“Living on the Edge”: The Role of Critical Incidents on the Development of “Secondary Resilience” in Physicians

IJEMHHR • Vol. 17, No. 4 • 2015 714 INTRODUCTION So I had this lady, who was an asylum seeker, who had been pregnant as the result of rape during her detention, where she'd been tortured and raped. And...um...so I took care of her through her whole pregnancy...we tend not to discuss...you know... their trauma history in detail, other than to know that it occurred and....you know...try to make sure they get services, that they’re OK and go over the whole 'how's mental health?' and...you know...make resources, but to talk about the details of what happened we didn't do, but then she needed her asylum affidavit, so she came back to me for that...[tears began to well up in the doctor's eyes]...she had her new baby on her lap, this little boy that's the result of rape from someone who tortured her, she is sitting there telling me this story and suddenly she completely flashes back, she dissociates and starts rocking and saying 'God help me, God help me, God help me' and her little boy, sitting on her lap, starts to cry because he sees that mommy is, you know, in distress and that's what grounds her (her little boy's cry) and brings her back to reality and she goes 'I'm sorry honey I didn't mean...’ I'm going to cry [tears streak down the doctor’s cheeks]... (sobs)...’I didn't mean to upset you (the little boy)’... and it just showed me the resilience and the deep quality of the people that I deal with...(sniffles)...and what great people they are as they survived their trauma and...um... it kind of makes the work feel very rewarding that you can at least help somebody to get back to their survival potential...(sniffles and dries tears)...1 Dr. Lindquist 2