Say it with Bananas

L, my VA (left in the above photo) was informed by admin staff - PPF (punch provoking face - named by VA number 3) that a woman had come into the administration block asking for me. She had left her phone number and was eager that I got in touch.

L called her & found out that she was the mother of the patient with meningitis (x-ref "how not to capacity build...") and wanted to see me to ask some questions about her daughters recovery. L arranged for her to come to the hospital when she knew I was available.

I was walking to ICU medicine last Friday morning in an attempt to find a doctor to discuss the interesting management of a patient with acute coronary syndrome who was on treatment for Asthma instead, when I was intercepted by a smiling woman bearing fruit. I instantly remembered her as the mother of the patient who had heard my whole conversation with the ICU medicine staff about the lack of treatment of her daughter, calling them 'lazy, corrupt, murderers of patients' - it had resulted in her daughter finally getting the correct treatment but many faces being lost including mine.

She had brought a bag of medications (that she is holding in the above photo) which her daughter had been given since by a private clinic & via L I was able to advise her to stop most of them as they were utterly useless & a waste of her money. I explained to her that her daughter was recovering from meningitis that hadn't been treated properly for 5 days & it would take time for a full convalescence.

She then gave me a bag of 'ply mean' (a lychee type fruit) grown from her farm to say thank you - I was suitably touched & humbled. I hadn't completely destroyed my relationship with the ICU staff for fruit I'd done it because I genuinely cared about the patient but the fruit was a acknowledgement of this & it meant an awful lot to me.

The mother then rushed off telling me to wait where I stood. Half a minute later a tuk tuk driver came bearing a large, heavy cardboard box on one shoulder. Inside were 6 huge bunches of home grown bananas - and I really mean huge.

Now I really was speechless. The mother smiled, said thank you & promptly left.

I didn't know what to do with over 100 bananas but R had the perfect solution - give them to the staff. I resisted as I didn't think they deserved any bananas but as I had a massive box of bananas & I couldn't take them home they had to go somewhere, so this is what I did;

Bunch #1 - to L who without her excellent interpersonal skills & translations there would have been no bananas
Bunch #2 - to the head nurse
Bunch #3 & 4 - to be shared by the 3 deputy directors - its all about hierarchy.
Bunch #5 & 6 - to be shared by the staff on ICU medicine.

I said to the staff in ICU - do you remember the woman with meningitis that you refused to treat as you were too 'busy', then you refused to treat unless she paid for equipment, then it took you 5 hours to give her the medication she needed & you shouted at me a lot, well her Mother has given me some fruit to say thank you & as you were the ones who actually treated her & saved her life I am giving them to you.

According to R this was the perfect thing for me to say, as he explained later. He told me that probably all of the staff - some of them working 20 years or more - will never have received a thank you gift from any patient. They will be really 'jealous' (his words) that I had but by sharing the bananas with them I had continued to role model compassionate & fair behaviour. He was right of course, I was reinforcing their good behaviour & demonstrating that refusing to treat unless a patient pays is not the only route that you can be rewarded.

Kindness, as well as corruption, pays.