Ode to Intubation


I started a two week anesthesia selective this past Monday, and I felt the urge to dedicate a poem to the intubation:

Ode to the Intubation

I was hangin’ in the pre-op area one day
And a surgery patient came my way
My resident says, “It’s a thyroidectomy!
She’ll need to be intubated, so follow me!”

We wheel the patient into OR number five
Where blue sterile towels are happy and alive
And on a tray right next to me
A gleaming Mac blade is what I see

We put the patient to sleep, she never fought us
I then insert the Mac blade to see the epiglottis
The plastic tube went through the vocal cords
A job I felt deserved accolades and awards

I listened to her lungs for equal breath sounds
Alas! For a minute I began to frown
What if I intubated the right main stem bronchus?
And the tube went way past the glottis?

But as I listened more clearly to her lungs
They were equal, and my heart gleefully rung
with joy at completing my intubation well
To you, dear reader, this tale I wish to tell.