Cell 2 Soul: The Humane Health Care Blog

Our Lady in Bed 14

The emergency room, tiled in white
Harsh fluorescent lights, sagging metal cots

A sudden commotion at the door
A patient is carried
four persons holding each limb 

Bleeding from a deep cut at the back of her head
Unconscious, her right leg bent at an unnatural angle

A hit and run on the highway --
She was crossing the road

A microbus hit her; she was thrown in the air
Landed in a rain sodden ditch, a few yards away

The minibus accelerated away
The driver may be afraid of being lynched

She underwent neurosurgery, a depressed skull fracture --
Bone surgery for the fracture of her leg

She was in the intensive care, oblivious to the world
Being fed by nasogastric tube, a catheter draining urine

We cared for her, a woman without relatives
Very rare in South Asia, no family to minister loving care

The days went by, patients came and went
Our lady lies quiet in a corner bed

Suddenly, one day she wakes up
Fully conscious, oriented to person

Gives her name and address --
she was from a distant town
vague remembrance of the accident

We informed the authorities
She continued to be with us in the general ward
Regaling us with gentle wit

One summer day, her parents dropped in
The family was well off

They thanked us for all we had done
distributed sweets,
happy to find their daughter alive and well

She limps out of hospital on crutches
Bittersweet goodbyes
Promises to meet another day

For those who want to print it out, here is the pdf:  Download lady_in_bed_14.pdf

By Shankar PR  E-mail: ravi.dr.shankar@gmail.com

Bio: Dr. P. Ravi Shankar teaches at the Manipal College of Medical Sciences, Pokhara, Nepal. A keen trekker and photographer, he also writes poems, short stories and travelogues. He finds the mountains of Nepal wonderfully invigorating.

Zen Koan Heaven

Two Book Reviews

Two fine and important books were published recently.  They will interest some of you.  Here are reviews by Cell 2 Soul Blog members.

1. The Intern by Sandeep Jauhar.  Reviewed by Shirish Poudyal  Download the_intern.pdf

2.  This Common Secret:  My Journey as an Abortion Doctor by Susan Wicklund.  Reviewed by Shay Bintliff.   Download wicklund_review.pdf

Consider the Orchid

by Wayne Winterrowd*

     

Anyone fascinated by the diversity  of life on our planet will be interested in orchids.  For one thing, the family Orchidacea comprises  the largest number of species of any  on earth, containing somewhere between 25,000 and 30,000 species, with more yet to be discovered.  This botanical  wealth is put in  perspective by knowing that the second largest plant family, the Asteracea or daisy family, contains between 15,000 and 20,000 species, that Rosacea, the rose family, contains only 2,000 species, and Pinus, the pine family, a piddling 90 species.  Since virtually all species of orchid intermarry freely, there may be as many as 40,000 hybrids already in existence, with more to come.
    Orchids are of world-wide distribution, occurring on every continent except Antarctica, and in every climate except arid desert ones.  The greatest preponderance of species -  and those that have been most interesting to collectors -  occur in tropical regions and are epiphytic,  having adapted to living high in the forest canopy on litter accumulated in the branches of trees and vines.  Their shapes are often fantastic, and their adaptations to the struggle for existence are as elaborate as any living thing above the waters of the ocean.
    Since the 17th century, the  cultivation of orchids has been the passion of  rich men, who sent out explorers to rip the rarest specimen from the branches of tropical trees and  vied  with one another to flower the latest botanical discoveries.  Now, however,  the miracle of tissue culture has made it possible to produce an infinite number of clones from  a single unique rare hybrid.  Plant cells obtained from the central growing tip are treated with hormones in a completely sterile environment, and then  divided and re-divided under the microscope  until the desired number of embryo plants is obtained.  These are then grown on until the plantlets are large enough to  adjust to a controlled greenhouse environment.  Through this process, orchids  once costing hundreds of dollars a plant can now be bought at  the local supermarket for the price of a steak.
The orchid pictured is a selection of  Phaleonopsis, a genus of approximately 50 species native to the foothills of the Himalayas, Southeast Asia and Northern Australia.  Phaleonopsis are among the easiest orchids to grow and re-flower in a home environment.  They require moderately cool conditions comfortable to most people,  65-75 degrees in winter, slightly warmer in summer, and filtered light such as an East or West windowsill can provide.  Humidity should be high enough to keep the furniture from creaking and the piano in tune.  Plants should be grown in sterile orchid medium which should be moistened thoroughly once a week.  However, water should  never collect in the center of the plant, and if some should, a wick of Kleenex should be placed there to remove it.  A very dilute water-soluble fertilizer manufactured for orchids should be applied with every third watering.  When made happy, a phaleonopsis plant is almost never out of bloom. 

Bibliography:  An excellent guide to the growing of orchids is Understanding Orchids, An Uncomplicated Guide to Growing the World’s Most Exotic Plants,  by William Cullina, Macmillan, 2005.

The NY Times had an interesting piece on orchid collecting recently. You can read it on Permalink: Reigning Trowel in a Kingdom of Orchids

Also, the Bronx Botanical Gardens has an annual Orchid Show.  This year it runs from February  23 to April 6..

*  Wayne Winterrowd and his companion, Joe Eck, are the authors of a book of essays to be published by Farrar Strauss & Giroux next winter, titled A Life in Gardens.  They live and garden in Readsboro, Vermont.      

Magic Carpet Ride

"Whether by birth, by disease, by accident or by war, whether you ski or whether you ride, one board or two, two legs or one, sit-down, stand-up, with or without sight it is our magic carpet ride, -----we all glide over frozen, sparkling crystals for the same reason, to be transported into another world, a place where the crippled dance, the lame walk and the blind see, where we may all, each and everyone, no one left behind, all together, mount up with wings like eagles and join the dance which has no end.” 
Cris Criswell, Director of the Bretton Woods Adaptive Program Cris' Bio: Download cris_criswell.pdf

Nashville artist, writer, speaker, Erin Brady Worsham has lived with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis since 1994.  When she learned about the Bretton Woods Program she embraced the idea.  You will be inspired by her story.

Magic Carpet
by Erin Brady Worsham
I’m sitting in an adaptive bi-ski at the top of Crawford’s Blaze run at the Bretton Woods Mountain Resort in New Hampshire.  Across the valley I have a beautiful view of the Presidential Range of the White Mountains, including the renowned Mt. Washington.  What’s a girl from Nashville, Tennessee, who’s almost completely paralyzed from ALS and breathes with a ventilator and who’s never skied before in her life, doing here?  Got a minute?  It’s a long story …  Read on: Download m_a_g_i_c_c_a_r_p_e_t.pdf

EBS is a Nashville Nashville artist, writer and speaker. A 1980 graduate of Western Kentucky University with majors in Theater and German, Worsham spent some years on the road as a professional actress. She married fellow actor Curry Worsham in 1987 and they settled in Nashville, TN.   Life changed dramatically for Worsham and her husband on Sept. 7, 1994, when she received a diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig’s Disease) and was given three years to live. She was just 36. All art stopped, but not all creating! Nine months after the diagnosis, Worsham gave birth to the couple’s first and only child, Daniel.  Here is a complete bio: Download erin_worsham_bio.pdf

EBS  Adaptive Skiing Photo Gallery and  Art

Christopher Woods' Photos

We are indeed fortunate to receive many moving poems, photographs, essays and other works for Cell 2 Soul.  It is a privilege to present them to our readers for inspiration and enlightenment.

Full many a gem of purest ray serene
The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear;
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen
and waste its sweetness on the desert air.

Christopher Woods has been taking photographs for about a year. His background is in writing.  He has published a prose collection, UNDER A RIVERBED SKY and a collection of stage monologues for actors, HEART SPEAK  He and his wife Linda live in Houston. They also have an old bungalow in Chappell Hill, Texas, where these photographs were taken.

In the Osler Temple

Cell 2 Soul & Dermanities
Joint Fall Conference
September 27 – 28, 2008

We are hosting a workshop at the Osler Library in Montreal over the last weekend in September, 2008.  The program will appeal to all who are interested in Humane Health Care.  This retreat will be limited to the first thirty registrants. Scholarships are available for students.  Email: Dave Elpern for full details

Tentative Syllabus

Saturday, September 27, 2008
The Osler Library at McGill

8:45 a.m.           Dave Elpern, Introduction: “This Hallowed Space”
9:00 – 10:00      Paul Rousseau:  “Too Close to Home:
A Healer’s Perspective on Communication, Empathy and Compassion”
10:00 – 10:30   William Kober: Mark Twain:  My Teacher, My Mentor
10:30 – 11:00    Break
11:00 – 12:00    Helen McNamara and Tom Hutchinson
"Teaching Physicians the Healer Role: the McGill Experience"
12:00 – 2:30      Lunch + Tour of Whole Person Care Facility
2:30 – 3:30       Chris Lyons – William Osler and the Osler Library
3:30 – 4:15       Bill Zeckhausen:  “Life Lessons from three wounded healers: psychologist, lawyer, physician”
4:15 – 5:00       Brian Maurer: “Brokenness and Healing”
7:00 – 9:00 Dinner (place to be determined)

Sunday, September 28, 2008
Montreal Botanical Gardens
10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Tour and Walkabout

Sunday, September 28, 2008
The Montréal Botanical Garden and Insectarium

10:30 a.m. – 3:00 pm

Guided Tour, Picnic Lunch and Discussion

Healthy Aging

Gina Kolata has done it again.  Her Personal Best series in the NY Times is inspired.  The latest piece: Staying a Step Ahead of Aging is well worth studying:

Excerpt: "Dr. Vonda Wright, a 40-year-old runner, decided to study people who kept training as they got older or began competing in middle age. She wanted to know what happens to them and at what age does performance start to decline.

The results are surprising, even to many of the researchers themselves. They found that while you will slow down as you age, you may be able to stave off more of the deterioration than you thought. Researchers also report that people can start later in life — one man took up running at 62 and ran his first marathon, a year later, in 3 hours 25 minutes."

See Permalink for full article.