A Poem on Palliative Care by Dr. Cheriyan Koshi

Palliative Care
CHERIAN KOSHY, M.S., M.Ch.

A Care so whole for body and soul,
When pain and suffering, take their toll,
Can we underestimate the team’s role?
Making the patient’s comfort their sole goal

With limits for cure, but nil for care,
We are called to love and share,
We give and take, bless and bear,
‘We have limits’ Can we speak and dare?

Pain and suffering misery and sorrow,
The lot of those who live in time they borrow
With a life limiting illness this their plight
It behooves us to help them with all our might

Morphine and syringe drivers are they all?
To those for whom pain may befall
Shouldn’t we understand ‘Total Pain’?
To uplift many as they go on memory’s lane.

‘To live with hope and in dignity to die’
Is what we give before the patient’s last sigh
Giving all a ‘good death’ they deserve
Is our calling to those whom we serve.

‘When pain is inevitable but suffering optional’
Shouldn’t we give our best before the knell.
Yes; these are humankind’s cardinal events
‘Yells, Bells and Knells’!

To ease pain with the ethos of care
Is our vocation with our time to share
With us, better do the suffering fare
Topping our efforts with a silent prayer.

Help to the dying, to the bereaved the strength
To the larger community, through breadth and length
The message of ‘healing and hope’ we proclaim
Through ‘passions of touch’ aflame

Yes ‘Its low tech but high touch’ so we say
When distress is common during any day
We say ‘We are with you any time as before’
‘And will help you reach Mercy’s Shore!

Death a leveller from the young to the old
Our message to all is to be bold
‘Cause as in a war we loudly can sing
Where is grave’s victory and death its sting?

Cherian Koshy, M.S, M.Ch (Plastic Surgery)
Additional Professor and Chief
Division of Palliative Medicine
Regional Cancer Centre,
Trivandrum
http://www.rcctvm.org