Remo Aguilar
Of all orthopedic trauma cases I’ve worked on, my heart bleeds the most for pediatric patients. I don’t know but their helplessness and innocence always evoke this feeling of worry. Many pediatric trauma cases are often a result one adult, guardian or parents, gone remiss in guiding or understanding a child growing up. While many adults blame kids for crossing streets alone or unguided (thus running their vehicles over them), they too agree its the kids guardians or parents that really had an oversight. An irony?
Maybe. But the pediatric trauma patient is almost always a victim. Why? Imagine suffering an injury as a result of a road mishap only adults understands, or being blamed for violating traffic rules even licensed drivers rarely follow? And they wretch in pain for something they rarely know?
This is exactly why treating pediatric trauma patients entails stretching a surgeon’s patience more than you can offer any adult patient. Why adults busy themselves finger pointing on so many things, the child wretch in pain for an injury he or she rarely knew of. That is something pitiful than any other thing. Don’t you agree?
I think one of the unique characteristics and challenges of conducting treatment on pediatric trauma victims is the need to establish and maintain a positive working relationship with the child’s parents or caregivers. A positive alliance between us, doctors, and caregivers is needed to provide optimum treatment. So we shouldn't blame the parents or caregivers everytime, unless the child was an obvious victim of child abuse or neglect
You're right doc. It's a challenge in itself, having to make the parents understand their responsibility and at the same time, maximizing that acceptance and turning that into a positive impetus for the childs recovery. This too i noticed and in the course of treating a pediatric patient, educating parents is in fact the best option for treating a "pediatric" patient.