Case Study 16 : PATIENTS’ CONCERNS
Challenges
A 36-year-old patient was diagnosed with a benign mass in the uterus and was scheduled for partial hysterectomy. Despite doctors’ assurances that similar cases are relatively easy to manage, the patient remains constantly uneasy and cannot sleep at night.
Her husband thinks that such a reaction is quite exaggerated and disproportionate to the situation. He tries to pacify her by repeating the doctors’ prognosis, but is unsuccessful in his efforts.
Question
What other considerations should the husband take into account when trying to reassure his wife?
Solutions
Ill persons may encounter difficulty in expressing some of the following:
1. Fear of suffering and death.
2. Uncertainties of diagnosis and prognosis. Fear about pain or embarrassment of various testing or treatment procedures either unfamiliar to them – or all too painfully familiar.
3. The burden of a long stay in the health care facility under boring or excruciating circumstances.
4. Separation from their regular work, friends, and family. Discomfort in the new situation.
5. Worries and perhaps guilt about responsibilities at home that they cannot handle.
6. Sense of deprivation of privacy and of freedom, almost as if they were imprisoned.
7. They may feel puzzled about Why has this happened to me? Interpreting sickness as punishment for moral guilt or as the “silence of God”.
8. Anticipating further guilt through failure in courage and hope.
7. Feeling alone and deserted in meeting all the foregoing. Sense of dignity, worth, and membership in the human community diminished by real moral guilt, for which God’s forgiveness is truly needed.
Families and medical teams are invited to factor in the above considerations, to provide a truly holistic care.
(From: Ashley and O’Rourke, Health Care Ethics, 4 ed., Georgetown University Press, Washington D.C. 1997.)
