INDEXING TITLE: NALUDINO'S MAR (5-06)

TITLE: A Character Building Experience

PERIOD OF MEDICAL OBSERVATION: May 2005

NARRATION: 

I have always enjoyed being a physician. Being able to treat patients of their sickness has always turned an otherwise taxing profession into a fulfilling experience. 

But there is also a side which I don’t really enjoy doing, something that always leave a bitter aftertaste. Telling the relatives that their patient has passed away have is not a pleasant experience. 

It had to happen to me. A woman in her mid 20s was brought to the emergency room, bloodied, with multiple stab wounds. We tried to resuscitate the patient. We inserted intravenous lines and started CPR. Despite all our efforts, I turned towards the relatives and told them the bad news.  

After an hour or so, a group of people were at the entrance of the emergency room seemingly reluctant to come in. One of them finally approached me and I recognized her as a relative of the patient who passed away earlier. She told me that all the relatives have been told the bad news except the mother. Nobody was willing to tell the mother because she apparently had suffered cardiac event a few weeks earlier. They were asking me to break the news to her. Something I was hesitant to do but eventually did.  

The look on the mother’s face was of fear. She didn’t have any idea what happened to her daughter, save for the fact that she was brought to our hospital. 

Before I told her the news, I asked the medical clerk to take the patient’s vital signs. I was afraid that I might induce a cardiac event when I tell her the news.  

When she discovered the truth, she broke down but she eventually composed herself and they all went home together. 

INSIGHTS: (discovery, stimulus, reinforcement) (physical, PSYCHOSOCIAL, ethical)

As physicians, we are sometimes put in awkward situations. It during these times that we must rise up and meet the challenge. Being the grim reaper’s messenger is not exactly my idea of fun. However, because we deal directly with people’s lives, it is a situation we cannot avoid. By assuming responsibility for the patient’s health, we assume also the responsibility of updating their loved ones. Initially when they came and asked me to tell the mother the bad news, I felt that they were just using me, so that they will not be responsible in case something also happened to the mother. It is a burden that they wanted to pass to me for selfish reasons. That’s why I initially refused. 

But the look on the mother’s face told me that I cannot let this go on. As the one who attended to their daughter, I also share the responsibility of telling her the news. Who better to tell her than me? At least she is already in the hospital, if something bad happened to her, we can do something about it here. So I told her. When she uttered words of despair, I held back tears.  

Something I was afraid to do, but was glad I did.  

These kinds of experiences mold us into better persons and consequently better physicians. Good physicians look after the physical well being of the patient, better physicians look at the emotional and physical aspects of the patient.