Tag: Winter 2022
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The illness of King George III
JMS PearceHull, England, United Kingdom The Hanoverian King George III (1738–1820) was a diligent man of wit and intelligence, a man who enhanced the reputation of the British monarchy until he was finally stricken by illness. When this drove him from regal duties, politicians realized they missed his calming effect on their squabbles.1 In many…
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“Between false modesty … and conceit” – Sir Roger Bannister
Jack RiggsDavid WatsonMorgantown, West Virginia, United States Give me one moment in timeWhen I’m racing with destinyThen in that one moment of timeI will feel, I will feel eternity —Albert Hammond and John Bettis, “One Moment in Time” Sir Roger Bannister is perhaps the most famous neurologist in history, yet few associate his name with…
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The Great War and the other war
Maryline AlhajjBeirut, Lebanon The reverberations of October 29, 1914 would carry throughout the lands of the Ottoman Empire and serve as an ominous premonition of disastrous years to come. On that day, following a surprise attack on Russia’s Black Sea coast,1 the Empire entered World War I. It was the beginning of the end, as…
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The “Ne-Uro” mess
Nishitha BujalaHyderabad, Telangana, India When I took my oral exams in the final year of medical school, I was tested on surgical instruments by an external professor. He appeared to be in his sixties and stern. As a conversation starter, he asked my favorite specialty. “Neurology,” I answered. As a professor of urology, he was…
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Hope
Rima NasserBeirut, Lebanon “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” – Martin Luther King, Jr. This is not an incendiary rant about the politicians and people whose greed and inhumaneness pushed Lebanon into an abyss of ignorance and dereliction. This also is not a tale averring the grandeur of this magical country…
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The Warsaw ghetto hunger study
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “The organism which is destroyed by prolonged hunger is like a candle which burns out: life disappears gradually without a shock to the naked eye.”– Emil Apfelbaum, M.D., prisoner in the Warsaw Ghetto Nazi Germany invaded Poland in September 1939. One year later, the 450,000 Jews of Warsaw were confined to a…
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August Von Platen, inspiration for Death in Venice
Nicolas Roberto RoblesBandajoz, Spain Weil da, wo Schönheit waltet, Liebe waltet Because where beauty reigns, love reigns – Sonette aus Venedig. August von Platen was a German poet whose death inspired Thomas Mann to write Death in Venice. Descended from an impoverished noble family, he attended the Cadet School at Munich from ages ten to…
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Disaster code
Nohad MasriBeirut, Lebanon It was six in the evening and we were finishing our hematology board virtual meeting. Because COVID-19 cases were again on the rise, the hospital staff was working at half capacity, with the other half at home. The chemotherapy unit patients had finished their treatments and the nurses were writing up their…