Death Card Does Not Work!
Few days ago, I walked into the cardiac investigation room where a colleague was hopelessly trying to convince a local patient that he needs urgent angiography. He had three months of chest pain associated with exertion and when we put him on the treadmill, he did not last more than 90 seconds before his cardiac monitor was all over the place - an indication that one of the big vessels in his heart is blocked. I thought there was a good chance for me to put some of Manchester communication skills into a local setting. The patient wanted to go home and come back after Eid to have the procedure. We wanted to do him straight away because he could drop dead any minute. I introduced myself and asked few questions about his history and explained the results of the test and the need to further evaluate him with angiography. He was having none of it and responded to every sentence I said with “After Eid after Eid!”. He must have repeated it about 30 times in the space of 5 minutes and that’s all he said until I decided to pull some Manchester tricks on him.
- Look, uncle, you really need this test right now or tomorrow at the very latest.
- After Eid after Eid.
- This wont do, we need to find whats wrong with your heart.
- After Eid after Eid.
- You may not have that much time with your current results.
- After Eid After Eid.
- Look, you may drop dead in the car park before you even leave the hospital.
As soon as he heard the word “dead”. He looked at me in shock and anger, graped his head turban and said with a tone of finality:
- I am leaving!
and that was that.
I decided to retreat with some dignity and leave him with his original doctor. Later, I saw him at the reception where he had his angry eyes fixed on me as I crossed from one end of the corridor to the other. So much for trying to help! Luckily, a colleague with more local experience was able to convince him to stay and have the procedure done which confirmed that he had significant blockage around his heart and needed urgent surgery.
Moral of the story: you are not allowed to use the death card on local patients.
October 9th, 2007 at 9:19 pm
death should never be mentioned ! thats the whole point of patients going to hospitals .. they dont wana die ! lol
i would advice you not try hard to connivence a patient on something they dont wana do… because , god forbids, things went wrong u’ll be the 1st to be blamed.
my idea is to make sure they understand the complication of not taking the medical advice and let them decide.
i know sometimes its hard to see them taking the wrong choice but there is only so much u can do
October 10th, 2007 at 4:07 pm
lol
t3eesh o takul ‘3arha :p
take your time with the local patients. Make it more friendly .. smile .. soolef .. take lil’ bit more time .. they are convince-able trust me .. they just have to trust you ;)
o ela3maar b’eed allah (you’ll definitely hear that so don’t tell them when they are going to die)
happy eid vacation in advance ;p
October 11th, 2007 at 8:31 am
hehehehee
please don’t do it again .. specialy ethaa kan an old man/weman
o allah y3eenek 3alaa 6ab3 el locals .. bas ma 3aly .. you will get used to later :)
until then .. be careful hehehhee
wish you happy Eid en shaa allah
October 11th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
What I do in similar situations is that I tell the patients if you want to leave the hospital then you sign “Leave against medical advice” and whatever happens to you outside the hospital its YOUR RESPONSIBILITY! and as soon as they hear this they change their minds!!
December 7th, 2007 at 7:28 pm
hahahaha that was funny :P
allah ykon fel 3oon ..its hard to tell some one your gonna die!! they will say “you are mad directly!! no matter what degree you have you are crazy you dont when am gonna die!!!!!!!!”
its true he doesn’t know but this mean your health is not that good! bas wallah la tloomhom.. wayed 3dna fel belad el tsh5ee9 ykoon 3′ala6 o ygololna feekom o feekom o btmooton!! fel nehayah el wa7ed maykoon feeh shy mn asaas!!
:\
last two weeks my bro lost his first baby, and the doc there told him and his wife before the birth day that th elil girl will die due to many issues with her “mutalazemat edward one of them” but what did we all told them?? you wrong no one gonna die!!!
this is some thing hard yet some times true!! we just need to say el 7emdellah : )
well, el 3eed 5alla9 bas yayena 3eed 3′er kel 3am o entah b5er!! ^_^
December 8th, 2007 at 6:49 am
I am told that the best way to approach this problem is to tell the patient: “Look, I am not going to discharge you (even though you never admitted them in the first place) and if you want to leave the hospital, here is a sheet of paper for you to sign to relieve me from all responsibilities if anything god forbids happen and for YOU to take that responsibility.”
I think sometimes you have to tell people they are going to die if they want to know that information OR/AND if its the only way you feel they will really understand what is going on. I am against forcing this information unto people but sometimes here you really doubt if people really know what you are saying.
Having said that, people kind of listen to local doctors and tend to accept what we say on face value. Its just a matter of picking the right words.