In my wanderings through the ICU staff had spoken to me about a young patient who was causing a few problems. He was 19 and a drug addict. An abscess had formed at the top of his spinal chord and caused permanent damage. This left the young man quadriplegic. He was really angry with the world and showed it by not complying with staff and making lots of complaints about his care. I ended up acting as an intermediary. Strangely he was never rude to me. I listened to him and took him seriously and gradually he trusted me. We eventually got to the stage of being able to have a laugh and a joke. He eventually went off to a more specialised place. A year later he wrote to staff to say sorry for being so horrible. I think for him the acting up was his only control when he had lost the power to do anything for himself.
As I’ve become a more familiar feature around the hospital staff support has become higher up the list. Staff use me in a variety of ways and often trust me with the difficult issues that many of us struggle with at times. I particularly remember one member of staff who was struggling with her sexuality. Her fundamental religion was telling her that same sex relationships are wrong. She felt unable to talk to any of her family as they were all church-goers. She had fallen in love with a woman who was also a member of staff and didn’t know how to cope with her feelings. I was so pleased she came to talk to me because I was able to say that not all religious people think that way. We saw each other a few times before she was able to accept that where there’s love there is God and where there’s God there is love. It’s such a shame that people of faith hurt each other deeply when the central message of all religions is love. Why can’t we just celebrate our differences?
No comments:
Post a Comment