This is a collection of short poems written by me at different situations and times about medical professionals, patients and illness.
Delusion of Immortality
In Cotard syndrome, patients often declare to be dead, but this may also be the pathology of immortality. When reason is demolished by illness, disturbing paradoxes arise: the pain of being eternal leads to suicidality. Ask them their name: they have no name; their age? They have no age. Where they were born? They were not born; their father, and their mother? They have neither, nor mother, nor wife, nor children; whether they have a headache, a stomach ache, pain at some point in their body? They have no head, no stomach, some even have no body; show them some object, a flower, a rose, they replay: that is not a flower, that is not a rose.
From: https://hekint.org/2019/05/13/delusions-of-being-and-nothingness/
I am bones clad in flesh
And flesh clad in skin
I have no name nor age
No brain or heart within
Never was I born
And never will I be dead
Being forever and forlorn
‘Tis what makes me sad….
Awake
Anesthesia awareness: For reasons that are far from clear, the general anaesthetic failed. Rather than lying in peaceful oblivion, she woke up just before the surgeon made the first cut into her abdomen. With her body still paralysed by the anaesthetic drugs, she was unable to signal that anything was wrong. So she remained frozen and helpless on the operating table as the surgeon probed her body, while she experienced indescribable agony.
From: https://mosaicscience.com/story/anaesthesia-anesthesia-awake-awareness-surgery-operation-or-paralysed/
Ten….. nine….. eight….. seven…..
My body sublimes and ascends to heaven
Six…… five…… four…… three…..
Tapes on my eyes, white’s all I see
Two…… am I still supposed to hear you?
One……. wait!! I’m awake but unable to move.
Ticktock….. Ticktock….. Ticktock…..
I can count passed seconds in clock
Hush! I can still hear you talk
Beepbeep….. Beepbeep….. Beepbeep…..
I can count my heartbeat – tachycardic
Lying awake – waiting for sleep.
You pull… incise… cut… split…
I feel the lancet’s painless kiss
I sense the smell of burning meat
My chest expands with machined air
Sleep paralyzed, I’m derealized with fear
Will it all subside, like another nightmare?
At the Gates
Near Death Experience in ICU: I spent the next six days basically asleep, under sedation, the ventilator serving as my lungs. I remember nothing from this period. I have since learned that some patients have nightmares or hallucinations while on ventilators, so I view myself as very fortunate.
From: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/04/09/my-near-death-experience-ventilator/
Fading into white noise
Digitized heart steadies
Visions of tunnel light
Plastic windpipes in accord
Oneirophrenia to dreams
White morphine clouds
Rid myself of all diseases
A sweet sighful breeze
Reminiscence of past life
Or a clairvoyance of afterlife
I wake up at the gates
Bedridden between life and death.
Perpetual Pandemia
End of Covid-19: Herd immunity could be reached as soon as the second quarter of 2021 if vaccines are highly effective and launched smoothly or if significant cross-immunity is discovered in a population. On the other hand, the epidemiological end of the pandemic might not be reached until 2022 or later if the early vaccine candidates have efficacy or safety issues—or if their distribution and adoption are slow.
From: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/healthcare-systems-and-services/our-insights/when-will-the-covid-19-pandemic-end#
The year of twenty twenty
A fear wandered in streets nearly empty
The death wore his mask in masquerade
So did we, as our eyes mirrored a dread
And the distance between life and death
Was only as far as us and our breath….
The year of twenty twenty two
Still in hazmat suit and boots
Still in run for the vaccine race
The masks worn have become our face
And in this pandemic of uncertainty
We learnt to live with the nano-enemy….
Beyond the Call of Duty
Covid-19 martyrs: “In spite of herself being pregnant, she didn’t refuse the duty of SARI wards or suspected corona patients. She regularly used to take her rounds she was very sincere, very humble, always she was cheerful, she was ever smiling.”
From: https://www.thequint.com/coronavirus/india-1-lakh-deaths-covid-19-dr-pratiksha-7-month-pregnant-doctor
Earth has fallen into silence
In deterrence and defense
Under the siege of foes in air
Duty has called to be there
With vilified white coat’s cape
Stethoscopes around the necks
Chained by ethos and morals
The heroes, they are mortals
Solemnly pledged to save life
Never sworn to risk their lives
But they often do, of humanity
All that’s beyond the call of duty….
A Lady with Insignia and the Lamp
This 10 lined poem was written as a contribution to a competition titled “Think fairly and Let yoursef express” organized by the MINUJUSTH Women’s network for the occassion of International women’s day to promote and highlight the contributions of women to peacekeeping missions. This is about nurses working in the peacekeeping missions.
She wakes up again, another sunrise in the skies
Seven seas away from home, where her heart lies.
Dressed in blue with black boots and a blue beret
White coat, holster belt and an arm crossed with red.
A lady with the lamp, in service of peace and diseased
Veiling all that a daughter, a wife and a mother needs.
However heavy her heart, dusty lips wear a smile
And with a gentle caress, all their pains beguiled.
Then sun sets, she sleeps holding his picture on her chest
And reaches home again with ease, no seas to navigate.
He is the section editor of Orthopedics in Epomedicine. He searches for and share simpler ways to make complicated medical topics simple. He also loves writing poetry, listening and playing music. He is currently pursuing Fellowship in Hip, Pelvi-acetabulum and Arthroplasty at B&B Hospital.
