Nursing spoken word

Published

Hi everyone! Just a poem I've been meaning to get off my chest, thought someone might be able to relate!

It all started with my patient

Her cold hand cupped in mine

I squeeze, hopeful for a sign

Cold empty eyes stare blankly upward

No evidence of what she's suffered

Within a few hours - heart attack,

Hypoxia, brain damage, intubation

Now a machine breathes for her in syncopation

It's horrific

To witness a soul snuffed out

What really is the worth of a heartbeat without

What makes us human

It made me sick

To see her gone

But still forced to hold on

Herself forgone

This vent beeping on

Forcing each breath through her chest

Without it she'd be still - or at rest

In 1950 the mechanical ventilator was invented

It's ability to provide life saving breathes unprecedented

In 1943 the kidney Dializer

Blood filtration and electrolyte equalizer

In 1980 the percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (or PEG)

Force feeding those unable to eat - or beg

To be left to starve

Okay... So am I recommending the alternative, DEATH?

To let nature run its course and leave loved ones bereft?

No.

But I beg of you to please ask yourself

What makes the people you love themselves?

Is it a heartbeat alone?

One single kidney?

A digestive tract, a hipbone?

What is it?

When modern medicine is full of lifesaving miracles

When lives can be extended by weeks months and years until

They're a shell of themselves, vent supported,

Bed bound, unable to eat, riddled with sores, and purported-ly BRAINDEAD

Is that body still full of the person you loved

Or just an amalgamation of the body systems above

When we can keep organs alive forever

Shouldn't the goal be to never withhold care, ever?

And I've seen it, I know

Once they've been brought to this point saying no

Means a sure death sentence

One that you had to bestow

And oh god the guilt to bring down that gavel

You may as well have thrown gravel

On their grave

But truly you were their saving grace

Imagine being trapped in a body wired to machines

You can only grimace, can't let out a scream

Your body's covered in bed sores

You're constantly poked and prodded

Liquid supplements through a tube

Dressing change, nurse forgot Dilaudid

It's like a ******* horror movie but with no escape

I hope these gruesome images are starting to take shape

Into something you'll remember

And when you tell the doc 'do everything'

This is where your loved one might end up.

It's quality not quantity that makes a life worth living

When you compromise to extend days think of what you're giving

Up, and when you force the voiceless to hang on

When what makes them human is already gone

Don't worry, I'm holding their hand tonight

The machines are still beeping

But something about that flat, unresponsive face isn't right

Is it really worth keeping her here.

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I love it. Very well written and I'm sure we can all relate.

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