The Federated States of Micronesia is a group of Islands in the Pacific Ocean east of the Philippines. FSM was once a part of a United Nations Trust Territory under the US administration.
As they do not have tertiary hospital to cater to their special health care needs, most of them are flown to our institutions for consult, work ups and treatments through their local insurance there.
While English of is a common language there, there still some folks there that do not speak the language, hence the barrier.
A 26-year old small built female was admitted for mitral and atrial valve repairs, left atrial thrombeectomy and intraoperative transesophageal endoscopic electrocardiogram. She was accompanied by her mother who also barely understands English. Communicating with them is like playing charades as you need to act out and exaggerate hand gestures. Good thing is that there were other Micronesians admitted making them as our interpreter.
After a few rainchecks due to down payment issues, the little girls’ operations have pushed through. A good starting point until, yet again, another problem came up. This time is it more serious. The girl’s body was not able to keep up with the operation. She was hooked to cardiac pump and ventilators in the recovery room. The mother was summoned to the recovery room to discuss with her her daughter’s present condition. The interpreter, another Micronesian had a concern about interpreting the whole thing because he said that his understanding about medical problems is limited. The man and along with another Micronesian were discharged making it for us difficult to get an interpreter.
Knowing the need for a reliable interpreter, the insurance company has provided for us an interpreter via phone. Thing is, if there are some things that the mother is concerned about, it is hard for us to attend to it immediately.
Before the shift endorsement, the mother approached our charge nurse begging for her to purchase a call card. It was almost 7:00 pm and the concierge office is already closed. She, being admitted to the hospital, (the insurance company opted to have her admitted instead of checking her in a hotel so that it would be easier for her to come to her daughter to the recovery room), is not allowed to roam around the hospital on her own. I volunteered to buy her the card.
It is really hard to look at the face of this woman who always smiles and I do not know if she really understands how critical is the condition of her daughter. She was very thankful and even held my hand. She always waves at me whenever she passes by the stations.
Around 1:00 am right after I finished eating, she approached the stations asking me to come with her in her room. She opened the fridge and took out a bucket of chicken and some cups of rice. She handed them to me, I was refusing telling her that I have eaten already but remembering a Micronesian couple saying that it is their culture to give someone something as token of appreciation, I took them in.
Around 10:00 in the morning, the liaison officer came in with an interpreter who happens to be a doctor in Micronesia. I, together with the outgoing charge nurse, volunteered to go with them to learn about the girl’s condition first hand.
We learned from the interpreter that the mother opted to take out all the life support hooked to her daughter. But after hearing the good news from the girl’s attending physician that the girl has been taken out of the cardiac pump because her heart has started to pump on her own and that her urine output is remarkable, the mother has decided to fallow her daughter to fight for her life.
I pray that the girl will continue to take her road to recovery.