Congratulations to Thao Nguyen who will be serving as co-editor-in-chief this upcoming year!
Voices
a literary journal
for stories of our humanities
We are Voices, a literary journal that publishes creative expressions of students and individuals in the medical community, established and supported at the Duke University School of Medicine. We welcome any submissions from patients, healthcare providers, families and friends who would like to share their experiences with healthcare. In the past, DukeMed Voices has published articles, essays, short stories, poetry, photography, and drawings. A wide range of topics are encouraged, ranging from global health, medical ethics, med student experiences, abstract poems, nature photos, and others. Any experience that relates to your life within the medical community, whether direct or indirect, can be represented creatively in our publication.
OUR EDITORS
Rui Dai
Editor-in-Chief
Rui is a MD/PhD student currently pursing a PhD at Duke University.
Thao Nguyen
Editor-in-Chief
Thao is a second year medical student at Duke University School of Medicine
S. Tammy Hsu
Associate Editor
Tammy is fourth year medical student at Duke University School of Medicine
Ashley Adams
Associate Editor
Ashley Adams is a fourth year medical student at Duke University School of Medicine
Gireesh Reddy
Associate Editor
Gireesh is a fourth year medical student at Duke University School of Medicine
Samuel Hofacker
Associate Editor
Sam is a third year medical student at the Duke University School of Medicine.
Shan McBurney-Lin
Associate Editor
Shan is a third year MD/MBA candidate at Duke University School of Medicine.
Karishma Sriram
Associate Editor
Karishma is a third year medical student at Duke University School of Medicine
Zachary Smothers
Associate Editor
Zachary is a second year medical student at Duke University School of Medicine
Teresa Meng
Associate Editor
Teresa Meng is a Class of 2019 undergraduate student at Duke University
Dr. Ray Barfield, MD, PhD
Faculty Advisor
Dr. Ray Barfield is an associate professor of pediatrics, and specializes in oncology and palliative care.
Dr. Karen Jooste, MD, MPH
Faculty Advisor
Dr. Karen Jooste is an assistant professor of pediatrics, specializing in primary care and writing in healthcare.
Dr. Sneha Mantri
Faculty Advisor
Dr. Sneha Mantri is an Assistant Professor of Neurology, specializing in movement disorders and has obtained a masters degree in narrative writing.
Excerpts
Shouts and Murmurs
Racing down the road, I kept assuring myself that “we don’t lose babies anymore to croup” but I could see the terror in my baby’s eyes as she struggled for air.
Alerted to our imminent arrival, the ED staff flew into action and the rest is a blur to me. What
I do remember is the supportive and professional manner in which we were served and the voice of my doctor.
I could surrender my baby into their competent hands because I knew their highest priority was saving her life.
Assistant Professor of Social Work at Aurora University (IL) and coordinates the Health Care and Gerontology Specializations
Anatomy lab was the part of medical school that really scared me most.
Actually the thought of it quintessentially terri ed me.
The smell and fluid exposure was the tiniest part of that fear. Death scares me. And yes, as a clinician, I’m scared to see someone else die. Yes, people like me can go to medical school. I thought I would faint, throw up, be in the hallway in the first three minutes.
In part, it was the idea that I would be there while someone’s mom, daughter, grandmother would be taken apart muscle by muscle.
Yet, it was more than this. It was the fact I would be there with what was left. Standing next to an incomplete set of organs, tissues, bones. Parts of a structure that once collectively felt the ultimate stressor.
That I would be left wondering at what point a person became the bone in my bone box.
The moaning grew louder as a young woman, age 19, limped into the room.
She was covered in blood and black char. Looking confused and horrified, she dropped to her knees, gasped for air, and threw her head back, attempting to scream but nothing came out. The ED nurses raced to her side and quickly escorted her to one of the beds. Just a moment later
a young man, age 21, tranquilly shuffled in with nothing on but a pair of charred shorts. His entire body was seared black, as if he had just fallen through a chimney. A smell wafted through the air that was sickly sweet and deeply unpleasant. It hit the back of my throat, eliciting a visceral response in me to move faster, smarter and reach deep for a sense of compassion I had not yet discovered within myself.