Publication: Subjective illness experiences of open-heart surgery patients in the Thai cultural context
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Issued Date
2013-07
Resource Type
Language
eng
Rights
Mahidol University
Bibliographic Citation
Journal of Population and Social Studies. Vol.21, No.2 (2013), S-74-S-48.
Suggested Citation
Kingkeaw Kwankhao, Pimpawan Boonmongkol, Kanokwan Tharawan, กนกวรรณ ธราวรรณ, Penchan Sherer Subjective illness experiences of open-heart surgery patients in the Thai cultural context. Journal of Population and Social Studies. Vol.21, No.2 (2013), S-74-S-48.. Retrieved from: https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/123456789/3054
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Title
Subjective illness experiences of open-heart surgery patients in the Thai cultural context
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Abstract
This qualitative case study investigates the illness experiences of patients who underwent
open-heart surgery in the Thai cultural context. The study site was a
central hospital in the Eastern region of Thailand. Data were primarily collected
by narrative interviews with seven patients who had open-heart surgery under
varied circumstances. Narrative analysis was used to analyze the data. The key
findings are: 1) the subjective illness experiences of the patients before and during
the open-heart surgery includes being on the edge between life and death, feeling
like coming back from death, and attributing their surgery to misfortune; 2) the
subjective illness experiences of the patients following the open-heart surgery includes
increasing dependence on medical technology and feeling like a cyborg, a non-human
or an animal. The patients’ subjective illness experiences reflect their perspectives on
medical technology in open-heart surgery. The findings could contribute to medical
personnel’s more holistic understanding of the lives of patients from scientific as well
as cultural viewpoints and to the improvement of the mental and emotional health
care for open-heart surgery patients.