For this assignment, i visited a family friend who shall remain anonymous. This family friend recently had a stroke. When talking to him, i noticed that his approach to being unwell seemed subtle. I visited him in his home and asked him about the whole situation. He told me the stroke happened out of nowhere while he was sleeping on thanksgiving day, and the next thing he knew he woke up unable to even put his pants on. This was all happening in california for the record.
I then asked him (curious to know more about the american health care system) how the hospital treated the situation. First word: horrible. He told me that because it was the holidays they can hold him from when he got there (friday) to tuesday. Luckily, there was one doctor there in the hospital affiliated with stamford that just happened to be walking by the exam room who heard of my friends situation and flew him to stamford for extra help. Once treated, he figured the worst place to be was a hospital no matter where he was, so he left the hospital after three days of care.
To reflect on the whole incident, i asked him what he overall thought of the way the situation was handled. He told me that while although the doctors in california weren't helpful enough, at least they sent him to a place that could handle his situation. To recover from the situation, he embraced the fact that recovering from this stroke was a long term process, although he honestly admits that he first pushed it away.
After i was done interviewing my family friend, i noticed my questions could have been a bit more insightful and my reactions to this man's story were as subtle as the way the story was told. When he told me about his experience the only thing he told me that surprised me was that somebody actually went out of their way to help my family friend.
Harry,
ReplyDeleteI thought that your post was very interesting. I liked how you interviewed a person who had had a stroke because it is one of the biggest illnesses in America (after cancer). Since they are so common we can compare it to other people that we know who have also had strokes. When I read your post I started to think about Captain Phil from the TV show Deadliest Catch. I noticed some similarities and differences between them. One of the biggest differences is that Phil had multiple strokes and he died from them. I agree with you when you said that some of your questions could have been a bit more insightful. You could have explained more about the event of the stroke by saying what caused it and how it has affected his body and his life.
Great Post
Dean
Harry,
ReplyDeleteYou made some very good observations regarding our good friend's recent stroke,and his reaction to his treatment. I wish that you had delved a little deeper into his subsequent recovery and his present state.
Rich
Harry,
ReplyDeleteI liked reading your post because of the diferent attitude your family friend had with hospitals and exploiting it at it's best. Mentioning that he found hospital care to be horrid and that he was almost in this alone acknowledging that recovering was going to be long term. One thing that could of been more insightful is if you had asked him about what his approach was before he had a stroke compared to after having a stroke changed his thoughts on illness and dying, or even life itself?
Good Post!
Christian
Harry,
ReplyDeleteI was very interested through out your whole blog post and felt that you had a good understand of your family members situation. I feel like your most beautiful line was, "To recover from the situation, he embraced the fact that recovering from this stroke was a long term process, although he honestly admits that he first pushed it away". I liked this the most because it really shows that he was understanding with his situation and came to terms with the fact that he did have a stroke and had to deal with their situation. Great post overall.
-Max
I feel bad that the American health care system didn't do a good job in taking care of your family friend but im glade he got help. Does your family friend have good incerence? What cant he do now did it affect him in any way for life? These are follow up questions I would have asked him to go more in-depth. I really liked that you reflected on your work at the end and showed where you could improve.
ReplyDelete