Cross-cultural communication （56）　

56）The patient with a lot of requests about his back pain
It was during a consultation in the early summer of 2015. When I answered the call from the reception desk, it was a French male tourist complaining of back pain. He requested to see me immediately, so I scheduled him for the last appointment of the morning, and he arrived on time, which is unusual for a French person.

He said that he had been suffering from back pain for some time, but that it had gotten worse because of the strain of walking so much while traveling. As he was going to be traveling for a few more weeks, I suggested that I could prescribe him some painkillers and medication to relax his muscles, but he said he didn't want any medication. He said that if possible, he would like me to introduce him to an orthopedic clinic that offers physiotherapy such as massage and shiatsu. The French are very assertive, and I judged that it would be difficult to persuade him with my French ability, so I decided to introduce him to Y Hospital (read Cross-cultural communication (40)) long-established private hospital in down-town Osaka that specializes in orthopedics and had previously diagnosed and treated a French patient's dislocated shoulder comfortably, even though it was a night-time emergency.

I explained the situation to him, gave him a letter of referral written in Japanese stating that he was a French person who could speak English, and a map of Hospital Y that I had found on-line, and sent him on his way, instructing him to visit the hospital the following morning. He seemed to have followed my instructions, and the next afternoon I received a fax from the doctor who examined him at Hospital Y, with a reply to the letter of referral I had sent. It said that she (female doctor) had managed to communicate with the patient and that she would treat him in a way that would meet his wishes as much as possible. It also said that, although he had been so reluctant to take medication, she had also prescribed painkillers at the same time, because improvement would be slow if he only used physiotherapy. I think he must have agreed to the orthopedic surgeon's advice.

I was so impressed by the prompt and accurate response of the orthopedic surgeon at Hospital Y that I called the hospital immediately after reading the fax and asked to speak to the doctor in charge, to thank her. The doctor in charge was a young female doctor judging from her voice. I imagine that she was chosen as the doctor in charge from a linguistic perspective. The conversation over the phone was quick and efficient, and I felt reassured. At the end, I also mentioned the French patient with a dislocated shoulder visited there before, and when I said that if she had the chance, I would like her to give my regards to Dr. Y, the owner, director and head of the hospital, who is an orthopedic surgeon, she replied cheerfully, “Okey, no problem!”.

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