Hearing Readers Criticized Dying Woman and Husband.
An article covered the recent lawsuit of a man against the hospital for its failure to inform him and his wife in a timely manner that her cancer was terminal. Reading the comments left by ignorant and insensitive readers left me feeling disturbed. Most of them showed a profound lack of understanding about ASL, written English, AND the attitudinal barriers toward Deaf people. This is too close to home as some of you know I had organized a group lawsuit against my local hospital due to their systematic failure to provide accessible communication to Deaf patients and/or their Deaf relatives. That lack of communication left me fearing for my life and I signed out AMA (against medical advice). That was no exaggeration. My husband was my advocate and I couldn’t believe the treatment he received from these medical professionals while advocating for me as I wasn’t able to advocate for myself that night. I was too sick to use my lipreading skills and my husband cannot lipread at all, even though he can speak very clearly. The staff refused to write down even though they understood clearly our inability to lipread them. We went to a different hospital later where I got appropriate services. Two years later I found out the first hospital never revealed to me a second potentially life threatening condition.
You know something? To this day, some advocates of the oral method still criticize me for the lawsuit. Apparently, since I had an oral upbringing, I wasn’t supposed to have any problems with communication. Please tell me how was a very sick Deaf person supposed to communicate if one wasn’t fully alert and conscious? Their audacity left me wondering about them and their lack of comprehension about Deaf people in general.
Do me a favor, please. Educate these jerks, I mean uneducated readers that doctors and nurses DO fail their responsibilities to ensure that their patients understand their conditions and follow the laws. Thank goodness for the civil rights lawyers who protect our safety and our rights.
Rant over.
Deaf patient was dying, but no one told her | StarTribune.com
An article covered the recent lawsuit of a man against the hospital for its failure to inform him and his wife in a timely manner that her cancer was terminal. Reading the comments left by ignorant and insensitive readers left me feeling disturbed. Most of them showed a profound lack of understanding about ASL, written English, AND the attitudinal barriers toward Deaf people. This is too close to home as some of you know I had organized a group lawsuit against my local hospital due to their systematic failure to provide accessible communication to Deaf patients and/or their Deaf relatives. That lack of communication left me fearing for my life and I signed out AMA (against medical advice). That was no exaggeration. My husband was my advocate and I couldn’t believe the treatment he received from these medical professionals while advocating for me as I wasn’t able to advocate for myself that night. I was too sick to use my lipreading skills and my husband cannot lipread at all, even though he can speak very clearly. The staff refused to write down even though they understood clearly our inability to lipread them. We went to a different hospital later where I got appropriate services. Two years later I found out the first hospital never revealed to me a second potentially life threatening condition.
You know something? To this day, some advocates of the oral method still criticize me for the lawsuit. Apparently, since I had an oral upbringing, I wasn’t supposed to have any problems with communication. Please tell me how was a very sick Deaf person supposed to communicate if one wasn’t fully alert and conscious? Their audacity left me wondering about them and their lack of comprehension about Deaf people in general.
Do me a favor, please. Educate these jerks, I mean uneducated readers that doctors and nurses DO fail their responsibilities to ensure that their patients understand their conditions and follow the laws. Thank goodness for the civil rights lawyers who protect our safety and our rights.
Rant over.
Deaf patient was dying, but no one told her | StarTribune.com
February 7th, 2010 at 5:35 am
Mishka Zena
thank you for sharing this information. Im very sorry for the suffering you and your husband experienced at the hands of medical “professionals” who actively engaged in denying your right to full equality. That is audism and as we see in the article you linked at bottom – it can be DEADLY. I dont know how a doctor in good conscience could commence with a meeting about a terminal condition when an interpreter is not present. I dont know how someone could be so callous as to write out “we cant cure the cancer” and then walk away.
Re: your case – what was the outcome? Re: your getting negative comments from folks who said somehow you were betraying your oral background – YIKES. That shows the mask of benevolence coming down – if the goal of promoting oral skills is to help folks and the goals of medical system is “to do no harm” they are the folks who should be most eager to make sure when the limitations of oral skills are present – fully accessible alternatives are utilized – ESPECIALLY in life or death situations.
Veditz wrote in his obit to AG Bell that “In this respect he was like the pigeon that defends its nest but not its eggs or young. He was concerned more with the manner of their education than with the deaf themselves.”
Veditz, George, De Moruis Nil Nisi Bonum, Obituary for AG Bell, The Jewish Deaf, October 1922
Its really shameful
It is a complete violation of ADA title II and probably the rehabilitation act of 1973 (depending on if the hospitals got federal funds)
It is a complete violation of human rights also
We are not animals and certainly have the right to understand in a natural and fully accessible manner what is being said about our health conditions – especially in life threatening circumstances. This is beyond being treated as a 2nd class citizen – this is being treated as a child and the hospitals taken on the role of parent and not even allowing the spouses full access.
Im glad you went AMA – i almost had to once also. It is a daunting feeling to feel your life is in the hands of folks that look upon u with patronizing, pathological, and pitying points of view.
Kudos to you for taking a stand and doing what is right. Im very sorry you had to endure that and im very sorry for the loss of Mary Anne Nelsens from our world.
Again thank you for sharing this – its important.
peace
patti
February 7th, 2010 at 9:05 pm
The news about the Nelson family and the experiene you and your husband had in the past are quite devastating! It cannot happen like that in the modern 21st century. Did you make a report to the NAD? If you had not, it is never too late for you to report to the NAD now. The sooner the better. Meanwhile, I hope that, healthwise, you have been progressing much better.
Jean Boutcher
February 8th, 2010 at 1:16 am
Thank you, MZ, for writing this rant. The comment section truly pissed me off. It simply made me wonder what they truly think of Deaf people in the long run.
That’s why suing the hospitals are important — to show that lipreading or using children to interpret is simply WRONG.
YOu did your part by suing the hospital. And I’m doing my part as of now. And I hope MORE Deaf people do that in the future (They WILL!).
I think the main reason why hearing people reacted is because they expected Deaf people to be passive and quiet. They expect us to be grateful of what is on the table.
If you check Eddie Runyon’s link to WKYT.com about a local senator proposing a bill that will require all movie theaters that has more than 5 screens to have at least 1 screen out of 5 or so to equip with captions.
And many hearing people were not happy and very cynical about it.
See the pattern? Hearing people do NOT like the idea of us standing up and demand what is ours.
R-
February 11th, 2010 at 5:59 am
hey ridor –
at times it seems we r not even served what is on the table but rather expected to be happy with the crumbs on the floor
very sad
the face of audism – ever present. As we racism, sexism, heterosexualism – it takes folks believing in themselves to stand up and say – not here, not now.
re: Eddie Runyon’s entry – i had a hard time finding via google but perhaps this is what u r referring to: http://thumpaflash.livejournal.com/
very good stuff there
again mishka – thank u for posting this – i dont consider it a rant – i consider it a righteous outcry
we gotta make the invisible – visible
diane re: NAD – id be thrilled to see more advocacy in the area of life and death access situations
peace
patti