{"id":612,"date":"2017-08-15T22:06:26","date_gmt":"2017-08-15T21:06:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottishmedicalhumanities.org\/human\/?p=612"},"modified":"2026-04-17T16:50:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T15:50:16","slug":"32-tumours-in-one-lung","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scottishmedicalhumanities.org\/human\/32-tumours-in-one-lung\/","title":{"rendered":"32 tumours in one lung"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>What the doctor said: Raymond Carver<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u2018He said it doesn\u2019t look good<br \/>\nHe said in fact it looks real bad<br \/>\nhe said I counted thirty-two of them in one lung before<br \/>\nI quit counting them<br \/>\nI said I\u2019m glad I wouldn\u2019t want to know<br \/>\nabout any more there being there than that\u2026.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Read the full poem, and hear Garrison Keillor reading it, on <a href=\"http:\/\/writersalmanac.org\/episodes\/20151118\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Writer\u2019s Almanac<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Commentary<\/h3>\n<p>The American short story writer and poet Raymond Carver died from lung cancer, aged 50, in 1988. In this poem, he gives a word for word conversation with the doctor who gave him his final diagnosis.<\/p>\n<p>All medical students learn about how to break bad news to a patient. What this poem gives us is one patient\u2019s direct and vivid take on how he receives and reacts to this news in real time. As a writer, he described himself as \u2018inclined towards brevity and intensity\u2019 and the poem clearly exhibits these qualities.<\/p>\n<p>Carver finishes:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u2018I jumped up and shook hands with this man who\u2019d just<br \/>\ngiven me<br \/>\nsomething no one else on earth had ever given me<br \/>\nI may even have thanked him habit being so strong\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>There is an irony in the way that Carver talks of his fatal diagnosis in this off hand, quasi-humorous way. The patient is left in no doubt about the diagnosis, and by implication his prognosis. So was this a successful consultation? Did the doctor break the news in a way that would fit with Good Medical Practice today?<\/p>\n<p>Discuss\u2026..<\/p>\n<h3>Further info<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>This poem is included in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk\/about\/projects-partners\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tools of the Trade:<\/a> poems for new doctors published by Scottish Poetry Library 2016<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.poetryfoundation.org\/poets\/raymond-carver\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Raymond Carver<\/a> (Poetry Foundation)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gmc-uk.org\/guidance\/29117.asp\">GMC guidance<\/a> on communication in end of life care<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/airshipdaily.com\/blog\/02212014-drinks-raymond-carver-story\">Raymond Carver&#8217;s<\/a> alcohol habits; and a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.historylink.org\/File\/22455\">more detailed illustrated biography<\/a> from HistoryLink (Washington State history)<\/li>\n<li>Featured image from David Puyo\u0301 Vera at <a href=\"https:\/\/radiopaedia.org\">radiopaedia.org<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Contributed by<\/h3>\n<p>John Gillies<\/p>\n<h3>Rate this post<\/h3>\n\n<h3>More like this<\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What the doctor said: Raymond Carver \u2018He said it doesn\u2019t look good He said in fact it looks real bad he said I counted thirty-two of them in one lung before I quit counting them I said I\u2019m glad I wouldn\u2019t want to know about any more there being there than that\u2026.\u2019 Read the full <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scottishmedicalhumanities.org\/human\/32-tumours-in-one-lung\/\">Read More &#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1738,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wpupg_custom_link":[],"wpupg_custom_link_behaviour":["default"],"wpupg_custom_link_nofollow":["default"],"wpupg_custom_image":[],"wpupg_custom_image_id":[],"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"BlogPosting","footnotes":""},"categories":[33,7],"tags":[62,4,14],"class_list":["post-612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oncology","category-respiratory-medicine","tag-bad-news","tag-patient-experience","tag-poetry"],"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":2,"sum_votes":10},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottishmedicalhumanities.org\/human\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottishmedicalhumanities.org\/human\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottishmedicalhumanities.org\/human\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottishmedicalhumanities.org\/human\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottishmedicalhumanities.org\/human\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottishmedicalhumanities.org\/human\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1741,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottishmedicalhumanities.org\/human\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612\/revisions\/1741"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottishmedicalhumanities.org\/human\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottishmedicalhumanities.org\/human\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottishmedicalhumanities.org\/human\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottishmedicalhumanities.org\/human\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}