Back Stories


I am always interested in my patients’ back stories. We see people for a brief moment in their life, albeit often a highly significant one. Maybe a moment that will change or even save their life. 



This idea of the back story, of who the patient is in the context of their life outside the hospital is something we often reflect on during Schwartz Rounds. It’s what makes our patients real people; it’s what humanises healthcare. 



This was brought into sharp focus for me this week when I was caring for a three year old boy in the diphtheria centre. Through an interpreter, I asked his father to tell me a bit about his life.  I’ve watched the news and heard about atrocities that take place in Rakhine province and been shocked as most people have.  It’s not the same as looking someone in the eyes as he tells his story. 



It’s a story of returning home from his day’s work to find his home on fire and his wife missing.  A desperate search for her and the children. Finding the children but not his wife. A realisation he must leave with his four young children and their grandparents, without his wife, if any of them are to survive. Taking only what they are wearing, making the journey on foot and by boat to cross into Bangladesh and making a home from plastic sheeting and sticks. 



I know that some of his words have been lost in translation. What comes across loud and clear is the emotion. The look in his eyes, the crack in his voice. There is tragedy, stoicism, great sadness. Despite it all, he is here with his son while he is treated, changing places with his mother so he can get work for a day at a time while also caring for the other children.  This family have literally no possessions but the feeling of family is palpable, as is their dignity. 



Their back story has made them into the people I met today. Now they have to cope with devastating disease as well as everything life has already thrown at them. I know from my experience as a nurse that human beings seem to be able to find ways to cope with the unimaginable. But I have to wonder today, when will enough be enough?