Dual Roles: When Your Patient is Your Parent

Daniel Yeremin, MS3, Class of 2025

Medical school has challenges for everyone; 2023 was especially stretching for me. One such challenge occurred during my neurology clerkship. On the second day of my rotation, I received a text that my father was going to the hospital for some head imaging, the same hospital in which I was currently working. He had been unwell for several days with what my parents had assumed was ‘the flu.’ This update surprised me. I met several family members in a waiting room downstairs as my father was taken to imaging. We waited for what I think was several hours before the doctors returned, explaining that they needed to admit him to the neuro critical care unit.

For nearly two weeks, my days were divided between attending to my patients during the day and spending my evenings and weekends with my father down the hall. At one point, I was even part of the rounding team who cared for my father. My father loved joking that I was on “”double duty”” as son and student. He would often request a prescription refill from “”Dairy Queen Pharmacy,”” colloquially known as a Turtle Pecan Cluster Blizzard. That was one way in which I was able to encourage him. Being faced with the possibility of losing my father was emotionally draining, compounded by the struggle to balance my educational commitments. I had to put aside my normal, strict routine to be there for my father and my family.

This experience highlighted several things that everyone already knows, but we often take for granted. Firstly, it reminded me that every patient is someone’s loved one. As medical professionals, we can forget patients have just as much of a life as we do with goals, hopes, and dreams. Secondly, all of us as medical students and doctors have seen very sick patients in the hospital. We have also all experienced, to varying degrees, the pain of seeing loved ones endure suffering or pass away. Getting to see both simultaneously allowed me to empathize more deeply with patients and gain insight into the daily challenges faced by patients and their families.