Tuesday, September 02, 2008 Echaves: A cut above the rest By Lelani P. Echaves Thinking Aloud
WITH God’s blessings, my family’s generally healthy. Among four generations from my parents to their great-grandchildren, hospitalizations have totaled about seven—my two Caesarean operations, my elder daughter for dengue at nine months old, the younger daughter’s two admissions for hyperacidity, my mother in the last stages of her cancer, my father for abdominal pain, and my sister-in-law’s mastectomy.
Surely because of our prayers and God’s goodness, we’ve managed to keep hospital admissions to the lowest. In short, I still have to meet one person who loves being hospitalized.
Time seems to stop while you wait your turn at the emergency room. So, you get to observe many things as you pray for the resident physician… any resident physician… to come your way and give us their almighty attention.
One moment there’s not a single one in sight; another moment, they jump on you with the same questions you’ve answered earlier.
In that eternity of waiting, you see how cramped… even, how dirty… some emergency rooms are. Scattered everywhere are trash cans labeled “wet and infectious.” Naturally, you don’t even dare approach to dispose of facial tissues. Your thoughts run crazy… where is the next sink, may I wash my hands there, does the faucet handle not have overstaying germs, don’t use the soap bar because who knows what hands used those, etcetera, etcetera.
Thousands of questions before the resident physician says they’ve contacted your personal doctor.
All the waiting, however, becomes the very setting for a deeper appreciation of the doctors you’ve embraced into your confidence. And you go once again thanking God and friends for referring them to you, these ones who’re a cut above the rest.
My two children may now be in their 30s, but I shall always be grateful to their pediatrician, Dr. Generosa Solano. Motherly, genuinely kind and approachable, she had very endearing ways. I only had to say “Dr. Solano says this will be good for you,” and my girls resisted no way to medications I gave them. What I liked especially was her patience at explaining the condition and why the medicine she prescribed was the best for it.
Equally patient and generous is Dr. Melinda Aquino-Ortiz; her bedside manners, too, are just perfect. Whether she attends to my father or my daughters, she’s ever patient, professional and, unlike some other doctors I’ve known, doesn’t make patients hear the tick-tock-tick-tock in her clinic.
We’ve also consulted Dr. Noel Ponce, and even before he gives us our prescriptions, we already feel cured. In this day and age of doctors waiting in their comfortable clinics while patients agonizingly wait for their turn, Dr. Ponce allots some days in the week making home visits.
We recently consulted Dr. Jonathan del Prado for eye concerns. He, too, respects his patients enough to explain in detail the alternatives available, and the pros and cons of each. Patients feel they’re still in control. Even in a hospital setting, that’s very reassuring!
