Minor Miscommunications

Another year is almost over. How does that keep happening?

I spent most of my time this year hospital hopping from rotation to rotation. A couple of days ago I finished my rotation in a community clinic. It was different than being in the hospital, I was worried that it may be boring there and it almost always was. 

Every morning at around 8:30am people would come to get hooked up to one of our 24 hour holters (we only had two machines). The other morning a Portuguese speaking fellow came in and asked if anyone spoke Portuguese. We had Hebrew speakers, English speakers, French speakers, and Russian speakers but unfortunately no Portuguese speakers. 

With the help of his referral from the doctor we were able to determine that he needed to be hooked up to one of the holters. We got him all set up and told him to come back the next morning so we could take the machine off.

The next morning the old man returned and we took the holter off him. He thanked us and then asked us where he can pay. Fearing that there was a miscommunication because of the language, we explained that he has insurance and he doesn’t have to pay separately. He contemplated what we were saying and nodded his head as he stuck his hands into his pockets and rummaged around for a moment.

“Well then, how about if I pay you in THESE?” he asked as he tossed a handful of candy in our direction before getting confused about where the exit was and accidentally scurrying into the adjacent storage closet. After a good laugh, we helped him out of the storage closet and thanked him for the candy before leading him to the exit.