Waiting at a hospital

Because of reasons which are too private, I find myself in a hospital. I am ok; I am here for someone else.
Hospitals are places of waiting (amongst other things) and I think I am good at it. The lack of information does bother me at times.

Playing an interpreter

In one such waiting room, I was minding my own business when I overheard a conversation between two different groups of people; An older Bengali couple and a local Kannadiga family. They were trying to have a conversation but were having some difficulty because nobody spoke any common language. I stepped in to play the role of an interpreter.

What followed was about an hour of conversation where we all got to know each other. Since I am a native Bengali speaker, I ended up speaking with the old Bengali couple for some more time. They have been visiting this place for about 4 years. The wife had an operation 4 years back. The man said that after the surgery they spent almost a year in the hospital. The care they received was not as good, hence they decided to come all the way to Bengaluru to get better care.

I expressed my frustration at the system, when the man provided some advice. He said that in the last couple years of visiting the hospital, he had had to wait for hours, days sometimes even. He said that his job was to get himself and the patient to the doctor; after that it was his duty to wait for the doctor to come see them. If the doctor could not come, for any reason, it was the decision of the universe. Him getting frustrated at the situation would not do any good. I found this stoic approach very appealing. If all we can do is wait, then we might as well have fun or at least not get frustrated while waiting.

I do understand the fact that doctors in this system are also getting screwed and they are not making us wait out of the sheer joy of it. I am not too good at this type of thinking. I have some more learning to do.

Waiting with kids

This hospital is famous for being a very capable pediatric cardiac surgery center.

During my wait here I came across a lot of kids with BIG scars. It was obvious that some of these kids had undergone open-heart surgery. A majority of the kids here were under the age of 7. I sat there looking at these kids and their parents. I saw two little kids share a toy at the children's play area. They were barely older than 4 and they both had remnants of a surgery. I spoke to their parents. The silver lining was that they were here for post-op review and they were both doing okay. :)

I found myself waiting alongside a family while their child was being taken into surgery. The child was about 18 months old and he was cranky as he was not fed anything for 5 hours (pre-op prep). When the time arrived, the doctor decisively snatched the baby from the mother with practised accuracy and determination and proceeded to take the baby into the operation room. By this point both the mother and the child were in tears. I saw this aunt console this lady, who by this time had completely broken down. This was the third procedure for this child. I cannot imagine what the mother must be going through during times like this.

I did see the child after his surgery and he is doing well. :)

Hospitals are interesting

On one hand I am impressed by the advancement in medical technology that has enabled humans to perform these miracles (some of these surgeries are miracles in their own right).

On the other hand, this place is filled with extreme sadness and extreme hope at the same time. It is incredible how these very different emotions live in the same house.

The key idea is trust under asymmetry. Both the families I interacted with were faced with incredible information asymmetry and yet they chose to put their trust in the hands of strangers, in the hope of a better outcome.

I like to gather as much information as possible before making any decision, and trusting someone under asymmetry (power / information) is something I am yet to master.

That's all for now!!
Sohom