The Angel in White - Natalie Casey

Last year Natalie Casey, 82, a nurse since 1945 at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center–Passavant, was caring for a World War II veteran who was not expected to make it after major abdominal surgery. She had his wife bring in an old photo album, and then Casey sat down with him, flipping through the pages. "I told him my husband had been in the service," she says. "We talked about it for days. And pretty soon he was on the mend."


After decades of tending to the bodies and souls of patients, Casey has found that the best medicine doesn't come out of a pill bottle. "I found out that if I took a genuine interest in my patients, it took their minds off what they were in the hospital for," she says. "Nursing isn't just delivering medicine and changing bandages. If you listen to somebody, it's surprising how much their outlook can change."

How true! One of the noticeable changes of attitude in Western society since I was a boy is that towards health. In former days people accepted that a certain amount of sickness was inevitable and had an ability to tell what was serious and needed medical treatment and what was minor that they could treat themselves. When you had something minor your mother or grandmother knew exactly what was needed to treat it, added to which mothers and grandmothers lived much closer to each other then.

However, when you had a serious illness, your doctor was not so rushed off his feet that he could spare little or no time to listen to you describe exactly what your symptoms were. In addition, as Natalie Casey knows, the causes of illness are not always obvious and the wherewithal to cure them not always to be found in drugs or pills. Sometimes a kindly, listening ear is a far more effective curative than any drug. In most countries doctors no longer have the time for this. The reason they have so much less time to listen to their patients is a serious reproach to our society and individual attitudes. Many people feel because in many countries health services are funded by the State, they have an inalienable right to call on their doctor for anything. Consequently doctor’s surgeries are full to overflowing and the doctors themselves work non-stop to meet the demand. Added to this State medicine demands a great deal of administrative work for which the doctor must find time. The separation of family units that makes the passing on of traditional remedies for non-serious illness more difficult is another important factor.

Perhaps we need more “angels” like Natalie, especially as the proportion of the population who are elderly grows. There are of course many kind people who carry out voluntary work in hospitals but the sort of listening Natalie does so effectively is rare. Nurses are caring people, by and large and would love to have more time to talk to and listen to patients but like doctors, much of their time is spent filling in forms!

Elderly people often live alone and the thing they most yearn for is companionship; someone with whom to share their views on what is happening around them or even just to listen to their reminiscences. If more of us were willing to spend a little time each week with an elderly person, perhaps, just perhaps, geriatric wards in hospitals would be less crowded!