The story of Shira, this little adopted girl from Vietnam and her mother Rachel was hard to read. It is unbelievable that a whole team of doctors could be responsible for doing a bone marrow transplant on a little baby when it is not even required. It was only at the insistence of Rachel, the adoptive mother that Shira’s immune testing was repeated. The medical team was all prepared to do the bone marrow transplant and the donor had been identified. Thank goodness, that the bone marrow transplant was not done and Shira managed to get better in the end. I know that we cannot question everything the doctors do and ask for tests to be repeated constantly but we do have to be our own advocates and if anything, Dr. Groopman’s book make this point abundantly clear. We cannot just assume that the doctors are doing everything right. We have to educate ourselves and ask questions. Doctors may have the best intentions but are fallible after all.
What do you guys think?
Geeta, I agree. This story especially shows the importance of parents when we are interacting with children. Since children are not capable of verbalizing their symptoms and concerns as an adult would, we rely on parents to describe their observations of their child. At the same time, we cannot assume that the parents observations are accurate. This is where practitioners, including pharmacists can step up. At work, when I counsel to the parent about the children's medication, I always try and have the child there so they can listen. I often ask the child questions and engage them in the consult.
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