Last week I had an elderly patient who needed an urgent surgery. He was already suffering from some mild dementia but with a severe infection he had become quite delirious. When we got to the operating theatre he was quite adamant that he wasn’t going to have surgery. Though we had obtained informed consent from family, there was still the practical issue of getting him off to sleep without him becoming combative. He looked at the nurse and said, “theres no way any of you are going to touch me”! He had become quite paranoid.

Theatre had already called in “the heavies”, who are security that are trained in managing “code grey” situations when patients need restraint.

I wandered over and said “G’day mate, how ya going, what footy team do ya go for?” He was an Essendon supporter. I told him how I grew up near Essendon and used to wander over to Windy Hill footy oval when I was a kid. I asked him about some of the Essendon legends like Timmy Watson and Paul Vanderhar “the flying Dutchman” and within a few moments he was more relaxed. I asked him about the Essendon drug saga and that got him chatting for a few more minutes. By that stage, the anaesthetist was able to quietly come in, slip in some anaesthetic and off with the fairies he went.

The surgery proceeded well and he is now on the way to recovery. We must never underestimate the power of words to help settle a situation. This is just as applicable to daily life as it is in surgery. As kids, we are never really trained in how to speak and how to use tone, gesture and other non verbal cues. Most of it is simply picked up from our role models around us. It’s worth contemplating with respect to our children, the skills that they learn, and the way they express and deal with emotions.

Watch a good anaesthetic nurse and they are the masters at putting patients at ease.

In Health and Wellness

Ranjit