4 - Alpha Omega Alpha

shut he recognized my voice and began to cry too.
Relieved that I spoke Spanish, one of the nurses lamented
briefly over Patrick’s obstinance and then left us for a moment.
“Coca-Cola” is the same in English as it is in Spanish.
Five minutes later she returned with a small glass.
Over the course of two weeks Patrick became proficient
at certain Spanish expressions. “I have pain in my leg” and
“Can I have Coca-Cola, amigo?” were his favorites. But most
important was the language the hospital staff learned to use
with him. A reciprocal thumbs up or down meant everything
was going well or poorly. Arms stretched out wide with
eyes closed followed by adios meant it was time for another
operation, seven in all. And tico, the word Costa Ricans use
to refer to themselves, was notification that another blood
transfusion was coming. The doctors often joked that he was
half-tico, half-gringo. But as Patrick suddenly declined into
hallucinations and a lung infection, this primitive system of
words and gestures crumbled.
Dr. Izaguirre, the head attending, was a thin man and his
white coat was stiff with starch. As he grew more frustrated
the creases deprived of a home on his coat burrowed thick
and ominous into his forehead.
Patrick’s most vivid hallucination cast him as the leg
segment of a robot. We were merely props in his play, the
setting and plot changing by the moment. Like a stagehand
laboring to keep the lights on and the curtain from falling,
Dr. Izaguirre swooped in and out of the room almost undetected.
The rest of us struggled to keep Patrick calm and
in bed. The infection was improving, but the hallucinations
were not. The doctor was stumped.
Two days went by—no change.
Robotic mimicking and iatrogenic
hallucinations
On day three, Dr. Izaguirre entered and stood over
Patrick’s bed. Like a mannequin from a display window, the
doctor remained motionless in thought. Patrick lay watchful
from below. After five minutes the doctor raised his hand deliberately,
careful not to wrinkle his coat, and scratched the
The Pharos/Spring 2009 33