Cultural differences played a large part in reluctance by patients at Changhua County’s Yuan Sheng Hospital to wear the clothing that came with new hyperbaric chambers, hospital staff said.
Yuan Sheng, the first hospital in southern Changhua to introduce the machines, held a special news conference for their acquisition.
The pure oxygen and higher air pressure — 2.5 times greater than normal pressure — in the chambers reduce the time needed for wounds to heal, doctors said.
Photo: Yen Hung-chun, Taipei Times
However, when demonstrating the machines, the hospital used bright yellow gowns that were supplied by the manufacturer, which one reporter described as garish.
The reporter said that the gown was jarring and made him think of patients being “taken to the land of the Sukhavati.”
Asked whether any patients had refused to wear the gown, the doctors said a number of older patients strongly objected wearing it.
The patients would put the gown on, then try to take it off, but when asked why they did not want to wear it, they would not say, the doctors, apparently mystified, told reporters.
Reporters later told the doctors that the color was usually used in funeral parlors for the clothing of the deceased.
The hospital bought the machines from the US, where the color of a gown usually has less cultural significance, the doctors said, but added that they would follow local customs.
“We will obtain light blue or pink gowns, so that patients can feel more comfortable when wearing them during therapy,” the hospital said.
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