Status asthmaticus

TL;DR

This poem explores the emotional contrast between clinical detachment in ICUs and the personal impact of illness on families.

Contribution

It introduces a humanized literary perspective to critical care medicine, emphasizing patient personhood.

Findings

Medical systems often reduce patients to failing organ systems in critical care.

The poem highlights the emotional disconnect between clinical efficiency and personal grief.

It encourages reflection on how medical practices may erode patient identity.

Abstract

The poem examines the tension between medical detachment, particularly in critical care settings, and familial grief using hyper-specific medical language contrasting against the warmth of the mother and grandmother. The poem also reflects on how quickly life shifts from routine to crisis. The piece adds a humanized perspective of care to literature. In ICUs, patients are often reduced to the systems that fail them. This problem-by-organ-system model is efficient for clinicians but can erode patients’ personhood. The piece hopes to spark discussion about medical systems that may simplify patients to organ systems, particularly in critical care settings.

Full text

Status asthmaticus Mom said you wheezed all your life, sweet and low,and that morning was like any other:Lucky Charms at 7:00 — Except when you coughed it up,milky brown wads glazed in pink and green,a chewed-up rainbow and half a pot of gold Then slid to the ground, silent and slow,as if accepting surrender,your head resting on marble tile While Grandma keened Sam, Sam, Sam like it was the only word she knew As your lungs replied with gasps,chest with rubbery heaves,your heart thud to a pause And started againbut your mind had quietedno longer playing To Pimp a Butterfly on repeat Now the ventilator hums in C,your mouth agape in a hollow notesinging your final song.