When Cultural Practices Affect The Treatment Of Patients
In quite a few of the cultures in south africa people tie ribbons, strings and tassels around their own and their children’s wrists and waists. These tassels are imbibed with power to keep evil spirits at bay, I am told. If these tassels come off then the patient is completely unprotected from any and all marauding evil spirits that may be lurking around. Of course, not wanting to be responsible for the unopposed assault by multiple evil spirits, most people are fairly reticent to remove these things. I saw it slightly differently.
As a student I took my lead from my senior. If he removed the tassels then I would be ok with it. If he felt that we should respect the culture of the patient and sort of try to move the tassels out of the way of the operating area or even operate around them, despite the increased infection risk, I sort of reasoned it was his patient and even if I medically didn’t agree with him, the reasoning of respecting the patient’s culture surely held some water at least and I didn’t argue. The fact of the matter was that a number of the sisters would become quite aggressive with the doctor if they thought he was going to remove the tassels and strip the patient of his evil spirit protection, and I think some of the doctors were scared. Then one day something happened that cemented my views and actions for the future. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at other things amanzi*
