The Power Of Acceptance

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Medical Anecdotal Report

Index Title: EEstonilo’s MAR [06-06]

MAR Title: The Power of Acceptance

Date of Medical Observation: July 7, 2006

Narration:

During my tour of duty at the ER about 2 weeks ago, I had a 35-year-old male patient. He was referred to us by the Internal Medicine due to massive pleural effusion. He was in mild respiratory distress. We managed the patient by inserting a chest tube. The patient tolerated the procedure well and his symptoms improved.

The next day, as I dressed the patient’s wounds. My patient was apprehensive and blurted out: “Para namam akong baboy!” His sister retorted: “Anong parang baboy? Gusto mong iwanan kita dito?!” The patient kept quite as I cleaned his wound. I cannot help but feel sorry for the man in front of me. Instead of being comforted, he was treated appallingly and by his sister no less.

I placated him by drawing him out into a conversation. I learned that he was single and worked as a laborer. He lived with his parents and 5 other siblings. He revealed that his family was having a difficult time accepting his sickness since he was one of the breadwinners. I was thinking whether his family realizes the gravity of his situation. To me, it seemed that they were more concerned about the money that he brings into the family income rather than his health.

Insight: (Physical, Psychosocial, Ethical)

(Discovery, Stimulus, Reinforcement)

Illness is akin to a thief; it strikes anytime and anyone. It can leave the most influential people traveling from one place to another, desperately seeking chances of a cure. Some go to spiritual healers searching for redemption and miracles. These things that I have mentioned are the options open to someone who has the resources.

For a family who tries to scrape a living each day just so they can eat, accepting or realizing that a family member is incapacitated will take time to sink in.

In a country like the Philippines, where public health-care is poorly funded, monetary resources are essential in financing one’s treatment. What I have realized from the scenario is that an illness is a family matter. Just as any patient progresses to the different stages of acceptance of being sick, their family is having its own acceptance to come to terms with. More often, we confront only the patient. Much worse, if we see only the disease and not the person with the disease.

The importance of involving support groups that the patient may already have is an oversight that we often take for granted. Educating the relatives about the disease will help them accept and embrace whatever emotions or pain their patient is going through. A little effort on our part as doctors to explain further would be more beneficial than a barrel of pills.

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