On Autopsy
Today’s blog is a poem by Trishna Narula, a senior undergrad student from Rice University in Houston. This blog is accompanied by today’s elective report by Mohsin Shah, on the post congress research fellowship that he was selected to attend.
“Perceptum ex Mortuus,” the Latin above the entrance,
Much as I try to ignore, Wernicke translates with adamance.
Uncraning my neck, eyes daring down,
To the door bloodstained, no more brown.
I rotate the knob clockwise, creak by creak,
Adrenaline up notch by notch, making me peek.
Before my brain could make any sense,
Of retinal information, something more dense –
The obnoxious odor of morbid decay –
Bombarded my nostrils sans delay.
And then, there it was.
Set on a cold, steel tray,
A ghostly, translucent gray.
With spots of blue like the sky,
After dear Helios has bid goodbye.
In dead silence, I inched forward,
Refusing to blink in case it stirred.
When I saw more than a glimpse,
Finally, finally… I touched the corpse.
I noticed, out of the corner of my eye,
Something very bright, seemingly awry.
I swiveled to see scrubs dyed Pepto-Bismol,
He was cleaning his scalpel, having a ball.
After giving me a few words of support and a knowing grin,
The forensic pathologist began to begin.
He strode over to the body and made a swift incision,
I quickly braced myself for a bloody inundation.
But nothing happened.
Within a few minutes, I found myself,
Curiously bending over, hunched like an elf.
Eager to see the organs that looked different from but similar to,
The diagrams in our textbook for Human Biology 202.
For the next six weeks I mentored,
The Medical Examiner’s Office I excitedly entered.
I learned more anatomy and physiology,
Than the year’s course could have taught me.
I learned to distinguish bullet wounds, too;
A glance would tell how it went through.
If it was the site of entrance, exit, or tangential:
A special case, where the gun was shot at an angle.
I could tell by the body’s current condition,
The victory of Death’s time and position.
The degree of rigor mortis and livor mortis,
Always pointed to the diagnosis.
Most significantly, my wisdom would be increased,
If I learned to learn from the deceased.
And as “Perceptum ex Mortuus” persistently decreed,
This opportunity was one I eagerly seized.
Trishna Narula
thn1(a)rice.edu