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EXT
4
A
MEMORABLE PATIENT
:
THE VALUE OF COMMUNICATION
1. Read the text and discuss what lesson the doctor learnt
from this experience.
I expect she is back in Vietnam now. I often think about her and
her family.
She was a pleasant child, with limited Cantonese picked up from
her many years spent in a detention camp in Hong Kong. She had had
a relapse of her nephrotic syndrome and had stayed with us a while
until diuresis occurred, as the camps were not suitable for someone re-
ceiving high dose corticosteroids. She also had a history of asthma,
which was quiescent at the time
We got on well, despite the Language barrier. I guess one doesn't
need many words during play. I explained her condition to her softly-
spoken mother through an interpreter. I learnt that they had been in the
camp for a few years and that she loved all her children very much,
that they were all she had after her husband had died in a camp fight.
It was coming up to a local festival, and the mother was keen to
have her family together for the occasion. The wards were quiet, the
child's corticosteroids had been reduced, and she was stable. I agreed
that she could return to the camp for the holiday period.
After the holiday, I discovered that the child had had to be admit-
ted to the intensive care unit. She had had a severe asthma attack, re-
quired ventilation, and suffered cerebral hypoxia. No one blamed me.
After all, her asthma had been under control when she left. I felt in-
credibly guiLty, though, and I didn't want to face the mother. Never-
theless, facing up to parents was part of the job, so again I called in
the interpreter and tried to explain what was being done to help, ex-
plained what could have happened, and expressed my regret at the sit-
uation. The mother just cried.
The child made a surprisingly good recovery. With physiotherapy
and speech therapy, she regained most of her speech and mobility. I
wrote letters and made many telephone calls to camp officials, insist-
ing that the mother be allowed daily visits to the hospital.
During those weeks of recovery, the mother didn't say much to
me, despite our many meetings via an interpreter. She seemed to ac-
cept the turn of events, and I was just pleased that the child was able