'Pt' (medical abbreviation for ‘patient’) recounts a patient visit on an early-morning ward round at Footscray Hospital in my first placement as a second-year medical student. The line “I came to hospital with my innocence” was actually said by the patient and stuck with me, eventually inspiring this poem, which I wrote in a Narrative Medicine class run by Dr Fiona Reilly and Dr Mariam Tokhi. The poem depicts a dramatic rise and fall in tension during the patient visit. It is bookended by soulless technical medical abbreviations that exemplify patient notes on electronic medical records.
Pt
Pt alert and oriented, sitting upright in chair. Breathing comfortably, responsive to questions. Bilat basal creps, bilat pitting oedema to knee.
Pt gazes out window
at the opposite concrete wall
Pt’s cataracts suddenly shimmer,
a sorcerer’s crystal ball.
Pt need not speak
for his stony grimace conveys
Pt’s sheer and utter avowal
of his final dying days.
Pt’s power becomes apparent
in his mighty ocular grip
Pt’s lungs echo black tattered sails
of a ramshackle timber ship.
“I came to hospital with my innocence”
Professional, qualified eyes dart from computer
To patient
And back.
“and now I muse on dark and violent tricks”
Med student looks at intern looks at reg looks at consultant.
Feet shuffle, lips purse
Pretending not to hear.
“Your poisons gift no remedy, your words fat and hollow”
Like a serpentine hiss, his derision rings through sterile air
5-step Therapeutic Guidelines for Reassurance (vol 23.4, updated 2023)
does little for his despair.
Pt need not speak
for his stony grimace conveys
Pt’s sheer and utter avowal
of his final dying days.
Pt need not speak
for his stony grimace conveys
Pt’s sheer and utter avowal
of his final dying days.
Pt to await GEM. Frusemide 40mmHg. Cease abx. Refer physio. Refer OT. Call family. For d/c Monday.
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