How Illness Changed Robert Louis Stevenson’s Life

Robert Lewis Stevenson (1850-1894) was one of the best-known authors of his day. He was a paradox; he traveled widely, yet was weak and sickly all of his life. He spent much of his life in bed or in a sickroom, yet he wrote wonderful adventures like Kidnapped and...

Do You Need a Mad Stone in Your First Aid Kit?

First of all, what in the world is a mad stone? Smooth, odd-shaped, unusually colored, of almost any size, mad stones are miraculous objects possessing healing powers. They are actually bezoars, hairball-like concretions found in the stomachs of animals such as deer...

On Call with a Non-Doctor Husband

I’d already been in practice for several years when I married John. I had had years of training in night call, during med school, internship, residency, and private practice. He, poor guy, had not. So, it was a new world to him. It was in the days before call centers...

Polio and an Unsung Hero

Now, here’s a must-read book! Lynn Cullen’s latest book, The Woman with the Cure, is historical fiction about the last great polio epidemic of the 1950s and race to find a vaccine. Dr. Dorothy Horstmann, a pediatrician, epidemiologist, and virologist was the first...

Remembering my Mentor on International Women’s Day

I met Dr. Ruth O’Neal in 1975 when I was applying to medical schools. A gruff, older, white-haired lady, she was one of several doctors who interviewed me at Bowman Gray School of Medicine, now called Wake Forest. I remember it so clearly. I wanted medical school more...