Talk, talk, talk – this is particularly important in these times: Corona ward in the University Hospital Frankfurt
Image: Lucas Bäuml
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In the medical profession you have to diagnose, operate and often need an A-Abitur, so the common picture. What is forgotten is: communicating – about therapies, chances of survival and now also the pandemic.
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Dhe young doctor is on duty and doesn’t know what to do first. She has to do rounds, take blood, put in a surgical site, prepare discharge papers, and the phone from the emergency room keeps ringing. In between, she intercepts one of her patients. She should please explain the result of the tissue sample to him. The doctor says in a few words, “Advanced bladder cancer. The chances of a cure are slim.” The man looks petrified and goes silently to his room. The doctor continues with her rounds. Just before she goes home, the man meets her in the hallway and says, “What kind of person are you, delivering a message like that in the hallway?”
The situation happened 17 years ago, but the doctor remembers his sad face to this day. “Everything was so hectic, and I wanted to get rid of the information quickly,” says Irene Marx, a urologist who now works as a palliative care physician in Frankfurt. “I could have acted so much wiser if I had learned during my studies how best to behave in such a situation.”
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