The Steel Windpipe Summary
The Steel Windpipe serves best in demonstrating how I would maintain a level of detachment in order to avoid becoming emotionally compromised in serious situations while providing patient care. Bulgakov’s work describes both the external burdens, as well as the internal struggle many healthcare professionals face when encountering a patient who has experienced some major trauma. This story showcases a sense of humanity and responsibility to save a patient’s life at whatever cost. The piece portrays a doctor that is full of doubt and uncertainty about his decision to pursue medicine as well as having to perform a tracheotomy for the first time in a rural hospital, and it was personal for me as I continue to struggle with my own endeavors into the world of nursing. Despite the character’s overwhelming pressure in the operating room, he conducted himself with a steady hand and firm conviction in the face of a young girl’s likely death by diphtheria croup. Essentially, the story is about a young doctor overcoming his own fears and doubts in the midst of crisis; but most of all, it is about how he was able to overcome his uncertainties thanks to his own internal tenacity as well as the support system he had in his team of midwives and the
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feldsher.
“Look, have you gone mad?
What do you mean by not agreeing? You’re condemning the baby to death. You must consent. Have you no pity?” (Nadelhaft & Bonebakker, 2008, p. 272). The Doctor’s sense of humanity played a role in saving the girl’s life, when he said protested to her mother and grandmother, who were initially apprehensive. The moment in the story that helped me reach a new understanding was when the doctor finally located the little girl’s windpipe. After the feldsher fainted from heat exhaustion while still clutching the hook and tearing at the girl’s windpipe, a glimmer of doubt sparkled in the doctor’s mind, “It’s fate…everything’s against me. We’ve certainly murdered Lidka now.” (Nadelhaft & Bonebakker, 2008, p.
274). At that moment in the story, the doctor and the older midwife successfully finished the procedure. The dedicated support of the midwives and the feldsher seem to be instrumental to the doctor’s success in saving the little girl’s life. By focusing on the prime objective; the doctor faced personal fear and opposition in order to get the job done. In the end, the girl would not have survived if the doctor did not trust in his own judgment.
Therefore, this story clarified for me an idea of being better prepared for the professional patient-caregiver relationship in the sense that first and foremost, the patient is the most important, and must always come before any outside influence of family or other naysayers. With that being said, remaining firm in the face of opposition could be the difference between life or death for the most important entity in the equation, trusting one’s own capabilities and judgment as a health care provider is a principal characteristic in the patient-caregiver relationship.
feldsher.
“Look, have you gone mad?
What do you mean by not agreeing? You’re condemning the baby to death. You must consent. Have you no pity?” (Nadelhaft & Bonebakker, 2008, p. 272). The Doctor’s sense of humanity played a role in saving the girl’s life, when he said protested to her mother and grandmother, who were initially apprehensive. The moment in the story that helped me reach a new understanding was when the doctor finally located the little girl’s windpipe. After the feldsher fainted from heat exhaustion while still clutching the hook and tearing at the girl’s windpipe, a glimmer of doubt sparkled in the doctor’s mind, “It’s fate…everything’s against me. We’ve certainly murdered Lidka now.” (Nadelhaft & Bonebakker, 2008, p.
274). At that moment in the story, the doctor and the older midwife successfully finished the procedure. The dedicated support of the midwives and the feldsher seem to be instrumental to the doctor’s success in saving the little girl’s life. By focusing on the prime objective; the doctor faced personal fear and opposition in order to get the job done. In the end, the girl would not have survived if the doctor did not trust in his own judgment.
Therefore, this story clarified for me an idea of being better prepared for the professional patient-caregiver relationship in the sense that first and foremost, the patient is the most important, and must always come before any outside influence of family or other naysayers. With that being said, remaining firm in the face of opposition could be the difference between life or death for the most important entity in the equation, trusting one’s own capabilities and judgment as a health care provider is a principal characteristic in the patient-caregiver relationship.