Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Spring 2017

  • The Craft of Medical Reflection

    JTH ConnorSt. John’s, Newfoundland Allan Peterkin is a professor of psychiatry and family medicine at the University of Toronto, Canada. As a teacher and author he is probably best known for his survival guide to post graduate medical studies, Staying Human During Residency Training: How to Survive and Thrive after Medical School, which is now…

  • Reluctance

    Ken Williams Cambria, CA, USA    Agent Orange being sprayed during the Vietnam War Triple canopy jungle stripped bare by Agent Orange Reluctance weighing his heels slowing his pace doctor enters Face gray with worry body tight with knowledge my wife’s grip tightens Blood count wrong responding not they’ve done all says he, also, “You…

  • Poetry Series

    Simon Perchik East Hampton, NY, USA   Rothko Squared by Brett Jordan Without an address your hands lean across –another crease making the final correction though this note still opens out windblown, fingerprints everywhere on her lips on her breasts, on the bed sheet folded and over, warmed for its nakedness and side by side…

  • Strokes

    Stephen Mead Albany, New York, USA   Commitment/Knowing, watercolor pencil on canvas paper Who am I?  Nobody but myself. Here I lie, quite anchored, a hesitant child led by questions which assure proper response. I grant them whatever they want, a nod or a name. From them I expect nothing less and get plenty of,…

  • Joseph Babinski of the Babinski Sign

    Joseph Babinski. Portrait by Deschiens. US National Library of Medicine. Via Wikimedia. Public domain. In 1848 populist revolutions swept across Europe, in Germany, France, and Italy—and also in Poland, where an uprising to gain independence from Russia was ruthlessly suppressed. To escape the repression that followed, Aleksander and Henryieta Babinski fled to France. Their son…

  • The blue pain

    Shirali Raina Noida, India   Deliverance Photography and digital effects by Shirali Raina His black smudged, The white blurred, Grey and only grey His shadowed world. Breathing in doubt, Breathing out dread. Angels in his heart, And demons in the head. His mind in tatters, Blue, blue the pain. Shunned and ragged, The world of…

  • Aequanimitas and apathy

    Lee W. Eschenroeder Charlottesville, Virginia   Sir William Osler On May 1, 1889, Sir William Osler, one of the greatest clinicians and educators of all time, stood before students at the University of Pennsylvania and delivered the valedictory address “Aequanimitas.” Since that day equanimity, or “imperturbability” as Osler also named it, has become one of…

  • Portraiture in the head and neck cancer clinic: A patient’s perspective

    Mark GilbertHalifax, Nova Scotia, Canada James E. Van ArsdallOmaha, Nebraska, United States I first met Scottish artist Mark Gilbert in 2013 as a participant in his Ph.D. dissertation study, “The Experience of Portraiture in Clinical Settings” [EPICS]. I was introduced to the study during a follow-up appointment with my head and neck cancer surgeon. Twelve…

  • New York Lungs

    Slavena Salve Nissan New York City, NY, USA   Corazonada Fernando Vicente do i have new york lungs like you? the same bits of black in my upper lobes? i sure hope i do i want my beloved city to leave its mark in me the way it did in you after that first time…

  • Kirkleatham Hospital

    Stephen Martin Mahasarakham   Figure 1. Kirkleatham Hospital Art and architecture in historic almshouses provided aesthetic pleasure, improved self-esteem and attended to spiritual need. An example of early Enlightenment philanthropy in the English village of Kirkleatham, Cleveland, provides major humanitarian lessons for the planners of today. East Cleveland was used to progressive thinking. A remarkable…