On one of the Saturdays in May, I was working a 12-hour shift in the local hospital. The shift started as usual at 7 a.m. After preparation for the upcoming day, we received the 68-year-old Chinese patient. The patient felt pain and burning when urinated. The analysis of the urine was not good. The color of urine was cloudy. The patient suffered from the pain in the back and under the ribbons. From the beginning, the patient had a fever. The blood analysis showed that the patients immune system was very weak. In addition, there was a possibility of development of the diabetes. After the precise investigation, she was diagnosed with urinary tract infection. The doctor prescribed IV antibiotics. The patient could hardly understand English. We suggested finding the translator for her. However, she refused. The communication was not established. The time passes by. Doctor and I tried to find someone from the medical personal to help us.
We succeeded. At that point, we thought that everything would be okay and we could start the treatment. Nevertheless, it was hard to communicate with the patient as even those from the medical stuff who were speaking Chinese mentioned that she wanted them to find her daughter. The women continued to refuse taking the medicines. I had a thought that there was something connected with the religion. With this idea, I approached the doctor and we talked about this issue. Unfortunately, he was busy at that moment. My shift was over and I headed home. However, something did not let me go. I was rethinking situation repeatedly. Finally, I had the decision to finish what I wanted to start: talk with the doctor about this unusual case.
It was a rainy day outside. All were a little bit down because of the weather. I am sure that at that time no one thought about the Chinese patient. Therefore, I tried to get to the doctor while he had lunch. He listened to me carefully and suggested to meet in the small conference room with the team. The whole team agreed that if we did not start the treatment right away we would face complication as there were signs of developing sepsis. We had tough discussions whether we needed to admit her as unable to take responsibility of her treatment or take a try to find her daughter. We chose the last option assuming it would take less time, and we needed it desperately, as well as our patient. Moreover, we understood that all documentation procedure would take too much time and the 68-year-old woman, despite the sepsis, would suffer from the diabetes too.
I searched for all possible information, which I could reach. This case became the issue for the whole hospital. I was a little bit scared that daughter would refuse to talk to mother as far as we knew they had not seen each other for more than seven years despite the fact that they were living in the same city. Until the end of the second day, I found the daughter of the patient. She was on vacation and promised to be at the hospital with the first flight. I was thankful to the heavens that she picked up the phone. The only thing we had to do at that moment was to wait.
Despite the fact that we found the patients daughter, she seemed unsatisfied. The blood analysis results confirmed that sepsis was going to progress. This was the third day of hospitalization. Daughter of the patient arrived on time. I suggested her to meet first with the doctor so he could explain in details what happened and what were the causes. She supported the suggestion and I accompanied her to the doctors office. They spent approximately 20 minutes communicating before she went out. The daughters face was full of emotion, but the main was despair.
After the night flight, she was tired and decided to drink coffee from the coffee machine, which was placed right on the same floor. I approached her to find out if she needed something. And she did. Lillian, which was the name of the daughter, told me that the main obstacle about the treatment was that according to the religious views of her mother, she was forbidden to take any pills or mixture, which are not naturally produced and can harm her energy field. Actually, this issue was one of the reasons why they did not talk for seven years.
Lillian told me the story that she had an older sister. They were in summer camp together and got flu. Everyone thought it would pass by and paid no attention until Jane lost consciousness. She was hospitalized. The doctor said that she needed small operation because the brain did not receive enough oxygen via veins. Her mother refused to do it as it went against the religious believes of the bods integrity and purity. As she confessed, now she knew that it was important to make everything possible for her mother to recover. Nevertheless, at the same time, this would make the gap between them bigger.
It was hard decision to make. However, she was ready to try to do it. She went to the mothers room and was full of energy to convince her to change decision. There were no shouts or tears since two adult persons met there. They spent a whole night talking. Finally, the medical stuff received the permission to provide the needed medical care to the patient. This decision was made on time. The doctor mentioned to me that few hours more and the situation could have been worse. The recovery process went fast. The patient was satisfied, and we, as those who care for peoples lives, felt relief as well.
About author
Monica is the author at https://essaysleader.com/action-scene-drawing/. She always dreamed of working in this position, working with texts and new information. After all, her credo in life is to develop daily in different fields and be an interesting person. She is fluent in three languages and holds a Masters Degree in Philology and Translator, and is also trying to master new fields in order to be knowledgeable in everything.
