“This piece reminds me of the life that I see every day and brings up memories of the many people I was honored to know throughout my career. Every day brought new challenges, joys and sorrows, and as a chaplain I was fortunate to walk their walk.”
“This photo was taken on my walk to work at a busy emergency room in Manhattan’s Washington Heights neighborhood. For me, this image captures the soul of the neighborhood. I imagine the young man representating the Dominican and Cuban populations, and his brightly colored hoodie representing the vitality of Washington Heights.”
“I lost my twenty-five-year-old son to a heroin overdose in March 2017. This collage expresses the struggle my son had with addiction, the pain I suffered as his mother and the journey of losing my child. Underneath his disease of addiction, my son was a beautiful person. Through art and writing, I have found meaning and hope in my process of grief.”
About the artwork:
This photograph was taken by Alison Hartman, Adam’s mother, at the graveside unveiling ceremony one year after her son’s death. At the request of the family, the unveiling was conducted by Adam’s physician, Dr. Shapir Rosenberg.
Mother:
“A child’s death is an unimaginable loss. My son Adam died of a heroin overdose. He struggled with addiction for over a
“This looks like luggage, but it represents love. Our group of US surgeons brings as many surgical supplies as possible each year when traveling to Kenya for our two-week surgical camp. The bags are filled with supplies that have been donated, purchased or saved from being thrown away. Without the generosity of dozens of people, our surgical work would not be possible.”
“About ten months after my cancer treatments (two surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation), my cousin came from Israel, and we ventured up the California coast at a slow pace. Nature is healing for me. I was mesmerized by the deep turquoise swirls and the power of the ocean churning against the cliffs at Los Lobos State Park. I started painting what I felt, and this image emerged. “Nature is healing; chemotherapy and radiation strips away one’s known self, and a new process of rebirth begins. I believe this artwork is myself nurturing what will come as I heal in the arms of Mother Nature–whose power to heal breathes deeply in my heart.”
“This picture was taken seconds after the loss of a baby tooth, one of the lower central incisors, now being replaced by a permanent tooth. It’s a good reminder that dental health is an important aspect of a child’s general health. One in four five-year-old children have tooth decay that affects, on average, three to four teeth. The majority of tooth decay goes untreated and impacts the overall well-being of both child and family.”
Robert Bern
About the artist:Â
Robert Bern is an artist and healthcare IT professional living in New Mexico. His artwork tells the story of illness and death in our culture by sharing the sometimes tender, tragic and complicated stories of those who have had experience with illness and dying.Â
About the artwork:
“This artwork is a portrait of my mother who died in 2012. It is 4 ft x 4 ft and is made from my handwritten text of a poem she loved. The work and its mode of creation is an exploration of my mother’s and my own relationship to death, as well as of our
Martha Nance
About the artist:Â
Martha Nance is a neurologist in Minnesota who specializes in neurodegenerative disorders. She has had a few works of narrative medicine published within the last year, but finds pictures, at times, to be worth a screenful of words.
About the artwork:
“It often comes as an unfortunate surprise (particularly for family members) when my Parkinson’s patients struggle to ‘draw a clock.’ This is a collage of clocks, showing many different ways that people struggle to portray time. Should this person drive? Manage her own medications? The picture tells the story…”
Visuals editor:
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Alan Blum
About the artist:Â
Alan Blum is a professor and Gerald Leon Wallace MD Endowed Chair in family medicine at the University of Alabama School of Medicine in Tuscaloosa. A self-taught artist, he has published three books of his sketches and stories of patients, and his artworks have appeared in more than a dozen medical journals and textbooks. Many of his sketches have appeared in Pulse. He is a frequent guest speaker at medical schools in courses in the humanities.
About the artwork:
“This was in a small room at a children’s hospital over twenty-five years ago. As
About the artist:
Paul Rooprai is a graduate from the health sciences program at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. He is interested in studying medicine and in creating medical illustrations. His love for digital media and drawing led him to learn how to use Photoshop to create biomedical graphics.
About the artwork:
“This poster is about mindfulness and how it positively influences the brain. Mindfulness is something that I’m very passionate about, and this prompted me to create the artwork. Performing this simple practice daily has helped me
Pris Campbell
About the artist:
Pris Campbell has created graphics for haiga and has twice been published in Pulse. She was a clinical psychologist before ME/CFS rended her housebound. She makes her home with her husband in the Greater West Palm Beach area.
About the artwork:
“This is the last morning my husband spent with our cat before Spike crossed the Rainbow Bridge. The death of a beloved pet is like losing a member of the family, so this was a heartbreaking time.”
Sara Kohrt
About the artist:
Sara Kohrt is a researcher, analyzing dialogues between patients and providers to identify communication gaps, and serves as the visuals editor for Pulse. She and her son live in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina.Â
About the artwork:
“I was attending a weekend workshop through the narrative-medicine program at Columbia University, and we were given an assignment to produce an image or creative work on the theme of care. I was walking in
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