Giovanna Spantigati

You know what happens to a deaf person when he goes to the hospital? He is not expected to be there. Or else he is not expected to understand. An adult reads lips and has a lot of patience. But a child? Whether it's an emergency or a long hospitalization, the staff is not trained to help a deaf to understand.

I mean that not only there are no interpreters, but that medical staff does not even know how to communicate with them. So, for those who have a deaf child like me, it means to stay in hospital 24 hours a day and also to stay by his side while doctors make rays (hoping never to be pregnant) or sew his head, spending my time repeating to all staff and impatient doctors, that it's useless to talk to him all the time.

Doctors and nurses are not expected to attend a 50 hours sign language course, but someone should at least explain to them that a deaf person is just someone who uses another language, and a soliloquy is nonsense. If he is not a baby and even if he reads lips, it is useless to talk to him turning his back, unless the deaf can read the mind and it is useless speak to him in the dark because even if he takes full advantage of his sight, his eyes are not the eyes of a cat. Well, it is much easier than it seems. You just neet to put your face closer to him, reassure him with a smile, articulate words slowly, not to talk with light from your back, and mime the simple words. (eg: lean, bite, bandage).

Deaf adults are obliged to pay for an interpreter and it is shameful that the government does not care. (Do not forget that, thanks to the Equal Opportunity Community foreign people are entitled to an interpreter free of charge.) Nevertheless, I must say that everything has a limit; I don't like exaggeration, either in one way or another. I heard about an adult who has paid the interpreter for the delivery room, and it made me laugh. I can imagine the interpreter, who mimes both the obstetrician and the mother in turn ... and if I remember well the obstetrician only says one word: "push ...


Giovanna Spantigati