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I got a call at lunch yesterday afternoon, from an unknown number. Imagining it to be a nursing staff calling about a patient, I picked up. Instead it was a young man, a patient's attender
A small story thread..
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A small story thread..
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He politely introduced himself as the son of a patient admitted in our hospital. He said he saw my name in the Single donor platelet(sdp) volunteer list and asked if it would be possible for me to donate sdp for his mother
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SDP is a form of blood that contains only platelets.
When you donate whole blood, the components are separated into RBC, Plasma, cryoprecipitate and platelets.
In SDP apheresis, only the platelets are extracted from the blood and the other components returned to the donor
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When you donate whole blood, the components are separated into RBC, Plasma, cryoprecipitate and platelets.
In SDP apheresis, only the platelets are extracted from the blood and the other components returned to the donor
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In a normal platelet bag (i.e. platelet from whole blood), a single transfusion would raise the platelet count by around 3000-5000. In an SDP transfusion, the increment in platelet count is around 50,000.
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This form of transfusion is very helpful for patients who suffer from severe platelet deficiency, in conditions such as aplastic anemia, myelofibrosis, myelodysplastic syndrome etc.
I went ahead and donated the SDP
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I went ahead and donated the SDP
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The son was there when I went to donate the SDP. He was very thankful that I could do it. The process took about an hour and I went back to work.
What happened next was what moved me.
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What happened next was what moved me.
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He sent me a long message expressing his gratitude for the entire hospital and poured his heart out. As his mother was suffering from a chronic condition, he told me that he had been running around the hospital for nearly two years.
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He had spent hundreds of hours in the OPD queues,the emergency department, waiting outside the several labs for reports, and in the wards during the multiple times his mother had been admitted.
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He thanked the multiple consultants, residents, interns and nurses by name who had planned her care, sampled her, transfused her and administered her drugs.
He didn't forget the backroom stars either -the pathologists who diagnosed her, the blood bank that supported..
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He didn't forget the backroom stars either -the pathologists who diagnosed her, the blood bank that supported..
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..her multiple transfusions, the microbiologists and the biochemists.
"Your hospital has embraced my mother and provided shelter for her"
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"Your hospital has embraced my mother and provided shelter for her"
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At that, I was just lost for words. Here was a son, caring tirelessly for his mother struggling through a terrible illness.
And he still took time to acknowledge her caregivers, despite what at times could be subpar in a government hospital.
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And he still took time to acknowledge her caregivers, despite what at times could be subpar in a government hospital.
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I'd always seen the hospital through my lens, as an intern first and now a resident.
The bigger the crowd in the OPD, the more we get frustrated.
But those few minutes we spend with a patient can be life changing for them.
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The bigger the crowd in the OPD, the more we get frustrated.
But those few minutes we spend with a patient can be life changing for them.
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It reminded me to make those few seconds to really matter.
Be kind to patients.
Our overwhelming exposure to death and disease can numb us to suffering, but we should never forget that while we could be having a bad day, they could be having the worst of their lives.
/End
Be kind to patients.
Our overwhelming exposure to death and disease can numb us to suffering, but we should never forget that while we could be having a bad day, they could be having the worst of their lives.
/End
