Erin Miller

A doctor, a female patient, about 18 years old, and a translator are sitting around a table in a make-shift rural clinic. The doctor is holding an intake sheet that indicates that the patient suffers from headaches.
Dr.: “Can you please ask her about her headaches?”
translator: “Tiene dolor de su cabeza?”
patient: “Sí.”
translator: “She has headaches.”
Dr.: “Can you ask her where it hurts.”
translator: “Puede enseñarme donde está el dolor?”
patient: “It starts here in the front and moves all the way back and into the back of my neck.” She uses hand motions to demonstrate where she has the pain.
translator: Says nothing, assuming that the hand motions were clear enough and momentarily forgetting that the doctor doesn’t speak Spanish. The translator turns to the doctor awaiting the next question.
Dr.: “What did she say?”
translator: “Oh right, sorry. She says that she has pain that starts here in the front, and moves to the back of her head and down to her neck.” The translator mimics the patient’s earlier hand motions.
Dr.: “Can you please ask her if she has sensitivity to light?
translator: “Cuando usted tiene el dolor de cabeza, tenga usted problemas con la luz?”
patient: “No”
translator: Forgetting that the doctor does understand “no” the translator turns to the doctor and repeats, “no”
Dr.: “Can you ask her if she has sensitivity to sound?”
translator: thinking — oh man, what is the word for sound? The words for to listen, to hear, ear, fill the translator’s mind, but no sound….the translator asks, “Lleva, usted, cosas pesadas en su cabeza?”
patient: “Sí”
translator: “Cuales cosas?”
patient “tela, leña, agua, y comida.”
translator, do the doctor: “She carries cloth, wood, water, and food on her head.”
Dr. “Oh.” The doctor kindly does not insist that the translator repeat the question about the noise. And instead prescribes some ibuprofen and that the woman make her husband carry some of the heavy things.