Quick Judgments by Shilpa Rajagopal

Shilpa Rajagopal is a UTMB medical student.

Medicine is a language of quick judgments.

Conversations by the bedside stripped to a two-minute summary,

the sentences narrated through pain and stress and tears

later reduced to single words,

a pattern recognition exercise:

            “patient is non-compliant.”

            “patient failed treatment.”

            “patient is overly emotional.”

The frame shifts, and story is

left incomplete.

Missing are the details about the parent working double shifts to pay for medications.

The grandfather desperately hoping to be well enough to attend his grandson’s wedding.

The student who just moved 1200 miles away from home. 

So many questions asked,

yet so many words left unsaid.

Medicine is a language of endless curiosity,

spoken by the little things:

slowing down, being present, and finding the words that matter.