Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Winter 2018

  • Pursuit of immortality: Dr. Amosov

    Olena Lupalo Bursa, Turkey   Portrait of Nikolai Amosov. Photo by L. Sherstennikov. In 1962, after his visit to the USA, heart surgeon Nikolai Amosov (1913-2002) became obsessed by artificial heart valves. There were no opportunities for this in the Soviet Union – neither information nor technology. Amosov sewed his first cusp of the artificial…

  • A love story

    Kate Rowland Chicago, Illinois, United States   “Is that her partner in there with her?” Ankita, a second-year resident, and I had just finished seeing a new patient, Marian. Marian’s detailed problem list had required an equally detailed visit, and Ankita had addressed her urgent issues: uncontrolled diabetes, cirrhosis, and stage 3 congestive heart failure.…

  • The last talk

    Inge Marry Shikangala Windhoek, Namibia   Alike but Different, by Inge Marry Shikangala, 2017 In April 2016, I took my father to Engela State Hospital at the northern border of Namibia. This was the nearest hospital, but still twenty kilometers away from where my father lived. My two cousins helped me get my very tall…

  • Washington’s deadliest enemy

    Kathryn ToneWiesbaden, Germany As Commander of the Continental Army, General George Washington is famously remembered for the surprise 1776 Christmas attack on the Hessian garrison in Trenton, New Jersey. A bold, relatively spontaneous decision, the attack was a last-ditch effort to salvage some sort of victory after some punishing eight months of humiliating defeats from…

  • Women changing medicine

    Lesley CampbellDarlinghurst, New South Wales, Australia This is my account of three generations of women doctors in my family who in different times and different places were subjected to persecution or at least discrimination because of their race, religion, and gender. The account is written in the hope that society in general and medicine in…

  • The seeds of resilience

    Bryanne Standifer Redford, Michigan, United States   Downtown Detroit, MI  “When I think about the city of Detroit, I don’t see a city filled with unskilled and uneducated laborers, I see a platform of opportunity.” One Friday morning in high school, I counted fourteen murders in one week in the city that I call home. …

  • Death and new-doctor eyes

    Katrina GenuisVancouver, Canada   With slim cuts to her wrists, she came into the emergency room and said she wanted to die. “This is clearly a cry for attention,” others said. “Send the new doctor to stitch her up.” I sat by her bed with a 30-gauge lidocaine-filled needle and 4.0 nylon sutures, and began…

  • Dance with death

    Marianne Rogoff Kentfield, California, USA   “All that is important is this one moment in movement. Make the moment important,vital, and worth living. Do not let it slip away unnoticed and unused.” ― Martha Graham Stephanie lived alone in a rented cottage at the back of a garden path. When she was dying at age fifty…

  • The healing art of listening

    Charles Paccione Oslo, Norway   Goldsworthy, Andy. Born 1956. Watercolour. Great Britain in 1991-1992. In storage, museum no.: E. 705-1993 Throughout my years of working with patients, both as a therapist and as a clinical researcher, I have been consistently reminded of the important role storytelling plays in fortifying a healing bond between patient and caregiver. Listening…

  • The battle of the vivisected dog

    Jack Effron Bagmara, Bangladesh    The original 1906 statue that caused all the trouble. Medical education has not always been left to the professionals. In the past, and especially in London in the first decade of the twentieth century, it has become a political issue and caused rioting in the streets. On February 2, 1903,…