Language: English

Survivor of White House Lightning Strike Embraces third chance at life

A graduate student canvassing near the White House on 8/4/22 for a nonprofit humanitarian group (International Rescue Committee - aids people in disaster zones) was one of four people hit by a lightning strike in Lafayette Park. She was the only one to survive, despite her heart stopping twice, the second time for more than 10 minutes. She ponders the meaning of being the one to survive the experience and describes the horrible pain from burns and nerve damage that she's still suffering from. Focuses on gratitude, learned from her aunt and uncle who died of cancer years ago but were grateful to be alive up until the end.

Me and Mrs. Dalloway: On Losing my Mother to COVID-19

Spitzer describes caring at a distance for her mother and father with COVID. Her mother dies, and Spitzer (a literary scholar) explains how Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse (a book that helped Woolfe come to grips with her own mother's death) takes on new meaning as Spitzer grieves her mother. She explains, "Reading and interpretation are how I deal with overbearing emotion, and they are also the way I am working through this grief and making it mine." She asks, "How to square the collective grief of COVID with the solitary grief of a mother's death and a father's illness?" and here, too, she finds insight in Woolfe's work, Mrs. Dalloway. The essay's concluding section describes interactions in her neighborhood and the process of grieving during social isolation. The essay could be used to discuss different ways of dealing with grief, and some of the common and distinctive features of COVID-related grief. It also points out the value of literature and personal stories in grieving processes.

On Witness and Respair: A Personal Tragedy Followed by a Pandemic

Ward describes losing her 33-year old husband in the early days of COVID when transmission wasn't well understood and treatments were non-existent. The essay opens with a loving tribute to his individual attributes, a useful move to personalize the statistics on COVID deaths. She puts her loss in conversation with the plot of a novel she is writing about an enslaved woman who loses family and with protests in response to the murder of George Floyd. The short essay is accompanied by a 14:27 minute audio reading. This essay could be used in a course to prompt discussion about health disparities in COVID and the connection between those and a larger history of systemic racism. It also gives insight into grief and loss, both individual and communal, and the ways in which story is a way of processing and acting upon it.

Front Lines: Poets & Physicians Document COVID-19

This project paired poets with NYC-area physicians to write poems as a way to provide space within and beyond the creative process for catharsis, shared understanding, and healing. The project started in spring of 2020 as a collaboration between two sisters--poet Elizabeth Fernandez and physician Nicole Fernandez. At the time I accessed this (8/11/22) there were 13 poems by 8 poets, written "for" 8 physicians. The poems (from June and July 2020 and October 2021) capture the experiences and emotions of these front-line health care providers during the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic.

UNCOVID–a 55-word story

This poem by Wald is composed of 55 words describing his experience as a spouse caregiver to a patient with brain cancer. The adjectives were similar to those Wald heard being used to describe the experience of COVID. In a brief afterward, he explains his intention for the poem: "I hope that this story might help readers pause, reflect, remember, and respond to suffering, both covid and 'uncovid,' with compassion for others and for oneself." This short poem and the author's reflection could be useful prompts for a discussion of how COVID experiences are similar to or different from other more "ordinary" or familiar experiences. There is also room here to discuss the ambiguity in poetry and the way it can allow both for multiple individual interpretations and empathy/common ground.

Fifty-five word stories: “Small jewels” for personal reflection and teaching

Fifty-five word stories are brief pieces of creative writing that use elements of poetry, prose, or both to encapsulate key experiences in health care. In this article, family physician Colleen Fogarty describes how she has used 55-word stories in a seminar she led at the 2009 annual meeting of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine (STFM). The article includes a table with instructions on how to write a 55-word story, a description of her seminar and tips on how she taught it, and examples of writing and reactions from the faculty in family medicine residency programs who participated in her seminar. The article is available free of charge in PubMed.

Patients as Teachers Project

The Patients as Teachers program pairs two first year medical students with a patient to learn more about how illness affects a patient's whole life. Students visit patients in their homes or other locations and learn about the impact of illness, patient coping and resilience, and positive and negative interactions with the health care system. The website has an archive of videos students have created about patient experience. For example, a video from 2020 interviews Jason Barup about his experience with clear cell renal carcinoma and also includes an interview with psychologist Michael Hayes, who worked with Barup through his diagnosis and treatment. The storyline puts Barup's illness experience in the broader context of his identify as a runner. The videos could be used to provide examples of patient narratives (they cover a range of medical conditions). They can also prompt reflection on patient-provider communication and interactions with health care systems.

Patient & Family Storytelling: Real People. Real Experiences. Real Impact.

This Alberta Health Services website lists 107 videos from patients and their families. There is a brief description of each video (e.g., the health condition, who tells the story, what larger issue or point the story illustrates). It is possible to search the collection (e.g., for stories related to "cancer"). Some examples of health narratives on this website include: Rose’s Story: Joy and Grief, a look into how healthcare providers can help us navigate tragedy and foster healing. Rose explores the impact and experience of the stillbirth of her son and daughter. (The website includes a content warning.) B’s Story: Learning to B myself, a story about the challenges of occupational stress, gender identity, mental health, and transgender advocacy from a rural context. Jeraldine’s Story: There is Hope, a story of the experiences of an Indigenous woman who experiences the ramifications of intergenerational trauma. This story advocated for Canada to provide culturally appropriate healthcare to indigenous populations. Although produced by a health care system, these videos give more voice to patients and family members than is often the case with these kinds of collections. They are well-produced and many address the experiences of historically under-served and marginalized populations.

Dancing With Broken Bones: Portraits of Death and Dying Among Inner City Poor

Author David Moller makes the case that the dying poor are doubly invisible, shunned for being poor in an affluent society that denies death. "This book is about providing a face and offering a voice to speak on their behalf." It includes stories about homeless and poor individuals and their experiences with end-of-life care (or lack of care). It portrays both their social isolation and suffering and their resilience and humanity. The author retells individuals' stories and these could be excerpted.

Look Now Project: Survivor Stories

This digital humanities project includes stories and images of breast cancer survivors. Project creator Tula Goenka (a breast cancer survivor) and her collaborators seek to "break down the barriers between a survivor's public persona and their private struggles with the disease, and to put a face on breast cancer in our local community." The first installation in 2018 included interactive text, graphics, mirrors, and an experimental silent film accompanying 25 participants' clothed photographic portraits and images of bare chests, and 19 who chose to remain anonymous except for their bare chest close-ups. In 2019, Goenka and her collaborators created TitBits: Breast Cancer Stories, a documentary theater performance. The multi-media website includes media coverage of Look Now and TitBits, oral histories, images of bare chests after lumpectomy or mastectomy, and resources on breast cancer. I have used Anju's story ("Life Happens Keep Smiling") from this website in a Narrative Scribe Training workshop for college students, medical students, and health care professionals. After viewing the video together, we discussed what may be left out of a transcript and the importance of listening closely not only to what is said, but also how it is said, what is not said, and how our own experiences and identities shape what we hear.