Scarred By Your Parents
Hospital, Jerk, Nurse, Parents/Guardians, USA, Washington | Healthy | February 23, 2018
(I’m a nurse. I’ve been assigned to a young girl who just had emergency surgery to save her life. She has a long incision down her stomach, which will end up as a scar. Her parents come to me about a week after the surgery, but before the wound has closed or the staples have been removed, clearly upset.)
Father: “When are we going to talk about reducing that scar?”
Me: “I’m sorry, but your daughter has barely started to heal. Let’s get her healthy before we worry about appearances.”
Father: “Excuse me? It’s bad enough she has [large birthmark]; now you’re going to add this, too?”
Mother: “What about covering it in Vitamin E oil?”
Me: “Ma’am, right now we’re worried about infections and how well she’s healing. We can talk about—”
Father: “No! You will fix her now!”
(I made up something about talking to the doctor about it and left. I truly pity this child, if that was their concern.)
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