Patient Procedure

Yesterday two of our volunteers went to a local hospital in Delhi NCR. This hospital is a pediatric hospital, and the volunteers have opportunities to work with many babies and children! The day was filled with ordinary appointments: generally about 80% of the cases are babies with fevers or general cold symptoms. None of the cases yesterday were too interesting, they described. One case in particular though was worth mentioning: A young girl about 5 years old had a few large boils on her abdomen. The volunteers and medical assistants helped calm the child, who was hysterical, as the doctor drained and treated the boils. The patient's mother was trying to keep her daughter as calm as possible, but hearing the child's shrieks of excruciating pain disturbed the mother: she had to leave the room. One volunteer noted that he felt that such situations must be even more difficult for parents to endure, to feel helpless to their children and hearing their children in such agony. He really learned from the experience, and he noted that after the procedure, rather than comforting the patients as much as possible, he found himself comforting the patients' parents much more. It is extremely important to the patients at any pediatric hospital that their parents can be as strong and supportive as possible.