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From: Rob.Carr@f26.n129.z1.fidonet.org (Rob Carr)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Hospitals and Interpreters
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Date: 25 Jan 91 18:05:32 GMT
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[This is from the Silent Talk Conference]

 JC> Good for you in using sign language.  But does your hospital
 JC> call in a *professional* sign language interpreter as soon as
 JC> possible?

Last night, I called a hospital on the radio, and they didn't answer.  I
called medic command on the radio, and requested a message be relayed to the
hospital that they would need to call PHSDS for a translator.  On arrival,
no effort had been made to call.  The hospital personnel recognized the
person once we were there for a while, and apparently are used to
communicating by writing.  They asked if I could stay around in case they ran
into a problem.  I explained that I was not a professional translator, and
that everybody would be better off if a pro were called in.  I excused
myself because I had to go on another call, and left.

If it had been life and death, I wouldn't have called back in until they
had someone on scene, but it was a minor problem and they already had all
the answers they needed.  Maybe I've been reading about codependants too
much, but I feel that the only way to get the point to the hospital was to
leave them high and dry.  I doubt they learned.  *&^%.

... Subscribe to The Journal of Disasters in Emergency Medicine: $8.00/yr

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