It’s 1 a.m., everyone’s running on three cups of coffee
When a man stumbles through the entrance
And I could hear whispers of
It’s him, the homeless man, back in the ER again
And you can tell he’s unwanted
As they start to lament
That’s the third time this week
This ‘gomer’ has come
Is this what long hours and burnout do
Even to the best of physicians
A diminishing sense of compassion
Examining the patient’s body, pressing my stethoscope,
Listening to his heart
Beat abnormally
We talk for a bit,
About the pain in his chest,
His dizziness and shortness of breath
All his symptoms point to
A condition of the heart
The residents rattle off potential diagnoses
Such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
The man says he wanders the streets at night,
Nowhere to go, nowhere to stay
No friends or family
And for a moment,
I listen
The curtain is pulled
The doctors still think he’s
Pretending about the pain in his chest
So they send him away
What can I do? What do I say?
I desperately want to tell them
To take a moment and
Listen
Perhaps we, too, should take a look at the
Condition of our hearts
This past month we have been learning about the heart. As I study cardiology, I have been wrestling with my own heart, too. Burnout is real, especially in the ER, and feelings of compassion can dwindle. But I hope to continually check my heart and strive to approach every patient with a sense of humanism and respect.
Contributing Writer
Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University
Anna Delamerced is a fourth-year medical student at Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island class of 2021. She graduated from Brown University with a Bachelor of Arts in public health. She enjoys writing poetry and is passionate about advocating for kids as a future pediatrician.