Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Vietnam War

  • Lasting effects of Agent Orange

    Ceres Alhelí Otero PenicheMexico City, Mexico Agent Orange was an herbicide used by the United States military from 1962 to 1971 in the Vietnam War. To prevent Vietnamese soldiers from being able to hide among the trees, Agent Orange was used to clear forests in the regions of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. It was also…

  • William Halse Rivers Rivers

    JMS PearceHull, England William Rivers MD FRCP FRS (1864-1922) William Rivers (Fig 1) was a most unusual man, a polymath with careers in neuroscience, ethnology, and psychology. But above all—notwithstanding or perhaps because of personal nervous constraints—he was a man of originality and great humanity. Son of a churchman, he was born in Luton, near…

  • Prisoners on leave: Vietnam veterans and the Golden Age Western

    Edward Harvey Missoula, Montana, United States “I think we all died a little in that damn war.”—The Outlaw Josey Wales “So…what have you been up to?” When screening combat Vietnam veterans for post-traumatic stress disorder, I will often ask them about their hobbies or interests, since PTSD often manifests as an inability to find pleasure in…

  • Avant garde research on a blood substitute at the Hektoen Institute of Medical Research

    Jayant Radhakrishnan Darien, Illinois, United States   From Left to Right: Gerald S Moss MD, Richard Brinkman MD, Lakshman Sehgal PhD, Robert Forest DVM. June 1975, photograph of the team with the first baboon resuscitated with stroma free hemoglobin after being bled down to a hemoglobin concentration of zero. Photo taken by the author. The…

  • Resolution

    Gaetan SgroPittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States noun1. an expression of will or intent; a commitment In June 1965, Edward White, one of two astronauts aboard the Gemini IV mission, becomes the first American to walk in space. He floats free of the capsule for twenty minutes, and is so transfixed by the experience that Gus Grissom,…

  • Reluctance

    Ken WilliamsCambria, CA, USA Reluctanceweighing his heelsslowing his pacedoctor entersFace gray with worrybody tight with knowledgemy wife’s grip tightens Blood count wrongresponding notthey’ve done allsays he,also, “You must let goof the guilt” He exitsmy wifeIhugcry“You must let goof the guilt,”says she I must let go of the guiltI admonish myselfafter allI was merely a gruntA…

  • “Dust Off” and the power of perseverance

    Robert RobesonLincoln, Nebraska, United States “…I think I should say one word, too, a special word, about the ‘Dust Offs’–the Medevacs. This was a great group of men. All those who flew them, all those who did it. Courage above and beyond the call of duty was sort of routine to them. It was a…

  • Found and lost in Vietnam

    Lynn SadlerBurlington, North Carolina, United States War alters, shapes, and re-shapes far different ends even for members of the same family. Clarence Leon (“Boone”) McNeill (1947-1969) and Joseph Nelson Hargrove (1951-1975) are illustrative not only in that telling way but also salute the tenacity of Americans in honoring their veterans. Their names are inscribed on…