Lessons on the Job
Lessons on the Job "We're not in the business of creating a community of people with poor quality of life..." I look at him and ask myself as I listen, "Where are you going with this, doctor?" At this very moment, I am wearing not only my interpreter thinking hat. I am also activated as a mother. "The kind who can't talk, and you have to push in a wheelchair." How am I going to remain focused and neutral so I can render an accurate and faithful translation of his message to this expecting mother? She had inquired about the developmental challenges her baby would face due to his heart condition. Thankfully, they only involved the baby's inability to keep up with his peers when it came to physical exertion. I say "only" not to diminish the pain that this news brought to her. Yet, at least, her baby "wouldn't be part of the community of people with poor quality of life who can't talk and have to be pushed in a wheelchair,&q