A stethoscope is a well-known tool to any person working in the medical field. As a young girl with a passion for the medicine, I have realized that the stethoscope is the tool most integral to the territory of medicine. A stethoscope is a tool that helps the medical professional hear what is going on with most internal organs of their patient. It hears all things, wrong or right, about those organs. The stethoscope also fosters human touch.
If my stethoscope could talk, it would talk about the lungs of that one 55-year-old patient who smoked for thirty years of his life and decided to quit five years ago. It would say how they have grown so much stronger yet they are nowhere near good enough to free him from the COPD he has gained due to the buildup of tar in his lungs. It would pity the poor patient’s situation. If my stethoscope could talk it would talk about the newborn baby with the devastating heart murmur. It would talk about that sweet cry that erupts from her tiny mouth the moment its cold surface touches her skin. It would talk about the softness and pureness of that baby’s skin compared to that of the older patients who have lived a long life. It would talk about its hope that this murmur is one that will not prevent this sweet little girl from a long life.
If my stethoscope could talk it would talk about how sad it was when a young boy came in with unbearable stomach pains and the terrible sounds that came from his intestines. How it took weeks to figure out just what was wrong with his precious soul. It would talk about how hard it is to hear those awful noises and see the professional in control struggle to find the answer.
If my stethoscope could talk it would talk about that slowing heartbeat of the old woman who is slowly losing her strength and inching closer to her eternity as every minute passes. It would say how it has heard that heart in so many stages of this woman’s life and how it has weakened little by little with each passing moment. It would talk about the new heartbeats that this woman brought into this world and how each time a new heartbeat was heard in her; hers got stronger with the news.
If my stethoscope could talk its final story would be about the heart of the one who always uses it. It would talk about the way it could faintly hear her heartbeat while hanging around her neck. It would speak about the strength of that heart and how its rate increased with every exciting discovery or cure. How it mellowed with the sad news that nothing was enough to win certain fights.
My stethoscope hears all the great stories that I get to witness and gets to hear them and feel them a little closer than I could ever be able.
