an elderly diseased craftsman

Mr. W is a regular patient for the ENT department in Georgetown University Hospital. I saw him at least two times before the pandemic, and three times this year. 

 

I first met Mr. W in 2019. That day, I saw a skinny old man in a wheelchair accompanied by a middle-aged Spanish woman. After talking to both of them, I found out that the woman was the old man’s caregiver paid by the government, and the old man does not understand any English, and the helper does not speak any Chinese. As a result, they only communicated by body language and hand gestures. Additionally, the old man could not hear me if I used a normal voice because of severe hearing loss, so I needed to yell at him. Also, his speech is so extremely distorted, I could not understand anything he said. Therefore, he brought out his notebook and pen he carried with him, and wrote down the sentences he wanted to say. Because of all of these difficulties, I sensed that it would be a difficult appointment.

 

I found that the staff of the clinic were familiar with him, and gave him much convenience, therefore he must be a regular patient here. When the doctor came in, I interpreted for him by yelling and reading from his notebook. With their slow conversations , I found that the old man had nasal cancer and was removed several years ago. The cancer recurred and metastasized to the brain, and was treated with brain surgery and radiation. He was required to be followed up with the ENT department every three months to monitor his health situation. The disease and treatment affected his throat, and left him with difficult swallow and talk and constant discomfort. Despite all his health problems, the old man was still energetic and was eager to talk. He asked all the functions and side effects of his new medicines, and recorded them in his notebook, and also asked some questions that were not directly related with his current treatment in the ENT department.     

 

After the appointment, it was time to schedule for the next visit. The old man did not head to the check-out counter as other patients, but asked his aid to take him to an office at the back of the clinic. Here we met an amicable middle-aged woman, who is the chief secretary of the department. The woman is very familiar with the old man, and treated him with lots of patience and kindness. She showed us more than 10 pieces of colorful paper crafts on her desk, and said they were gifts from the old man. It turned out the old man was an craftsman expertised in making various items with hundreds of individually folded small pieces of paper, such as flowers, dragons, the Empire Building et al. He had owned a small roadside stall in DC for many years where he sold his paper crafts to travelers.     

 

The old man was obviously relaxed with the secretary. He took out a bunch of stuff, and began to make his request. To me, he asked to translate a letter for the city, and to the secretary, he asked for copying some documents as well as how to deal with some legal queralls his son was involved with. Therefore, the visit to the secretary took longer than the appointment with the doctor. At the end the old man thanked the secretary and left the clinic. 

 

It was such a unique experience for me, therefore, I recalled the old man’s name when I accepted another appointment at Georgetown University Hospital one and half years after the onset of the pandemic during which I did not accept any appointment.   

 

When I saw the person sitting in the wheelchair at the waiting area of the ENT department, I recognized the old man at once. However, he did not recognize me at all when I greeted him. He was thinner and weaker than before, and his hearing loss was so advanced that he could not hear anything I yelled to his ear. Therefore, the only way we can communicate was to write, which made our communication even slower than before. 

 

More importantly, he lost the energy he had before. He complained to the doctor about the constant pain in his post nasal area. But when the doctor suggested a pain management doctor, he was not interested. To my surprise, he asked the doctor to help to end his life since he did not want to suffer any longer. However, after I euphemistically told the doctor about what he said, the doctor did not show any astonishment. He just told the old man that it was not something that he could do, and he should ask for anti-depressant from his primary doctor. It turned out that the old man was depressed and asked about the physician assisted suicide several times in a year. When I asked him why he did not consult his family about such a problem, he slowly wrote down that he does not have any family because his family abandoned him. 

 

After this lamentable encounterment, I met him two more times. He was still thin and weak, but stopped talking about suicide. The last time I met him, he was with a new aid, a temp for his regular aid who needed to leave town for a while. The old man disliked, almost abhorred, the new aid. He asked me to tell the new aid that he was not qualified for service because of his lack of patience. On the contrary, the aid said that because he could not communicate with the old man, he misunderstood him about which hospital the old man needed to go to. Therefore, he took the old man to the wrong bus stop, and pushed the wheelchair for six blocks before they came to the Georgetown University Hospital following the old man’s direction. They had some arguments during the process. According to the policy of the aid service company, the maximum distance to push a wheelchair patient is 500 meter, therefore, the aid did not want to push the wheelchair after two blocks. Of course, the old man was very angry about it, which led to a heated quarrel between them. At the end, the aid said that  the old man could get another aid from the company and he would not return to the old man’s house to serve him the next day. Although I already interpreted the aid’s speech to the old man, he was still gloomy, and insisted on telling the friendly secretary about the whole situation. 

 

The elderly craftsman’s story is a sad one. Although I believed that he  worked hard to support his family, I did not see great talent in his work. If the USA government did not cover the bills for his treatment and care giver, it is more than likely that he cannot survive so long after his illness. Though he does not need to worry about the medical bill, his life is lonely, agonizing and forlorn. But he is a fighter, and he still strives to live.