[NFBMT] When you are a blind patient

[BRUCE&JOY BRESLAUER]

Another interesting comment.  Joy 

 

Most of us willingly function as goodwill ambassadors and educators about
blindness, but when we go into the hospital, what puts us there may very well
impair our ability to do either of these things. If I am in significant pain,
being an ambassador is not my goal. If my consciousness is impaired, I am not
an educator.

 

One of the things it is hard for me to realize about medical environments is
that you are never an equal among equals. Do we want to get weighed is not a
question but a demand. Beyond that physical movement, doctor's offices and
hospitals seem just as anxious to get us into a chair as anyone else. Few
people are familiar with assisting as a sighted guide, and medical folks are
just as confused about getting right and left wrong especially when they may
be walking backward to maintain eye contact.

 

I think that each chapter should take on a long-term and revolving commitment
to teach people about blindness in medical facilities. As a federation we are
much more likely to take it on for hotels and motels, but it is likely that
some basic knowledge of blindness is much more essential when people who work
with us find us at less than maximum capacity.

 

I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't think that I would object to
the word blind being on my door. I know about the argument that it makes me
more vulnerable to people who might want to come in and steal, but any heads
up people can get about talking to me rather than trying to show me things,
showing me with my hands rather than pointing to things, and letting me know,
in my semiconscious state, whether they are coming or leaving the room might
be worth the sign.

 

For some blind people it is harder to get out of a hospital than it is to get
into one. People who have no idea how you made it before coming to the
hospital now wonder how in the world you can be independent with whatever
requirements they have added. Will you be able to give yourself these pills?
How will you tell the time between doses? But all of this is simply
explained. The electronic gadgets we can be sent home with are seldom ones we
can operate ourselves, so in some cases the questions become more legitimate
and being unable to answer them means that we will spend longer in the
hospital, will pay more for our stay, and will increase the risk that comes
with staying in any facility where so many sick people reside and where
infections are so difficult to control.

 

One of the things that troubles some blind people is how to make their needs
known if they become nonverbal. We may be able to employ the wink or the nod,
but people will not be able to look into our eyes and judge the reactions to
stimulation in the same way they do for others. This is just another one of
those areas where we need to do some thinking about how we want to be treated
when our normal means of communicating have disappeared.

 

Joy Breslauer, President

National Federation of the Blind of Montana 

Web Site: http://www.nfbofmt.org <http://www.nfbofmt.org/> 

 

Live the life you want

 

The National Federation of the Blind is a community of members and friends
who believe in the hopes and dreams of the nation's blind. Every day we work
together to help blind people live the lives they want.