Recovery Room

Lisa Yang

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When I was three, I remember having really horrible stomach pains. It kept getting worse to the point where I couldn't stand. My mom took me to the hospital several times when I would ache in pain and the doctors
would just give me pain relievers and send us home. Finally it got really really bad, to the point where I was unconscious. My family was scared for the month I was out. I can vaguely remember the moment I fell in my house out of pain, and even the uncomfortable tubes up my nose in the hospital. Now, I keep thinking about how so many people who got appendicitis, which was what I had, didn't end up in such a serious state like I did. Was this malpractice? Was it because as a HMoob family, we were not a priority? Did they not take my parents' broken English seriously? Would my family have been able to say anything if they knew it was malpractice in the moment and have the means to fight against the hospital? When I think about the way my mom is now, I can't help think it was moments like this, interacting with
systems that did not take her seriously, which contributed to her hypervigilance like saving all her documents and receipts, or not trusting services. I don't know who wrote on the back but they seemed to really miss me lol.

                                                                       - Lisa Yang