What drives a young girl with the whole future stretched out before her to do the desperate act of killing herself? Today, a young girl with a history of psychiatric disorder was brought into ED after jumping off a bridge in an attempt to end her life. She was found to have fractured one of her spinal disc where the bits of bones were compressing on her spinal cord and hence could not move her legs at all.
As I stood with her waiting so that she could have a CT scan done, I found myself wondering what was going through her mind when she decided to end her life? Was she aware of her actions? Or was it because she wanted to escape from her mind? Did she realise that every scream of pain she made, her father and grandmother would shed tears of hopelessness and agony?
As the grandmonther was non-english speaking, I also had the job of translating what the consultants want to tell the family. But there are times when I found myself in the situation where I have been told certain issues about the condition of the patient but yet I could not convey the same things to the family because I wasn't sure whether the consultants wanted the family to know about those issues at that time.
So I found myself having to repeat what the consultants want me to tell the family and if they ask my things out of the scope of what I'm asked to translate, I could only give them answers like, "The doctors aren't sure of what's happening yet.", "They will want to see the latest scans first." or "The injuries may not be so serious as you think." I could see in their eyes that they are appealing to me to give an answer but on the other hand, I understand that it is not my call to do that. What do you say when they ask, "She can't move her legs now, what will the future be like?"
In another trauma victim, the teenage daughter was just sobbing away when she saw her mother screaming in pain because one side of her mother's hip was displaced. I wanted to console her teenage daughter but found that I did not know what to say to make her feel better. The only words I kept repeating was, "Are you alright?". What do you say to console someone when you know that the person they love has serious injuries and is in great pain?
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Christina told me you got interesting things at your blog to look at, so I came looking. I have not look at your blog for a long time cos for last year you do not have much updates leh....
Regarding on how to console someone....
Hmm.... if it happen to me that my closed one are in serious injuries, I believe I could not think clearly and I guess I would need someone to remind me to be strong so that I can be there for them. Thats what I think.
So what is your plan for the rest of the year? Are you going to US? or are you coming back to be polyclinic doctor?