Failed Interview

So right now Jackie and I are trying out our questionnaire before we start the actual project and data collection.  We are changing words like "hypertension" to "high blood pressure", and making sure our data will be relevant and reliable.  We have interviewed a few patients, but it is very difficult as our Spanish is not yet up to speed and the older folks from outside the city are quite a difficult interview.

Jackie had interviewed a very nice young man Pedro*, age 24, who spoke pretty clearly and could answer questions without too many tangents.  When we read through his chart later, we found in his social history that he has been living in the streets and various places since age 10 when he left his parents house.  Imagine that.

I went a few beds over to a much older gentleman.  We introduced ourselves, and he told us his name.  We asked if we could do this questionnaire, and he seemed to agree and started talking about his nausea.  After expressing some understanding, we decided to start the questionnaire.  "What's your birthdate?" I asked for our demographics section.  He pointed to his ears, then started talking some more about things and his nausea.  I decided to skip that question and try the next.  "What provence do you live in?".  He went out about nausea.  I repeated the question, but he indicated he couldn't here me, so I was shouting the question.  Then shouted the next question.  This guy seemed to be really confused.

Several times he repeated a small phrase, and I had studied it just days before, but in the moment my mind blanked and I had let it slide as something about his nausea.  "Soy sordo" he said again.  And finally I realized what he was saying, and why Pedro across the room was dying of laughter at this point.  He was saying all along "I'm deaf."

*not really his name.  Not sure of the HIPPA equivalent of Bolivia, but we will function on U.S. standards for patient privacy.