WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.705 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.705 --> 00:00:04.019 align:middle line:90% Oh my, well. 00:00:04.019 --> 00:00:06.330 align:middle line:84% Whenever I read these next poems, 00:00:06.330 --> 00:00:10.140 align:middle line:84% it seems folks will come up after the reading 00:00:10.140 --> 00:00:13.020 align:middle line:84% and say to me, all those poems you read towards the end, 00:00:13.020 --> 00:00:17.100 align:middle line:84% they really reminded me of that television show "ER." 00:00:17.100 --> 00:00:19.480 align:middle line:84% And then the next question, of course, 00:00:19.480 --> 00:00:21.570 align:middle line:90% is, so do you still watch "ER?" 00:00:21.570 --> 00:00:23.850 align:middle line:84% And I have to kind of sheepishly admit 00:00:23.850 --> 00:00:26.400 align:middle line:84% that I do sometimes still watch that show, which 00:00:26.400 --> 00:00:28.290 align:middle line:84% is all the more pathetic since I spent 00:00:28.290 --> 00:00:32.189 align:middle line:84% so much of my life dealing with situations like those depicted 00:00:32.189 --> 00:00:33.660 align:middle line:90% on the show. 00:00:33.660 --> 00:00:36.300 align:middle line:84% But I want to say for the record, as I always do, 00:00:36.300 --> 00:00:38.700 align:middle line:84% that these poems were written and conceived well 00:00:38.700 --> 00:00:40.530 align:middle line:90% before "ER" was ever aired. 00:00:40.530 --> 00:00:43.200 align:middle line:84% And they were actually really an effort, 00:00:43.200 --> 00:00:48.810 align:middle line:84% I think, to a very different kind of effort or impulse 00:00:48.810 --> 00:00:52.260 align:middle line:84% from what I think "ER" depicts of medicine. 00:00:52.260 --> 00:00:56.930 align:middle line:84% And I was really trying to think about the narratives 00:00:56.930 --> 00:01:01.110 align:middle line:84% of my patients and how to make those narratives sort of center 00:01:01.110 --> 00:01:04.989 align:middle line:84% stage and really honor their dignity. 00:01:04.989 --> 00:01:07.128 align:middle line:84% And I think so much of what we see on "ER" 00:01:07.128 --> 00:01:08.670 align:middle line:84% is actually a kind of a glorification 00:01:08.670 --> 00:01:09.630 align:middle line:90% of the physicians. 00:01:09.630 --> 00:01:12.720 align:middle line:84% And they are working out all their neuroses on the patients, 00:01:12.720 --> 00:01:15.420 align:middle line:84% and the patients are sort of this side issue. 00:01:15.420 --> 00:01:20.040 align:middle line:84% But these poems really were meant to, 00:01:20.040 --> 00:01:23.040 align:middle line:84% again, bring the patients narrative, which 00:01:23.040 --> 00:01:27.570 align:middle line:84% I think is so often silenced by medicine 00:01:27.570 --> 00:01:33.210 align:middle line:84% into a kind of prominent place in the story. 00:01:33.210 --> 00:01:35.080 align:middle line:84% So I'll read just a few of these. 00:01:35.080 --> 00:01:37.830 align:middle line:84% There are a sequence called "Ten Patients, and Another." 00:01:37.830 --> 00:01:41.580 align:middle line:84% And I'll just read probably five or six of them. 00:01:41.580 --> 00:01:43.950 align:middle line:90% "Ten Patients, and Another" 00:01:43.950 --> 00:01:49.620 align:middle line:84% Mrs. G, the patient is a 60-odd-year-old white female 00:01:49.620 --> 00:01:55.020 align:middle line:84% who presents with fever, cough, and shaking chills. 00:01:55.020 --> 00:01:57.720 align:middle line:84% No further history could be elicited. 00:01:57.720 --> 00:02:00.150 align:middle line:90% She doesn't speak. 00:02:00.150 --> 00:02:03.960 align:middle line:84% The patient social history was non-contributory. 00:02:03.960 --> 00:02:06.270 align:middle line:90% Someone left her here. 00:02:06.270 --> 00:02:10.350 align:middle line:84% The intern on the case heard crackles in both lungs. 00:02:10.350 --> 00:02:13.800 align:middle line:84% And EKG was done, which showed the heart was beating 00:02:13.800 --> 00:02:17.400 align:middle line:84% in the normal sinus rhythm, except for an occasional 00:02:17.400 --> 00:02:19.530 align:middle line:90% dropped beat. 00:02:19.530 --> 00:02:22.380 align:middle line:90% An intravenous line was placed. 00:02:22.380 --> 00:02:26.070 align:middle line:84% The intern found a bruise behind her ear. 00:02:26.070 --> 00:02:29.070 align:middle line:84% She then became quite agitated and began 00:02:29.070 --> 00:02:32.910 align:middle line:90% to sob without producing tears. 00:02:32.910 --> 00:02:35.490 align:middle line:90% We think she's dry. 00:02:35.490 --> 00:02:40.365 align:middle line:84% She's resting quietly on Haldol, waiting for her bed upstairs. 00:02:40.365 --> 00:02:45.080 align:middle line:90% 00:02:45.080 --> 00:02:49.400 align:middle line:84% Jamal, the patient is a three-year-old Black male. 00:02:49.400 --> 00:02:51.380 align:middle line:84% The full-term product of a pregnancy 00:02:51.380 --> 00:02:53.870 align:middle line:84% that was according to his grandmother 00:02:53.870 --> 00:02:59.780 align:middle line:84% unplanned and may be complicated by prenatal alcohol exposure. 00:02:59.780 --> 00:03:01.010 align:middle line:90% Did OK. 00:03:01.010 --> 00:03:04.310 align:middle line:84% Developmentally delayed, but normal weights and heights 00:03:04.310 --> 00:03:06.410 align:middle line:84% until last week when he ingested what's 00:03:06.410 --> 00:03:11.330 align:middle line:84% turned out to be cocaine, according to the lab results. 00:03:11.330 --> 00:03:13.520 align:middle line:84% His grandmother had said she'd seen him 00:03:13.520 --> 00:03:16.250 align:middle line:84% with some baby powder on his face and hands 00:03:16.250 --> 00:03:20.810 align:middle line:84% before he started seizing and they brought him in. 00:03:20.810 --> 00:03:23.660 align:middle line:90% The vital signs have stabilized. 00:03:23.660 --> 00:03:26.840 align:middle line:84% The nurse is getting DSS involved. 00:03:26.840 --> 00:03:30.830 align:middle line:84% The mom, she left it on the kitchen table. 00:03:30.830 --> 00:03:36.070 align:middle line:84% That's her, the one who sings to him all night. 00:03:36.070 --> 00:03:37.000 align:middle line:90%