Escuchame: A Story of Patient Resilience

This article is a narrative following a patient’s experience through the American Healthcare system. This article is written by a second-year medical student. During this time the individual repeatedly engaged in different specialties of medicine such as neurology, neurosurgery, oncology, emergency medicine, gynecology, and primary care. This narrative demonstrates how certain issues such as healthcare access, patient demographics, defective communication, and general mistrust of the healthcare system negatively impact patient outcomes. As an uninsured immigrant, the patient was in a disadvantaged position when her health problems first began. Due to her lack of insurance, she did not have an established primary care physician. She struggled to find compassionate care that focused on her symptoms and prioritized outcomes. She often felt ignored and overlooked by her physicians. Through this article, we explore a patient’s perspective on how American physicians operate, and why they make certain decisions. This article provides the perspective of individuals whose voices are rarely heard in medicine. Lastly, we provide possible solutions and how they would have impacted the patient in this narrative.