The Lonely Patient in the ICU

The Lonely Patient in the ICU

– Dr. Seema R. (nee Kunikullaya) Rao, Bengaluru

I can see your suffering
I can feel your pain
As I find you writhing
In distress yet again

I can smell the bile
That rises up your throat
See-through the beguiling smile
Hear each discordant note

I can hear you gasping
Each strenuous gulp of air
Your every breath so rasping
Fills me with despair

I can see the questions
In your desperate gaze
As you seek redemption
From your drug-induced haze

I can sense the desperation
In your loved ones face
Hope shattered in consternation
The uncertainty they embrace

I can see the stoic faces
Hands that are skilled in cure
The incessantly beeping machines
Invading, inflicting, for you to endure

I can see your eyes relentlessly searching
For a loved one each passing hour
I can see death stealthily approaching
And I wonder, is there no succour?

And then, I see the lone crusader
Healing beyond the cure
Withdrawing, withholding procedure
Provides the much-needed succour

For whom death is not a stranger
But an universal truth of life
Lets you go, with loved ones near
Upholding the sanctity of life