Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Summer 2014

  • Letter from South Sudan: War through a mother’s eyes

    Wangira Dorcas OsungaKenya, Nairobi Our village Mading is at the heart of South Sudan. We are 120 miles away from Juba, the capital. We are at the East Bank, fed by the White Nile. The weather is tropical, with a rare wet season. Our land is not green, nor does it bear much fruit. Perhaps that…

  • Building a legend

    Vladimir Simunovic Croati   During the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina the number of health care professionals declined precipitously. None of those who stayed were trained or mentally prepared to work under war conditions. Nobody had taught us skills that would be useful in war, and some of us found ourselves in roles we never expected to…

  • Christiaan Barnard

    Shameemah AbrahamsSouth Africa The year 1945 is iconic as the end of one of the most pivotal and devastating periods in human history—World War II. That same year, as the world began to rebuild, in the coastal city of Cape Town at the tip of Africa, a young medical graduate began what would become an…

  • René G. Favaloro: one world is not enough

    Judith Wagner München, Germany     Dr. René G. Favaloro “If you don’t know exactly where you’re heading by age 30, you won’t have a career in university medicine.” This phrase, which I heard on my first job interview, remained stuck somewhat menacingly in my head. Is it truly the condition sine qua non of…

  • Joseph Lister and the story of antiseptic surgery

    In some respects the year 1860 represents a watershed in the history of surgery. It was the year when a young surgeon from the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary by the name of Joseph Lister came to the University of Glasgow to take up the position of Regius Professor of Surgery. It was also a time when…

  • Our attitudes towards disease, a Ciceronian legacy

    Andrés D. PelavskiBarcelona, Spain Personal letters provide a window into the beliefs, perceptions, and patterns of interpersonal interaction within a society at a given period. Considering that health issues are part of humans’ daily concerns, epistles are a great testimony to the manner in which their writer perceived them. This is much more evident in…

  • Andreas Vesalius: Wesel to Basel

    Wyn BeasleyWellington, New Zealand The Witing family—or Witjing or Witincx; spelling was capricious in those days—originated in Wesel, at the junction of the Rhine and Lippe rivers, and its members were court physicians. Peter is supposed to have attended the Emperor Frederik III, who reigned 1440-1493, and he translated a treatise of Avicenna, which became…

  • Rembrandt—The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp

    Tan ChenGrand Rapids, Michigan, United States Rembrandt’s The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp depicts a rare occasion of a public dissection in Amsterdam in 1632. This painting was commissioned by the Amsterdam Guild of Surgeons during the time Dr. Tulp held the office of Praelector in Anatomy. Dr. Tulp, a well-known civic leader and…

  • Laughing in the face of death: Ruysch, dark humor & subversion of the memento mori in anatomical art

    Stefania SpanoKingston, Ontario, Canada A history of dark humor Humor is an ancient tool for subverting tragedy. Parody and satire persuade audiences that even the greatest of grief can be made comical. Art and literature vicariously teach audiences to laugh at their own pains and thus grow beyond them. And what greater pain exists than…

  • Leonardo’s anatomical studies: From ancient imaginations to meticulous observations

    Julia KingNew York, United States Leonardo da Vinci was a “Renaissance man” in the truest sense, contributing his inexhaustible talent to many fields, including anatomy. In a time when medicine was still rudimentary and dissection was viewed with disdain, Leonardo plowed through with his keen intellectual curiosity and honed draughtsman skills. His work on anatomy…