The latest mechanical ventilator to grace our beloved medical ICU is this purple machine called Vela. She is sleek, smart, a little shy, not too clingy, does not wear too much make-up, and most of all, touchscreen. And you can clamp her to the bed if you want to move the patient around. Remarkably, every time we introduce her to someone, say to the latest resident rotator or a student or nurse or someone, and we say, “This one is called Vela”, 9 times out of 10 that person would all of a sudden sing… “Vela, ela, ela, eh eh eh ” to the tune of Rihanna’s Umbrella. This phenomenon, of course, must be nothing compared to actual people who are named Ella, who must receive this sudden burst of singing from total strangers who were just introduced to them. Curiously enough, that 1 out of 10 outlier who didn’t automatically sing or bring out an umbrella and dance around the ICU in fishnet stockings when we introduced her to Vela is someone named… Bella.

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