“We are Neurodiagnostic professionals

We solve problems you don’t know you have

With waves you can’t understand.”

-Bankole Murtala, R.EEG.T, scientist, poet

Bankole Murtala works as a scientist and EEG technologist in Lagos, Nigeria. Bankole recently joined us on the IONM4LIFE: Adventures in Neuromonitoring podcast to talk about his work with epilepsy patients and his outreach initiative, The Epilepsy Ambassadors Initiative.

Bankole also read some original works of poetry. “It’s Electrifying!” was originally posted on the ASET Central discussion board in honor of Neurodiagnostic Week 2023.

“Still I Rise” is a poem Bankole is still working on, one that captures the spirit of diagnosing, treating, and living with epilepsy. Both are inspiring works.

Full text for each work listed below. Please note that Bankole Murtala is the original author and these works were reproduced here with his permission.

Its Electrifying!

Not Electrocuting

Procedural, all gains no pain

We don’t need to see you fall

To suggest areas of concern

Sometimes we do see the epilepsy

Not neccessarily the seizure

We use our brain to monitor yours

Its Electrifying!

And physiological,

With potentials from cell bodies

To axon terminals and dendrites

Over billions of neurons on call

And foot soldiers, the neurotransmitters

Your account with us, an account we give

Because your brain matters

Its Electrifying!

Yet diagnosed symptoms and diseases

Your choice of medication

Sometimes becaons on our effort

Oh!

The tranquilizing drug of gradualism;

They still need tobe trialed

Count on us

Having EEG is safe, easy and painless

Its Electrifying!

In all ramifications

The breaking of a wave

Can not explain the whole sea

Nor does a single robin

Herald the spring

A single spike in a patient

With unusual spells

However, can speak a volume

More than the most detailed MRI

We are Neurodiagnostic Professionals

We solve problems you don’t know you have

With waves you can’t understand

The brain function

Is our business

Alas, it’s electrifying.

Still I Rise

In the journey of life

Epilepsy is not a full stop

But a comma,

Why label a future superstar?

I slipped and somebody sees a terrible fall

That is a fact, no doubt

A fall is a fall

But what is bad when my kissing the dust allows me an opportunity to feel the soil

And understand the terrain

I will definitely run faster any other time

I shall fear no fall anymore

A fall is no fall

I am grateful for my little falls

For I can now climb the tallest of mountains with ease

My seizure, a thing of the past

Arrested to halt

Antiepileptic drugs to the rescue

I was not tutored in the art of self-doubt

What a lesson it would have been

I was not made to self-reject;

What a tormenting experience it would have been

I was not impelled to self-hate;

What a vehement rejection I would have shown

I was not nature to vulnerable failure;

What an evil way that would have been

I was not nurtured to hold down to the earth;

No chain will ever bind me

I fail and learn again

I fall and rise again

I retreat and charge again

No matter the nature of the trip

I shall not slip

No matter the trouble

I shall not be troubled

Even when I fall and fail

My mind is on success

I reject the thought of failure and defeat

Once the game is still on

Epilepsy is the future loser

When I leave for eternity

Epilepsy is still the loser

For dead bodies do not convulse