People are never as cautious with Medical Translations as they should be. This is sensitive information and one wrong translation can cause multiple people to lose their health or even their lives. Apart from that, the doctors are at risk of losing their license or even are sentenced to jail because of bad translations or errors in translations. Recently, Australia has seen a lot of cases in which a bad translation caused some serious medical errors.
No one wants to see wants to suffer because of something as simple as translations. Foreign drugs can be very beneficial for dangerous diseases like cancer and HIV AIDS. However, if their English translated documents are not correct, things can get very difficult for the patient and the caregivers.
But when it comes to medical reports and diagnosis, it becomes indefinitely important for both the hospital and the caregivers to use professional translators and interpreters. Medical reports and diagnosis is very sensitive information that must be deciphered correctly. Big cities like Melbourne and Sydney have good professional translation service providers in Australia, however, things are still a little dicey in Darwin and Perth.
The Consequences of Bad Medical Translations Amplified
Take the example of Willie Ramirez. He was just a normal 18 year old baseball player. It all started with a simple case of headache. Because of a misinterpretation and bad translation, the 18-year-old teenager was rendered quadriplegic.
Brought into the hospital in a comatose state, when the doctors asked his family what happened to him, they replied “intoxicado” which simply means feeling ill because of eating or drinking something bad. However, the hospital and the medical professionals took that as intoxicated, which lead Ramirez to have intracerebellar hemorrhage, he continued to bleed in his brain for two days before it was diagnosed. But by the time the doctors found what had happened, he was already quadriplegic.
Regardless to say, the medical world, and the world at large, was shocked to its core. Finally, people were ready to accept people need professional translation services and interpreters to handle medical records and diagnoses translations. Since then, medical professionals all over Australia, including in Brisbane, Hobart and Adelaide, are not now using only professional translation services for their medical record documents.
Even in cities like Canberra, Australian doctors and medical professionals are hyper aware of this language barrier situation and continue to hire professional translation services in Australia.
The Refugees And Immigrants In Dire Need Of Correct Interpretations
Ramirez’s case was not an exceptional case, with the current refugee conditions, the doctors and medical staff was inundated with requests from people who do not understand English. Many of the people seeking medical attention do not have their medical records and if they do, they are not in the languages the doctors or the medical staff understands.
Since the unfortunate events regarding Ramirez, hospitals in Sydney, Australia have been more vigilant about keeping things under control. With the current refugee conditions, Doctors and the medical staff are now on the look out for such cases and make sure that it never happens again.
But, what about other cities like Melbourne and Brisbane?
How To Control This Language Barrier Of Biblical Proportions?
With people bringing in multilingual medical reports in the hospitals and to doctors, it is very important to have a professional translator or interpreter present in the meetings. Even though the hospital has someone who understands, Spanish or French or Greek, only a trained professional and experienced translator or interpreter must work on the reports and diagnoses.
Even in the translation industry, people are very cautious about who handles medical translations. Companies only give medical report translation projects to translators or interpreters who have prior certification or understanding of medical terms and jargon.
Why Is That?
Similar to English, many languages have words and phrases that have dual meaning and it is very important for the translator to understand the relative terms. Having a medical industry expert translator or interpreter would be great for both the patient and the doctor. Many believe having a bilingual employee handle such cases could be easy.
However, a couple of years ago, a baby girl of 10 months was taken to a hospital in emergency because she was given a high dose of a medication that should not be administered at home. Because of the unavailability of a translator or interpreter, the parents were unable to understand how the medicine should be give. The instructions on the medication package were written in English, so the Spanish-speaking immigrants were unable to administer the correct dosage.
There are multiple horror stories regarding medical records and diagnosis. We can stop them from happening in the future by simply hiring a professional translation service provider in Australia. Even an online translation services agency in Australia would be a great help in this situation.
Having professional translator handling medical translations would be a great help, especially when we have a confusing medical jargon. Dysphasia and Dysphagia are two very similar medical terms, but they have two very different meanings.
In the medical profession Dysphasia means the loss of speech or understanding speech. Dysphagia means a condition in which a patient cannot swallow. A normal bilingual person will not be able to distinguish the difference between the two, however, a professional medical translation service provider will be aware of the difference.
Abbreviations have also proven to be hard to translate by amateur and non-professional translators. Also, there is the matter of connotation. Sometimes, one word can be used for multiple perspectives.
Understanding the connotation of a word is very important for translators and interpreters handling medical records and diagnoses. For example, the Spanish word “cuantificación” literally translates to “quantification” in English language. However, in medical terminology and jargon, “cuantificación” means “quantitation,” which becomes a completely different thing.
One must never hesitate when they need help, especially in matters as important as your health and safety. With the refugees and immigrants living in Australia, it is their right as human beings to receive proper medical attention. Medical report Translation services in Australia must be hired for every case with the language barrier. In the medical profession, a single error can be very costly and very human life is precious.
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