Art & Poetry in Medicine, Clinical, Emergency Medicine
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MICU Poem


 
The following manuscript was submitted to the April 2017 Arts in Medicine Themed Writing Contest.


Easter Sunday, intern year
MICU long-call consult resident

41-year-old female
recent diagnosis: invasive bladder cancer
life expectancy: 10 to 15 years, per oncology notes
neutropenic fever, pancytopenia
mucositis, oropharyngeal bleeding

consult, transferred to MICU

four hours later: “HELP!”

CODE BLUE

difficult airway, needle cricothyrotomy
ROSC?

time of death: 6:35 p.m.

husband, three young daughters
tears
guilt
regret

Cameron Gettel, MD Cameron Gettel, MD (1 Posts)

Resident Physician Contributing Writer

The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University


Cameron Gettel is a PGY-2 in the Emergency Medicine Residency Program at Brown University in Providence, RI.