I had this sad conversation with one of my HIV+ patient in the clinic yesterday:
Me: (not seeing the latest lab result ordered in the last visit) Did you come for your blood tests?
Him: Yes, I did. They couldn’t get blood out of my veins (he is an ex-iv drug abuser).
Me: Oh…
Him: It’s the same thing the last couple of visits. Each time they can’t blood out of me, they get angry with me. They give me this look. They call me names. They treat people like me less than animals. Doc, I’m really heart sick and tired of this.
Me: Oh..what names did they call you? I need to know so that I can make an official complaint. Do you know their names?
Him: Never mind, doc. It’s no use. Nothing will change. It will always be like this.
Me: Ok, next time, you come direct to my ward and I or one of my doctors will draw the blood for you. Okay?
Him: (smile) ok…
When I was an ID physician in UMMC, we dedicated Tuesdays for blood taking for 2 reasons:
1. Some patients indeed are hard to draw blood from because they have shot up all their veins during their drug abuse days.
2. We did not want to endanger the lives of nurses who may be inexperienced in taking blood.
And I can add one more reason here:
We don’t give these patients ‘looks’ or call them names.
Sigh…
Sat, 040807 @ 1357; wanting to sleep but my neighbour-from-hell is making a racket. If I were Harry Potter, I would zap them with this spell: Mutest-immobilus! or Tetanus-Spasmoticus!!!
YP, yes, the panacea curse is “healest or die-est!!”
LOL….all the magiks….
Wah.. got medic curses ah?
I shall enhance your curse, jonzz, to petrificus totalis eternitus.
Ah, you use the wrong curse! It’s Petrificus Totalis.
YP, I think it works both ways. We should also warn students about certain ‘bimbotic’ (I just learnt this word on the radio and loves it!) nurses and we ought to stay away from them as well.
I remember those times when we were posted to KKB… nurses would “warn” us about certain patients’ HIV status and tell us to “stay away from them”.
Sigh… the stigma
aih, it’s indeed sad to bring up this topic. Once I was darn scared of HIV+ patient.. I never ever talked to them until recently I saw few and starting to communicate with them in my internal med posting…ashamed of myself …
Because of thier HIV status. they tend to be stigmatised….actually, they are sad also with themselves.
Ya, Mr. Jimbo, thanks for bringing out this topic.. They deserve a fair treatment like any other normal people…