HELP | Aprotim Cory Bhowmik
Pristine white tile lining the floors,
stainless steel trays clanging on stainless steel carts,
vomit yellow curtains on three sides.
Clean white sheets crinkling and sliding,
hanging onto the side of the bed,
as the Black woman screams,
her fingers digging into her bare thighs,
head flung back to
hit the pillow, with
her hips bearing her full weight, as
she writhes, with
her ankle gently caressed by her girlfriend.
My worn sneaker pollutes the tile, as I
walk towards her, she
looks at me when I talk, but
stops to contort her body as she
tries to say it hurts, and her
love’s eyes start to rain.
Run—I think—to get help, so I
tumble my chart notes together, and
whip the curtain closed, and
summon the supervisor, whose
eyes meet hers in the unsullied room, and
she flails while trying to form words, but he
whips the curtain closed, before she
can interrupt her agony, and he
turns to me,
“but how can we be sure
that she isn’t
drug-seeking”
Aprotim Cory Bhowmik (he/him) is a third-year MD student at the Hofstra/Northwell School of Medicine in New York City. His research focuses on social determinants of health and public health (e.g., homelessness and incarceration). He received his BS from Stanford University and EdM from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He has taught at Milton Academy in Milton, MA and serves as an adjunct professor at Southern New Hampshire University. He plans to pursue a residency in internal medicine.