Feelings Which Strike a Chord, and Chords Which Strike a Feeling

To strike or not to strike.

Strike a woman, you strike a rock: a tribute to (two) nurses.

South Africa recently lost a valiant woman, who was a nurse. The above quotations, attributed to Florence Nightingale, the founder of the nursing profession, might equally well have been uttered by Ma Albertina Sisulu. Reading the histories of the two women, 3,4 one born in 1820, the other a century later in 1918, one finds several intriguing parallels. Each made up her mind not to marry, decid...

Strike action - what then?

Resident doctors on strike.

‘Non sibi sed omnibus’. Not for one but for all. This is the overriding principle in the mind of all doctors while practising their vocation. The care and welfare of patients are the primary considerations of the medical profession. Seldom do you see a doctor who prioritizes his interests before those of his patients. If patient care is the issue, he will disregard any amount of inconvenience c...

Why migraines strike.

For the more than 300 million people who suffer migraines, the excruciating, pulsating pain that characterizes these debilitating headaches needs no description. For those who do not, the closest analogous experience might be severe altitude sickness: nausea, acute sensitivity to light, and searing, bedconfining headache. “That no one dies of migraine seems, to someone deep into an attack, an a...