By Reina Lynn G. Antonio, MD, FPCP, FPSN
Aside from being a very good clinician, our featured Nephrologist Dr. Melvin Marcial, is a passionate educator, an accomplished researcher, a lifelong learner and a dedicated husband and father.
He has written a number of research papers and had authored two medical books, namely the “Atlas of Urinary Sediments” and “Comprehensive Guide to Physical Diagnosis’” which are now being used widely by medical students and faculties, and even clinicians, as reference. He was thus became a recipient of the PSN Special Awards for Research in 2009.
But little do we know that he is also into poetry writing. He had written more than sixty Tagalog poems and about twenty poems in the English language. He created most of these during his college years as his outlet for when he felt frustrated or heartbroken. He relates that he usually wrote about love, family, environment, learnings in life, even inanimate objects like his series on beds, and of course, politics.
He also had produced poems for his mentors, Drs. Froilan De Leon and Libertad Nazareno-Rosales, and for some girls in his high school years. He just laughed when I asked if they were his way to ensnare their hearts.
But like his medical books, he intended to share his poetry with everyone someday. Not just to publish his poems in books but to have them read by people who could express the true feelings and emotions of his works and be interpreted by artists through their paintings.
I was fortunate enough to be offered that opportunity to translate his words into my painting. He wanted to share his work “Tulog na Mahal” with the society.
Dr. Marcial wrote this poem in April 2016 when he witnessed how a loving wife of his dying hemodialysis patient tried to pacify him and then told him to sleep and let go. She was whispering to him not to think about her and their children, but rather, just embrace the light and the eternal peace waiting for him. This patient was under Dr. Marcial’s care for more than ten years.
His words pierced my heart as I too had the same experience before. I believe as Nephrologists, we all did attend to the same scenario at some point in our practice.
His words were really inspiring. I felt honored when he told me he was happy to see what he exactly wanted to convey through my work and even requested to have his poem accompanied by my interpretation in this feature. This would be a start of what he intended to do with his poetry.
