2024 National Hospitalist Day Contest Winner
A walk in this place I’ve known for so long
Upon its dark soil, I sing a solemn song
I was a child in which oblivion one could find
Now knowledge of their fates are seared in my mind
A requiem for those I knew both close and dear
Those whom I knew their last moments were near
Old stones I’ve recognized since I was five
And new ones of those who are no longer alive
Their souls have departed from this Earth
Each life precious, full of purpose and worth
That stone over there, a young girl in my class
After graduation from school, she tragically passed
Little did I know, genetic destiny could be unkind
Acquisition of this knowledge, I later did find
Her chances were slim, only one in four
How unfair; she deserved a life of time and more
I know now what I didn’t know then
A fight against her illness, one could not win
Over there is the stone of the lady in red
With beautiful white hair layered on her head
Meeting her first on a cold winter’s day
When Christmas was not too far away
Into the patient room I walked to see
Her last holiday I knew immediately it would be
Her demeanor so sweet, gentle, and mellow
Her skin illuminating with the dreaded color yellow
Her cancerous state was not to be ceased
After the summer solstice, she entered final peace
This stone here, I remember the somber day
When an abrupt “Code Blue” left many hearts frayed
An expectant mother succumbed to her ill-timed fate
Grief and sorrow broke through everyone’s gate
Our inner gates are built with impenetrable stone
So tragedies around don’t seep into our bones
For to fully digest a patient’s true pain
Our work would have no sun and only the rain
This place palpable with emotion that is not known
But a revelation within I feel is being sown
These stones around are why the stones are within
Physicians struggle when ultimately death wins
For a thriving soul is what truly nourishes
Our drive to ensure the human spirit flourishes
Our defeat by death will always be met
But with loss of life, our humanity, it begets
The Hippocratic oath is our call to duty
To show the living and departing true human beauty
Never construct the stones within to mask
Authentic compassion to be laced in our tasks
For we are the intermediate to the Great Physician
Let not melancholy imprison us from our earthly position
Dr. Lauffer is an internal medicine-pediatric hospitalist in West Virginia. She serves as the president of SHM’s West Virginia chapter and as the med-peds subcommittee co-chair for the AAP section of hospital medicine.