25 Patients

25 patients on the list.

24 of them have rooms.

I can’t quite make out the last patient.

Neither the name nor the room,

Not even a chief complaint.

As the day goes on,

I see admissions and discharges,

Consults and step-downs,

Sign-offs and new plans.

And yet the last patient is hazy.

This is but a daily routine:

Learning on the job and

Treating each one

As if they were my family.

But the last patient eludes me.

As I leave the hospital,

The clear day turns into a dark night.

And as I arrive home

To review the list for tomorrow,

The last patient’s notes become clearer.

“He gives to patients and others as a foundation of who he is.

He should give to himself as he does them.

And if he forgets that,

There will be 25 patients on the list.

And 25 of them will have rooms.”

Barat S. Venkataramany is a third-year medical student at the UTCOMLS.

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