If you think doctors have an easier time than regular folks watching loved ones face life-threatening medical complications, think again.
It may be easier for them to understand the medical information, according Dr. Gerald Da Roza, head of Royal Columbian Hospital’s department of medicine, but knowing more comes at a price too.
“What happens to physicians or anyone working in the health-care field, is that you immediately jump to the worst possible scenario because you’ve seen it all,” he told the Record.
So Da Roza had his work cut out for him about two years ago when he learned one of the twin girls his wife Janika was carrying wasn’t growing properly and the babies needed to be delivered one month early.
“It was very scary,” he said.
Despite living in West Vancouver, the couple decided to come to RCH, where Da Roza has worked for 12 years.
“RCH was the only place we felt completely comfortable in entrusting our babies,” Da Roza said in a thank you letter to hospital staff 10 months after they were born. “I am glad to say that our faith was completely rewarded.”
Da Roza said he meant to send the letter, which praises hospital staff involved in every part of his wife’s and babies’ care, a lot earlier, but life with new twins and four kids got in the way.
Today, twins Sky and Mia are thriving, and their dad looks back at their time in Royal Columbian’s neonatal intensive care unit with wonder.
“You forget how small they were and how weak they were and the fact that they couldn’t breathe without assistance,” Da Roza said. “They couldn’t even feed without assistance. They had feeding tubes in their noses. I think you kind of block it out. It’s almost like a post-traumatic thing. … It was very scary, but because of the way the nurses dealt with us and the doctors, we were scared but we felt safe.”
