by Ben Ayuko
{image by Nation Media}
She was so spent at the end of the day
She spent it all, with patients and patients
And patients became, faceless, the same
screaming in unison, “I need a doctor”
So, write up a chart, she did this for him in
Sent him to the back where they’re waiting for him
“Really? it’s just my hand feeling pain here
but the doctor’s the doctor, so I have to adhere
But the doctor’s so tired, from working all day
He’s feeling so drowsy, really needs to lay
Stripping him down so in scrubs she can dress him
To get him to surgery for his hand swelling
Enter the theatre, the doctors are ready
Give him anesthetic, he sleeps like a baby
Envious, when feeling, they get down to drilling
and sawing his skull open for the revealing
“This guy is clean, are we sure he’s sick”
“Yeah, they said that the clot was this thick”
“Where is his chart, where was it again?”
“DOCTOR, STOP OPERATING ON HIM!”
In rushed the nurse, too late she was
The man’s skull cracked open, bleeding on the floor
“This man on the table, who you’re addressing
He came to hospital only for a swelling”
“What do you mean? So where is my patient?”
“Recovering. Now. On his own. It’s amazing
Seems like he won’t even need operating”
“Jesus, we’ve cut this man open for nothing”
Patching him up, and sending him home
They waived the fee, that’s what he was told
He couldn’t remember, not a lot of it
Of course, this was just the start of this habit
3 years of pain, delusion and memory
lapse, of way too many episodes that
remained after the incident
And they didn’t know no-one reached out to them
Not till it was too late, were they to have found
Not till his future was buried in the ground
Not till he’d succumb to the consequence of it
Did they find the truth of what really had happened
Family of patient wrongly operated on at KNH want justice for their son (youtube.com)