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Research ArticleArt of Family Medicine

Code blue

Amritpal Arora
Canadian Family Physician February 2021; 67 (2) e68; DOI: https://doi.org/10.46747/cfp.6702e68
Amritpal Arora
Poet and family physician in Burnaby, BC.
MD CCFP
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Loading
Figure

The call of a code blue—the harbinger of cardic or respiratory emergency—rings through the ears with solemn urgency. What one will find in the end is uncertain: if it ends in loss and lamentation, perhaps wishing for something better is all one can do to quell the grief.

Wishes

I wish

the bag inflating your lungs

is wind to your sails

as you leave this place

unencumbered by rubber tubing

I wish

the heat from the metal paddles

melts the ink of your gang’s tattoo

so it might be used

to write letters

to those who never lost faith in you

I wish

through these chest compressions

I can touch your heart

hold it for your mother

weeping on the other side

of this pale green curtain

I wish

the coursing epinephrine

gives life to the butterflies in your brain

so they might fly to her

through your open eyes and whisper

I wish

beads of sweat

would fall from those

who laboured to save you

and wash away your wounds

so that your casket

might remain open

Footnotes

  • Competing interests

    None declared

  • Copyright © the College of Family Physicians of Canada
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Canadian Family Physician: 67 (2)
Canadian Family Physician
Vol. 67, Issue 2
1 Feb 2021
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Code blue
Amritpal Arora
Canadian Family Physician Feb 2021, 67 (2) e68; DOI: 10.46747/cfp.6702e68

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Amritpal Arora
Canadian Family Physician Feb 2021, 67 (2) e68; DOI: 10.46747/cfp.6702e68
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