Twisted (with addendum)

Hope this doesn't offend anyone, 

Just have to get it off my chest.

I’ve smelled burned flesh, 

Blood, shit, piss, puke, 

Bacterial infections, and toxic chemicals.

I’ve sorted body parts

After a terrorist bombing

Knowing that one of the bodies

Could be someone I love.

I’ve remained professional and nonjudgmental

While working with a man

Who sodomized his six-month old daughter.

I’ve sat with a woman and convinced her 

That the unrecognizable person in the burn unit

Is her 18-year-old son,

Who will not survive.

I’ve watched a man have a stroke

Because of the medication I gave him

To dissolve the blood clot in his coronary artery.

I’ve administered 360 joules of electrical energy

To a woman’s chest,

Over and over again, 

Knowing there is no chance for survival.

I’ve stayed with a patient

Until he died after we stopped the ventilator,

Then cried with the family

And prepared the body for the morgue.

I’ve heard the cries of a 20-year-old girl

Who miscarried

In the seventh month.

I’ve started an IV on a convicted murderer.

I’ve stood watch in the trauma center

When the president was in town,

Hoping some wacko

Wouldn’t choose tonight to assassinate.

I’ve felt ribs break while doing CPR.

I’ve done mouth to mouth

On a man in cardiac arrest

Whose arm was amputated at the shoulder

From a motor vehicle collision.

I’ve felt skin come off the wrist

Of the body I was removing from a house fire.

I’ve cracked jokes

While removing the tattoo of a swastika

From a white supremacist’s burned shoulder.

I’ve started an IV

In a drug addict’s penis

Because it was the only vein he hadn’t used.

I’ve had a patient’s finger

Come off in my hand

During a burn dressing.

I’ve taken care of a mob style-shooting victim

Before PD arrived,

Knowing that the shooter

Could still be out there

And I might have a target on my back.

I’ve laughed, joked, shouted and cried

While listening to the equally horrific stories

Of firemen, policemen, nurses, doctors and soldiers

Over pizza and beer.

...No wonder I'm twisted

(C)BT 2010

Addendum to original poem:

I've wept with my belovedAs my son diesAfter withdrawal of life support

A moanThe last sound from his lips

KnowingHis sacrificeRenewed lifeFor five othersThrough organ donation

Hollow victory.(c)2011BT