Monday, January 3, 2022
Cloaked Suffering
by Lyle Fettig (@FettigLyle)The suffering in our hospital is cloaked by tinted windows and shiny new steel, a serene architectural specimen which betrays the internal chaos of each person who experiences illness behind each door.
Even for people who work there, it is sometimes surreal to approach the building in its beauty with the dissonant knowledge of what can happen in all manner of disease in between the walls. It’s the perfect place to hide the devastation of a pandemic.
Were the death and agony in the streets for all to see, perhaps the choices that are obvious to you and me would be obvious to all. How could a person not take every step they could to prevent this ongoing calamity?
This is not the bubonic plague to be seen in the gutters but rather a plague silenced by the plastic of the tubes you have placed in many airways hoping that after days, Weeks, Months, those voices will be heard again, knowing that some will go unheard for all of eternity.
Speak the truth with the ferocity and compassion I always hear from you. Tell the world what you have witnessed. Then go back into it with pride that no matter how your message has been received, you can rest your weary head knowing you have done the best this world will allow.
Originally published on Twitter Dec 27, 2021
The suffering in our hospital is cloaked by tinted windows and shiny new steel, a serene architectural specimen which betrays the internal chaos of each person who experiences illness behind each door. /1
— Lyle Fettig (@FettigLyle) December 28, 2021
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Dr. Lyle Fettig is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine in the Department of Medicine/Division of General Internal Medicine and Geriatrics. Dr. Fettig directs the IUSM Palliative Medicine Fellowship and works clinically with the Eskenazi Health Palliative Care Program.