Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Utah

  • Bone headdress

    Susan SampleSalt Lake City, Utah, United States After artwork created by a person with cancer Why tens of bones linkedwith silver chain intoan earthly veil? I gaze at other entries:hand-stitched quiltswith undulating seams. I am accustomedto O’Keeffe’s paintingof the lone cow skull; Ezekiel’s storyof dry, disconnectedbones strewn in a valley until divine breathbinds bone to…

  • Omentum: Much more than “policeman of the abdomen”

    Ashok SinghChicago, Illinois, United States The omentum is a curtain-like tissue that hangs from the bottom edge of the stomach and covers the abdominal organs below. It is a lattice of adipose (fat) cells peppered with islands of compact tissue known as milky spots, which are clusters of macrophages, lymphocytes, and hematopoietic cells. The omentum…

  • Hidden heroes

    Candace ThomasSalt Lake City, Utah, United States Being a blood banker is an interesting job and one not many understand. “So you draw people’s blood?” No, that’s a phlebotomist. “Oh, but you work in a hospital. Are you a nurse?” No. “If I donate blood, can I request you?” Still no. Everything a blood banker…

  • Thinking of my dying grandmother at the Natural History Museum

    Roxana CazanAltoona, Pennsylvania, United States At the Natural History Museumin Salt Lake City, I am promised“the assemblage of nature’s ultimatemachine,” its precise lurking,one foot crossing the Silurian,its simian lurch trapped behindshatterproof glass.I zigzag through the dinosaur world,the tender bend of boney necks,their petrified savagery mintedinto thick layers of shale,their swift death on display.When I pass…