Death Stories

While in the hospital, two officers sat in my room with me the entire time, even though I was chained to the bed.  On one evening, a couple officers stopped by to have a chit chat with the ones in my room. My officer detail was fully aware of my terminal issues, as they were there the entire time, even when I had discussions with doctors and nurses. The idle chit chat eventually turned to their stories of hospital visits by inmates that resulted in death.  I don’t know it was that they are used to ignoring inmates in the bed, or if they just didn’t care, but they began a morbid competition of telling death stories about inmates: ones that died in their cells or died in a yard awaiting medical attention or in and ambulance that took too long to arrive.  They weren’t shy about stating that the deaths were frequently due to lack of quick medical response. They showed an aggressive indifference. Their stories and attitude brought me to tears in my hospital bed. My tears were as invisible to them as I was.