Volume 4 Issue 1 January, 2014
The Accompanying Person
A woman in her 50s was regularly visiting me for follow-up, accompanied by a man of around same age, for nearly a year while I was doing my postgraduation. She was handed over to me by my senior for the purpose. She was diagnosed as having neurotic depression. I had not bothered to look into any details of the case when it was handed over to m. Once, the man came alone for proxy followup. I asked him why his wife could not come for review personally. He appeared quite appalled by my question and said: “Doctor she is my sister.” With a smile he added “I am a bachelor for that matter”. I was embarrassed and did not know how to react. Then I apologized for my mistake and
asked him: “How come her husband has never turned up with her so far?” For this question he burst into laughter and said: “Doctor she is a spinster.” I felt like hiding my face under the table with utter shame. Obviously I had not gone through her case file in detail. However, he had eased the situation by laughing at it. He then blamed himself for not having revealed this to me so far. But following this incident I made it a point to go into all relevant details of every case handed over to me by others and also not to presume the relationship of the accompanying persons. Such situations come up usually when a person of opposite gender accompanies the patient. You are dumbfound when you get to know that the old man accompanying a young woman is not her father, but her the husband. Thus I always make it a point to ask them to reveal their relationship before starting the interview.
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