By Phyllis Chesler

Every hospital patient has a story. Just stop anyone on the street. Ask your relatives and friends. If they’ve done time in a hospital they’ll tell you about some indignity, perhaps a nightmare or two. If you haven’t heard these stories, it’s partly because you haven’t asked, or more likely, because most people want to forget about their hospital experiences if they can.

It is hard for me to write about such minor humiliations. Why? Because in terms of science and medicine, we are blessed to be alive in the American twenty-first century — and we know it. … (Continue reading…)