Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: tetralogy of Fallot

  • Sir Robert Carswell, illustrious medical illustrator 

    Paris during the greater part of the nineteenth century was the mecca of medicine, home of great surgeons and great physicians. Doctors from all over the world flocked to its hospitals to learn from its famous professors and study pathology in their amply supplied dissecting rooms. Among these students was a Scottish physician named Robert…

  • Character, genius, and a missing person in medicine

    Carrie BarronAustin, Texas, USA “He is the most un-talked about, unacknowledged, unknown and most important figure in the African American community…A genius.”1 In 1944, a surgeon with his trusted guide by his side performed the very first open-heart surgery on a fifteen-month-old, nine-pound girl. 1930, Nashville. A twenty-year old African-American man, honors student, and son…

  • A fortunate man

    Martin Duke Mystic, Connecticut, United States   Earlier in the week the last patients were seen, their records given to them or sent to their new physicians, and the final farewells were said. The movers have left, and the office is now empty except for an old cast-iron medicine cabinet, a pencil sharpener attached to…

  • Helen Taussig: founder and mother of pediatric cardiology

    Colin Phoon New York, United States   Helen B. Taussig Licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia On November 29, 1944, a landmark operation arose from the collaboration of three pioneers: Alfred Blalock, Helen Taussig, and Vivien Thomas.1 Now carrying the eponym of the Blalock-Taussig shunt, this was the first “blue baby” operation done during a…