Glorymill M.

Rodrguez Ramos
Healing Arts
Prof. Collins
October 8, 2012.

Anger and Disappointment at the Hospital

It is not an uncommon occurrence to hear phrases such as Oh that poor

guy aimed towards blind strangers; these comments emphasize an
individual's view of disabled people, as a lower class of inferiors, unable to
have normal life. This topic of disability is not common among literary genders,
as some texts that deal with this theme are often inclined to explode the pity in
the readers, or try to inspire with an account about the disabled individual. Jim
Ferris book: The Hospital Poems is full of a sort of angry poetry that
demonstrates, in a unique way, through his own frustration with the health
system. His lack of power is in a sense more human, because this empathizes
toward every individual who may have felt this way in the event of illness.
Ferris approaches these everyday life experiences with genuine frustration.
One can vividly see the lack of power a patient feels whilst in a hospital and
how they are de-personified during the hospitalization. But how would you feel,
Angry, frustrated, betrayed and alone in a system that ignores the very people
it cares for?

In order to fully explore the contexts of Jim Ferris poems, it is important

to look at different systems in which disabled people are grouped. The
Functional, the Sociopolitical and the biomedical model. The Functional model
is concerned towards the individual, the disability and the functions of that
individual. One of the primary problems is that it is only available for adults,
whilst segregating the elderly and children from the system. An additional flaw
is the space for discrimination in the system as it focuses towards the patients'
financial situation, which isolates the poor patient. The Sociopolitical model
claims that disability is not the problem; it is actually the lack of civil rights for
the disabled. It seeks for a social change as by the implementation of laws to
stop the disabled individual from having their rights revoked and from being
seen as a minority group. Neither of the above models associates clearly to Jim
Ferris' book. The Biomedical model is crucial in order to understand Jim Ferris
experience.
The Biomedical model is the most accepted and used. It concerns itself
with diagnostic and treatment; this creates a distance between the doctor and
patient and prioritizes the disability. In the poem. Ferris expresses: ... but he
is doctor, and of course he knows best, this highlights a distance between
doctor and patient; as there is no opposition against the medical opinions of
the doctor and the patient undergoes whatever the doctor decides to do. In this
model the patient is seen as inferior, not only because of his/her disability but
the superiority of the doctor leading the case. The Biomedical model is of great
use because it targets the patience, but it forgets the individual and their other
needs. There is more than just an illness or a disability, and this model does not
fulfill those expectations. The patient is alienated and grouped according to

their medical needs in this model. The doctors have lit out for shore / our
island washes away beneath us/ our cast and the ether our only friends and
wait to see what happens next (Patience). Ferris is describing how it feels to
be left in a hospital, where everyone comes and goes leaving them in an island
of people with physical and psychological problems, all eager to know what will
happen next. The distance is marked and as he describes he is with children
who have similar problems, it is implied that they all have orthopedic problems
because of when he says our cast it is. This could in a sense be a type of
discrimination against patients who are grouped by their medical diagnostics
and socially speaking not for their real needs. Also the model fails to fulfill the
mentally ill needs. This system in which the book is solely written on is being
criticized with all the anger and frustration by Ferris as a teenager.
The tone in The Hospital poems is set out as angry. The loneliness of a
hospitalized child patient and his opinion of everything that was going on,
demonstrates how inhumane the situation was. You are a specimen for study,
a toy, a puzzle-they speak to each other as if you are unconscious (The
Coliseum). The patient care is merely weighted in terms of the medical issues.
Often doctors forget that the patient is listening to their comments and has
limited or no comprehension about the conversation, taking the comments as if
they are solely concerned with their case, even if it does not concern them. In
the poem Ferris explains how he was being examined, naked in front of all the
doctors and how he wished for it to end so he could go back to the good old
boring ward. Ferris does not asks for pity or give an inspirational tone for his
work, he expresses the pain of being looked down as a child with a disability
and how doctors were so obsessed in order to correct his physical limitations.

Concerning the Biomedical model not only the distance is clearly seen but also
how the rehabilitation and the functional aspects of a patient are not met. The
system is only concerned with the cure or death of the illness and not with the
quality of life. They leave my crotch free, barely, but I can do everything I
need to. Except scratch. Itching is forever." (Hip Spica). Then again one sees
how the biological needs of the patience, but sometimes the traumas that the
disabled person has, are not considered. He wont remember much; kids are
like animals that way. Anyway, you had a job to do. Youll go on to many new
operations; soon, you wont even remember that leg. Let alone that boy. Tears
and pain are standard operating procedure... (Standard Operating Procedure).
The patient understands and internalizes the distance and even though a
surgical procedure is important for the individual it is only another procedure
for the doctor. This of course is also taken to the disabled lives. This part of the
poem is one of the most direct critiques for the hospital system and fully
explains how he felt during the time.
Another important aspect to be considered in the analysis of the
hospitalization experience is that of the communication issues, mentioned
earlier. Since the distance between the medical staff and the patients is so
great. Some patients could feel that they're being objectified as meat, only to
be practiced and experimented on. Between four and five they bring down
the meat/ from recovery... They've been someplace you can only go alone,
and they come back cooked a little more-. (Meat Page). The linguistic aspect
of this poem is really interesting. Since the communication between the
medical staff has the tendency of being cold towards patients feeling this way,
because many times they are not considered as human beings, most of the

time they are meat about to be cut open by surgeons. A year later an intern
in green/ rolls a stretcher up to my bed: I scoot/ on. He straps me down. He
does not talk. (Before). This fragment of the poem portrays an example that
needs to be analyzed and considered. If the medical staff attached themselves
to the patients, how would they end up emotionally after a week in the
hospital? The doctors and nurses have to protect themselves and not get
emotionally involved with their patients. If that happens their judgment would
be clouded. That's why hospitals have a policy that doctors are not supposed to
treat family members. I strongly feel that is also important to understand the
other side of the coin when it comes to this topic. The distance and coldness
used is need, but just not to the extent seen.
Fear is a defense for the unfamiliar. Patients are facing unfamiliar
procedures, medicines, and medical staff on a daily basis. Often after long
periods of time medical staff and patients start making a connection that is
broken after the patience leaves. With all the times Ive been in this place,
youd think once Id meet up again with somebody I knew before ...And so I
start making a place for myself again, learning name, faces...forgetting life
outside, forgetting home. (Return to the Ward). The separation and the
difference between home and a hospital. Home where at school you are a
special kid, whereas in the hospital you are one of the helpless children. Also
as a teenager one ordinary fear is described in: hatchet men waiting to cut
you and what you fear most in the entire world are that youll pop a boner and
die embarrassed on this green yet sterile field. (Fear at Thirteen). This
presents that the everyday fears of the patient are not just about being cut

open nor having a reactions to meds. This leads to an analysis of how a

disabled person sees life.
The different models mentioned earlier are often combined; this practice
produces a positive result. Yet there is still a requirement for laws that seek for
the well being of the disabled and patients in general. Ferris views disability as
a position that lacks power in almost every aspect. There is little to do in a
society that sees disabled people as ill, as unfortunate or as inferior. I believe
that the close experiences with the disabled assists a person to understand
that there are not only the physical aspects to it; the most painful aspect is the
psychological one. Disability opens the door for different traumas and pains of
what a person was able to do before, but now cannot; simply how to enter
place, or to shower themselves. Systems have to be analyzed in order to fulfill
the needs of the disabled. It is truly impressive how a person with no arms is
able to comb their hair, but some of the people who are able to do these things
are expected to do great things with their lives, leading to live a life full of
pressure.
In summary the anger is present in the lives of the disabled and their
caretakers, but most of this anger comes from the health system and its lack of
responsibility for other aspects other than the medical ones.