Loved ones are intrinsic to patient recovery.

In the physician’s intense preoccupation on the patient care, the value patient’s family could bring in healing the patient is often overlooked . Though the patient care team is fully competent of relieving the pain of the patient, but comforting  distressed parents, spouse and children is not on their priority list. Recent evidence favors, inclusion of the family members in the patient care team reduces 30-days hospital readmissions and improves overall patient outcomes.

Intimate engagement of the patient’s family member in the overall management team means a lot to the patient. He rests  foundation of his hope on the trust he has on his loved ones. It gives him a sense of familiarity in an unknown and intensively scary hospital environment. Who could know the patient better than the family? It outsmarts familiarity the care team could claim in the limited time spent with the patient. The family and friends could readily establish  communication with the patient and exchange information through body language  and visual contact. The family members also unscramble his common gestures, personality trait, inner thoughts, behaviors and concerns. Even In a precariously ill patient, the body may appear inactive to any ordinary visitor but  the parents there could still have a telepathic communication. This sixth sense emanates from their genuinely unconditional love which is beyond  understanding of the technology  driven modern  medicine. A smile, a blink of an eye, a fine and subtle movement signals a physical proof that the patient exists and founds the basis of their hope and strength to sail smoothly through most difficult times of their lives. In the eyes of their loved ones the patient is able to study the outcome of his disease.

Regrettably, the patient visitors are the most abused stakeholder in a hospital system in India.Under the umbrella of adverse effect of crowding in a hospital environment the already tormented relatives are left to be handled by the heavy- handed security guards. No one would deny the necessity of maintaining decorum and peace in the patient care area of a hospital but it could be done  recognizing the value of the loved ones in the overall healing process of the patient and with empathy and dignity for the loved ones.

” I managed a 30 year old beautiful female patient 41year ago at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. This patient came all the way Delhi from a small village in the State of Jammu and Kashmir. Her current problem of continuous leakage of urine through her completely destroyed urinary bladder following a complicated delivery  was devastating for her. She was a social outcast and consequentially, her husband deserted her and  her 5 year old pretty daughter. Her brother and sister in law were committed to support her. Her complex problem  needed three operations and multiple hospitalizations for varying period of times before her health could be restored. During the course of her treatment I was totally unaware of their financial hardship  until her brother approached me for the provision of  physician’s samples of an expensive antibiotic prescribed by my team. During my conversation I learnt that they had to borrow money for her treatment and her brother is working as a daily wager in a grocery shop to earn less than a dollar in a day. to support their stay away from their home “

This story had shaken me to the core and made me conscious of looking into their medical and other needs till they returned to their village. Looking back, perhaps this story taught me my first lesson on empathy. Several years have elapsed since this incident, but I still remember the innocence and love in the eyes of her brother, who did everything he could to rehabilitate his devastated sister. This experience in formative years of career left an indelible mark on my psyche and even now I have failed to be empathetic true to the the level as defined by Adam Smith, the father of modern economics way back in 1867.

” The mob, when they are gazing a dancer on the slack rope, naturally writhe and twist the balance  their own bodies, as they see him do”

Adam Smith 1869 

It is high time medical profession recognizes the value of the loved ones and treats them with respect and dignity and  partner with them to facilitate the patients to full recovery and support them during the most distressing times of their lives.

Mahendra Bhandari MD, MBA

drmbhandari.com