“Initially, you have all these thoughts about whether you should go home. But then you meet the team, and you see how excellent they are, see how compassionate they are. They understand what you are going through, they know that you are scared for your baby. They make you feel comfortable with them and you leave thinking you have confidence in the team that is going to look after your child. And you know from that point on you don’t have to worry anymore, everything is going to be looked after. That meant the world.”
David and Lisa O’Sullivan, an Irish family living in Doha for two years, were given the unwelcome and terrifying news in April of this year that their daughter, Mia, was suffering from Tetralogy of Fallot, a rare congenital heart condition made up of four heart defects that require surgical treatment early in the child’s life. Mia, now nine months old, was diagnosed by the HMC Pediatric Cardiology Department at HGH after a routine check-up had highlighted an abnormal heart murmur. Like many other expats here in Doha, the couple considered returning to their home country to proceed with the treatment, unaware of the high standard of care available to them at HMC. It was, however, not long before they had made the “biggest decision [they] have ever had to and will probably ever have to make”.
“From the moment we stepped inside the doors of Hamad General Hospital, our concerns about Mia’s care were no longer an issue. The staff showed empathy and genuine care towards us and allowed us to ask all our questions. We never felt rushed and they all made us feel at ease. They were even chatting to Mia! I left there thinking I can definitely hand my baby to them and felt totally safe leaving her with the team,” Lisa explained. “They took us step by step through what was going to happen, before, during, after…everything. And it wasn’t ‘dressed up’, it was the facts. And that was very important, as the last thing you need is someone just telling you everything is going to be fine,” added David.
This concept of clear and accurate information sharing play an integral part in a successful patient-and family-centered care plan, where the healthcare professionals and the family work together in partnership to plan the best treatment plan for the patient.
Dr. Ahmad Bin Sallehuddin, Chief of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery at HMC, explained
“It was great how we had met all the team before the operation, and more importantly
Mia had done too. So that when it came to her being taken to the theater, we knew them –
it wasn’t some strange person. She was laughing and playing,
and she wasn’t sad or scared or anything – she was absolutely fine.”
that ensuring his whole team interacts effectively with the families of young patients,
from the first point of contact through to consultation, treatment and discharge, has a notable
effect on the patient’s healthcare outcomes. “It is best practice to forge good partnerships with the parents of
our young patients. Doing so minimizes unnecessary delays or problems;
Providing the best experience possible does not end only with the healthcare professionals themselves. The entire
“At one point Mia wasn’t really eating or drinking her bottles, and the doctor really wanted to have me involved,
asking to let mum feed her and asking me what I felt was making her not eat. It was just the drains in the end that was making her gag a bit, but it was lovely that they
really wanted us involved in each stage.”
hospital has a responsibility to cater to the needs of patients and families, which involves developing initiatives to make the family’s journey through the clinical setting as smooth and as stress-free as possible. “The text message service [managed by the cardiology department] was fantastic. We were able to text in day or night with a question or request, and we would receive a text message straight back with an answer. It was amazing,” Lisa explained. “Another excellent feature was the website. Being able to look at the surgeon and their experience, training, research – it was all there – was brilliant. And this was all before we even met him. Once we did, we fell in love with him. But having that information gave us a lot of confidence going in. These things are what make parents at ease.”
“My only issue was the lack of nappy changing facilities in the pediatric OPD, and that has been resolved now. I threw in a comment into the comment box not really expecting anybody to read it, but they got in touch with me to say they had taken my feedback on board…and now there are nappy changing facilities in the toilets.”
The fact that Lisa and David even contemplated returning to Ireland to treat Mia, they say, now seems inconceivable after their experience, but highlights the need for others in the community to be made aware of the high standard of care HMC provides to the population of Qatar. In fact, they are doubtful that Mia’s condition would have even been diagnosed so early if they had returned. “If anything, as Mia was asymptomatic, I don’t think it would have even been picked up at home. The pediatrician had heard a slight murmur and just thought, to be sure, that we should get an echo and that’s how it started. At home, if they had even noticed the murmur, I’m sure they would have thought it innocent enough to tell us to leave it and come back in six months time. From the date Mia was diagnosed to the date of procedure was around six weeks, which is simply unheard of in Ireland.”
“We will be sending all our friends to Hamad from now on, and have made sure they all have their health cards. The care we received was second to none. There is no perfect healthcare system in the world, but from our experience, a number of countries can learn a lot from them here in Qatar. But it is unfortunate that this is not widely known. Knowing that patients are flying to this country to be operated on by the medical teams here instilled a huge amount of confidence in us for example. It was huge. But we had no idea about this until we were mid-way through the process.”
The O’Sullivan’s recognized the need to inform the healthcare leaders at HMC of their positive experience, and decided to write a letter. “People are always so fast to complain, and nobody seems to say anything when it’s good. So we wanted to
write something just to make sure that the people who need to know are aware of how good our experience was, and to say thank you!”
It was just a great experience of what was a terrible and stressful situation. It’s an awful thing to have to go through. But it was just amazing really how quickly and well they dealt with everything. There was never a moment where we felt there was anything going to happen that wasn’t under control. They are all superstars!”
Lisa, David and Mia’s experience at HMC highlights the benefits of employing the concept of patient-and family-centered care in the hospital environment. “The partnership between Mr. and Mrs. O’Sullivan and the healthcare team is a perfect example of just how much of a difference this can make; Mia is now happy and healthy and her parents are well informed for the future,” Dr. Ahmad stated. Mia has made a full recovery and her doctors say there should be no need for further treatment.
“HMC staff will always have a special place in our hearts. Mia, Lisa and I are forever indebted to them. What they have given my wife and I is the greatest gift one could ever ask for, a healthy little girl. Mia will grow up healthy and strong because of all their actions, and she will be told about all her friends at Hamad General Hospital,” said David.
