Preparing for surgery, Mrs. van Vliet's story

Every day we try to use Divis to make healthcare understandable to patients. It is important for patients to have a realistic representation of what awaits them, without medical images scaring them away. Reassuring patients is also a goal of informing. Ms. van Vliet's personal experience beautifully illustrates the significance of understandable information.

"When I suddenly had to be hospitalized last year because of a problem on oneone of my kidneys, a stent had to be placed and I was given an angioplasty. During that admission, a CT scan was taken from my neck to my groin for verification. The next day the ward physician came to discuss the results with me. The scan showed spots on my right lung, which needed further investigation."

"Then you get on a rollercoaster. The first few days I found it hard to understand, from a complaint to my kidney to perhaps lung cancer. After several associated examinations, it became clear that the situation was alarming enough to proceed to surgery. It was decided that during this surgery my right lung lobe had to be removed."

"In preparation for the surgery, I received information from Indiveo in my mail. I didn't want to see it because I expected it to be images of a real operation. People around me asked a lot what kind of surgery it would be but I couldn't answer that. Until my children opened the Divi. They saw that the information consisted of an animation. Once I knew that, I watched it maybe fifty times. It made me feel calm, and if anyone asked about it I could explain very well myself how the operation would go. Once I could talk about it I noticed how healing it had been for me. I was able to accept the surgery very calmly and it all went well in the end." 

Courtesy of, and with permission of, Marie van Vliet (age 75)