In Their Own Words

My Brother’s Recovery From a Car Crash Became a Lesson in How to Talk to Doctors And Nurses

Communication is Part of Healing.

September 21, 2023

By:

Emily Largent, PhD, RN
Elliot Largent

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The following excerpt is from an op-ed that first appeared in The Philadelphia Inquirer on September 19, 2023.

Shortly before Thanksgiving 2022, my brother, Elliott, was driving on a two-lane highway in New York when another car hit him head-on.

The other vehicle’s driver was critically injured, its two passengers dead. Paramedics rushed Elliott — disoriented, in pain, unable to contact anyone, and hundreds of miles from home — to the nearest Level I trauma center.

At the time of the accident, he had been on his way to visit friends. When Elliott did not arrive and could not be reached, those friends called local emergency departments until they found him.

They found my email address on the University of Pennsylvania’s website and sent word of the accident. They couldn’t provide me with any details because the hospital had only confirmed to his friends that Elliott was there — legally, the hospital wasn’t able to share more.

I study patient-doctor communication at Penn. The aftermath of Elliott’s accident underscored in personal ways what I know professionally: Communication is part of healing. There are lessons you can draw from our experience.

Read the entire op-ed here.