Author: Danielle Darriet, MD, PhD
Article Abstract:
Dr. Danielle Darriet, a neurologist, relates her experiences in dealing with brain damaged patients in a rehabilitation hospital in northern France. Darriet who left her position of medical research, now serves as primary care physician for about 30 patients, accompanying them along the road to recovery running the gamut of complete to no recovery at all. Darriet details how her struggle with her faith and eventual deepening of that faith enriches her interaction with her patients as she deals with their medical problems and all the frustrations that entails both for the patients and the staff. She notes, speaking of those patients, her companions, “…It is amazing to see how a brain lesion can alter the behavior of a person But, as a handicapped woman said, ‘This body is the envelope, do not stop with looking at the outside; read the letter inside.'” And that is what Dr. Darriet strives to accomplish every day: to look past the obvious physical and mental injuries to the person inside. Her faith, strengthened through long struggle, has enabled her to do just that.
