historical precedents for today’s medical miracles
Drama illuminating medicine
As you know I’m a great fan of fiction and drama being used to bring the issues of medicine to a lay audience. It was my raison d’etre for writing my own fiction. So I was immediately grabbed by a series on BBC Radio 4 this week in which Dr Rachel Clarke brings one such topic to life: organ donation and transplantation.
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‘This is a tale of a boy, and a girl and a heart they share.’ It tells of 9 year old Keira, fatally injured in a car accident, becoming the donor for nine year old Max, a lad with a desperately diseased heart. It’s harrowing in parts, and I wept listening. A doctor herself, Rachel Clarke is someone I’ve long admired (she’s been mentioned several times on this blog) and her voice is pitch-perfect for this story. She knows all about walking alongside people in their darkest hours, about conveying devastating news, and about putting one’s own feelings to one side in order to do an immensely difficult job.
Intriguingly the narration weaves in historical detail about medical innovations that preceded this modern day miracle, making it possible, but those breaks provide welcome relief from the heart-wrenching emotion of the main story.
A couple of years ago I was personally involved in a transplant situation, and the profound emotions generated are not something I feel able to talk about. This programme offered space and privacy for a cathartic reaction, so I’m doubly grateful.