Swallow : CHOP

 

Dr. Ian Jacobs, Dr. Karen Zur, Mary Cappello, and Dr. John Tucker in the lobby of the Mütter Museum, February 2012.
Dr. Ian Jacobs, Dr. Karen Zur, Mary Cappello, and Dr. John Tucker in the lobby of the Mütter Museum, February 2012.

In Feb. 2012, I had the pleasure of delivering a keynote address, “To Make The World ‘Foreign Body Conscious’: New Wonders from the Chevalier Jackson Archive,” at the 6th Annual Foreign Body Pediatric Airway Endoscopy Course, CHOP (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia), hosted by Dr. Karen B. Zur, Dr. Ian Jacobs, and Dr. Ellen Deutsch. The course took place at CHOP’s Center for Pediatric Airway Disorders, Center for Simulation, Advanced Education, and Innovation. During this same visit, in the capacity of Distinguished Visiting Professor, I delivered a talk titled “Chevalier Jackson’s Endoscopic Art” for the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania’s Grand Rounds in Otorhinolaryngology where I had the pleasure of visiting the archive of Dr. John Tucker, son of close colleague to Jackson, Dr. Gabriel Tucker. I also served as a guide to attendees of the Airway Endoscopy course who wanted to view the Mütter Museum’s Chevalier Jackson foreign body collection. During my stay, my hosts from CHOP generously invited me to study and learn alongside the physicians-in-training. The course offers an intensive, hands-on immersion in the world of broncho-esophagology’s state of the art instrumentarium and new simulation devices for training practitioners in their application, especially in life-threatening pediatric foreign body scenarios. The program, expertise, dedication, and care demonstrated by new friends and colleagues inspired interest and awe toward more art-making ahead: I’m writing a series of linked essays of which observations from my experience here will form a part.

This image of a stained glass window from the Fisher Fine Arts Library appeared serendipitously in my hotel room. It reads: "Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested."
This image of a stained glass window from the Fisher Fine Arts Library appeared serendipitously in my hotel room. It reads: “Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.”