Page 13 - The Medical Interprete

1. An Overview of Medical Interpreting

Medical interpreting and patient safety

Since the 1970s, medical interpreting has professionalized at a far faster rate than other areas
of community interpreting–perhaps because the stakes are so high. After all, without a medical
interpreter, terrible things can happen: Some patients die, have surgery on the wrong limb or get
the wrong medication or dose.

The Tran Case

The patient, a girl of only nine years, was asked to interpret for herself until she collapsed as a result of
a reaction to one of her prescriptions. At that point, her 16-year-old brother took over and attempted to
translate for his Vietnamese-speaking parents. Unfortunately, by the time the doctors figured out what
was going on, she was already dead…

Additionally, when the girl was originally discharged from the hospital after being dosed with the drug
that would kill her, none of the discharge instructions were translated into Vietnamese.

The girl’s family sued and was awarded damages to the tune of $200,000. As an expert witness at the
trial stated:

“Conducting the communications without a professional medical interpreter failed to meet
the standards of care applicable for the physician and the facility. The effect is [that] she did
not receive the care she should have. The parents were not able to adequately understand and
address her medical needs. In my opinion, the failure of the doctor and the facility to provide
a professional medical interpreter was a substantial factor in causing [patient]’s death.”

The bottom line? Professional medical translation and interpreting services save lives and improve quality
of care. Controlling healthcare costs is on everyone’s minds these days, but translation and interpreting
are not places to cut corners. 4

There are many reasons for the rapid evolution of this field in the United States, but perhaps the
most important one is patient safety. Countless news stories in the United States and abroad have
reported patients who died, were misdiagnosed (or diagnosed too late) or suffered horrific health
outcomes, including abortions without the patient’s knowledge or consent, due to a lack of qualified
interpreters. Such stories include:
• A pregnant woman who was given a medication to induce a miscarriage, lost her fetus and
went into a depression–she had dearly wanted her baby.
• A Korean of 40 who was hit in the head with a soccer ball and after three trips to the hospital
later died.
• A 13-year-old girl in Mesa, Arizona, who was sent home from the hospital despite severe
abdominal pains; her appendix ruptured and she died.
• An older Afghani man who refused chemotherapy for cancer due to lack of interpreting and
who, as a direct result, died years sooner than he might have.

In all such cases, a qualified medical interpreter might have saved the situation.

4 Retrieved from http://www.k-international.com/blog/medical-translation-gone-wrong-4-devastating-examples/

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