Submission Title
Artist Statement
A child’s innocence can be deceiving. Their beauty, laughter, and carefree nature can easily blind anyone from seeing and understanding a childs true reality. On my first pediatrics rotation as a third year medical student, I met a little girl with Ebstein’s Anomaly, a rare and serious heart condition. A condition that can present with bluish discoloration to the lips and skin due to lack of oxygen. When this little girl first walked into the examination room, her smile lit up the room and her laughter instantly made me forget why she was even there. After getting lost in her laughter for a few minutes, I started to notice how blue she was. Her hands were blue, her lips were blue. She was a beautiful blue little girl with a big smile that almost made me forget that she just had open heart surgery 3 weeks prior. It was this experience that taught me to admire a childs innoncence , but to not be blinded and underestimate the physical and mental struggles that children live with.
Recommended Citation
Kilian, Alicia L.
(2019)
"A Child’s Innocence in Healthcare,"
be Still: Vol. 3, Article 10.
Available at:
https://nsuworks.nova.edu/bestill/vol3/iss1/10
Included in
Creative Writing Commons, Fine Arts Commons, Medical Humanities Commons, Photography Commons
About the Artist
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