Blogfinger

Paul Goldfinger © September 12, 2019. Neptune Township, NJ.  Click to enlarge.

Paul Goldfinger, MD

A hospital by night is a place transformed.  The patients and the staff can form a bond that is more likely by eliminating the ordinary chaos that occurs during the day.

Everything slows down, and people speak to each other quietly.  There may be time for reflection and peacefulness.  There is an opportunity to sooth the fear that pervades every room.

If only the patients can be warm and comforted, while the staff remembers to speak in low tones and turn the bright lights down.  Banging and clanging must be reduced for the full effect.

Maybe everyone can get some rest.

As a house officer on night call  many years ago I stood a chance to get an hour’s sleep before the beeper would go off again.  I would sit bolt upright, fully clothed, and rush off, adrenaline pumping, uneasy in the pit of my stomach, to face some fearsome crisis.

I hope everything will be all right as I race down the hall.

When it is quiet again, the nurses offer some coffee.  I return to the on-call room where I fall sleep before my head hits the pillow.

I look at the Hope Tower this night and I know what’s going on.  I stare at it.  Please do some good inside that building.  Do the job right.

LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA and David Perry.  BACH.  Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D Major: