Tag: Winter 2015
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Arthur Wohlmann and the Rotorua Health Spa
Stewart CameronHalifax, Nova Scotia, Canada Dr. Arthur Stanley Wohlmann played a pivotal role in the history of New Zealand despite his great project being a calamity. Even his discipline lost stature, yet Wohlmann himself retains a positive reputation in history. In the late 1800s, the British colony of New Zealand was promoting tourism as it…
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Elizabeth Fleischmann-Aschheim
Rebekah AbramovichNew York, United States Elizabeth Fleischmann-Aschheim (1865–1905) opened California’s first X-ray photography laboratory in 1896, merely one year after Roentgen’s discovery. Over the course of the next decade, this unlikely figure would become one of the most respected radiographers of those pioneering years. She was born in 1865 in El Dorado County, California, one…
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Ethical dilemmas in surrogacy
Ragini KulkarniMaharashtra, India Motherhood is the most beautiful and divine gift to a woman. Every woman has a dream and a natural instinct that she will become a mother and nurture a baby. Unfortunately for some couples fulfilling this dream becomes impossible due to medical reasons. In such cases the concept of surrogacy has evolved…
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Easy come, easy go
Anthony PapagiannisThessaloniki, Greece The invitation to talk to an informal gathering of his colleagues had come out of the blue. One of the major drug companies in his field had arranged to bring together a score of physicians in an educational opportunity to be held in one of the upper crust restaurants of the city,…
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Since I could not stop death, he kindly stopped for me
Ruth DemingWillow Grove, Pennsylvania, United States Never were two sisters as close as Lori and I. It hardly mattered we were married and had our husbands, our passel of kids, and each earned a nice living at our jobs. Lori owned a string of nail salons in suburban Philadelphia called “Lorelei’s” while I was co-owner…
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Kiran
Katherine ArnupOttawa, Canada “We have a new man in Room 7,” the hospice co-ordinator explained in our morning briefing. “He’s 76, Indian, and very private. And he doesn’t like appellations.” “Appellations?” “You know, like ‘sweetie’, or ‘dear’. He doesn’t really like that sort of thing,” the coordinator explained. “Who would do that?” I asked, incredulous.…
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Comics as a means of observation and reflection
Rose GlennersterBrighton, United Kingdom Comics have long been used as a way of attacking cultural and political hierarchy, as has the art of caricature.1,2 They can also be used as a way to explore and understand the link between the medical profession and the rest of society.3 My comic is not intended to be a…
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Avicenna, the prince of physicians
Shireen RafeeqIslamabad, Pakistan When Husain Ibn Sina said in his memoirs that he understood all the sciences “as far as is humanly possible,” he was not exaggerating.1 Known to the West as Avicenna, he was one of the most extraordinary men ever to grace this earth. Sir William Osler called him “the prototype of the…
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Patients bearing gifts
Anthony PapagiannisThessaloniki, Greece It is not uncommon for practicing clinicians to receive gifts of gratitude. Patients have their way of expressing their appreciation for whatever service they believe we offered them in the course of their health misadventures. The prevalence of gift-giving may vary with the healthcare system (state or private), the status and location…
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The song of diabetes
Annabelle SlingerlandWouter JukemaThe Netherlands We would like to thank Dr. Robin Seeley and Rosemary McNally. Preface Type 1 and type 2 diabetes are now so routinely diagnosed and treated that we rarely consider their origins. However, this distinction did not officially exist until it first appeared in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) in 1965.…