A Trip to a Silent Hospital

On July 18th 2020 in the late afternoon, I started experiencing some concerning not Covid-related symptoms and I made the decision to go to the Emergency Room. I’ve had chronic health issues all my life, so this wasn’t an unfamiliar experience. However, I’d been isolating since March and I was terrified of having to potentially go into a situation that was unknown in the middle of the pandemic. The things I remember most about the visit are how utterly desolate the places in the hospital felt, and how silent it was. I’m used to packed waiting rooms and constant noise. This visit was very different. After a brief screening in a large, mostly empty lobby with large barriers and protective measures in place, they assessed that I was not a potential COVID patient and sent me to a waiting room that I was alone in for most of my visit. There was no real chatter, mostly just silence, broken by the TV. The silence continued even back into the ER, where it seemed that the staff was spread thin. The most notable sounds were occasional low conversations and the sounds of medical equipment being moved around and the beeps and pulses. Even when evaluating me, while warm, the conversations sounded more terse and to the point. Everything moved more quickly. In some ways, it felt like being in an abandoned building. Everything was dark, silent, and empty in the areas where I was.

text story about a sensory experience (personal memory)

July 18, 2020

Morgan Lunsford

Morgan Lunsford

HST643

Arizona State University

text

English Education--Universities

English Healthcare

English Social Distance

hospital

silence

quiet

isolating

pandemic

desolate

emergency room

senses

Sensory History

Hospital

Arizona

Tucson

Silence

Sounds

Latino(a/x) Voices

10/14/2020

10/16/2020

05/24/2022

07/18/2020