Spain, Real Academia Nacional de Medicina, 1950 The first biography of St. John of God was written by Francisco de Castro and is the source for most of what we know about his life. He was born João Duarte Cidade in…
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Scribonius Largus
Felipe Fernandez del CastilloMassachusetts, United States We don’t know much about Scribonius Largus. The first century Roman physician has been overshadowed by more famous medical authors like Celsus, Pliny, and Galen. Dismissed by one scholar as “second rate”,1 Scribonius has lurked for centuries in the footnotes of history textbooks and journal articles, and the bulk…