No matter how enviable our good health may be, sooner or later we still make acquaintances with doctors and hospitals. And this, just agree, is a whole separate world, with its own rules, habits and ways, written and unwritten. And these ‘ways’ do not always look reasonable to us.

So the user u/Traditional-Put6216, the author of our story today, was also surprised when a female nurse was literally bewildered by his 9-year-old son’s wish that only his dad and older brother would help him dress up after surgery. However, let’s talk about everything in order.

More info: Reddit

The author of the post is a dad of a 9-year-old boy who recently had his appendix removed in the hospital

Image credits: Juan Pablo Serrano (not the actual photo)

The kid’s relatives, including his mom (the author’s ex), her sister and niece, were waiting in the recovery room

Image credits: u/Traditional-Put6216

Image credits: Oles kanebckuu (not the actual photo)

The boy was in the hospital gown only, so he asked his dad and elder brother to help him get dressed

Image credits: u/Traditional-Put6216

Image credits: RDNE Stock project (not the actual photo)

However, when the man asked all the females present to go out of the room, it bewildered them

Image credits: u/Traditional-Put6216

The female nurse even started a quarrel with the dad but he was adamant in standing up for his son’s privacy

So, the Original Poster (OP) says that recently his 9-year-old son “Loren” was taken to the hospital where he had his appendix removed. The operation was successful, and the boy behaved well. Relatives – including the author’s ex – Loren’s mom, her sister and 13 year-old niece, and the OP’s 18 year-old son as well, waited in the recovery room.

After the operation, relatives were invited to visit the boy when he recovered from anesthesia. Loren was wearing nothing but a hospital gown, made almost entirely of paper, and he asked his dad and older brother to help him get dressed. Simply because it was uncomfortable for a 9-year-old boy to be naked in front of 3 females. Four, if counting a female nurse.

But when the original poster asked all females present to go out, they reacted to the request as if it was something incredibly outrageous. And the most indignant seemed to be a female nurse, who, like a pro linebacker, almost tried to break through to Loren to change his clothes herself.

As a result of a short-term quarrel, the father still managed to defend his son’s right to purely male assistance when changing clothes, but the next day his ex called him and demanded an apology. Our hero, however, objected that if Loren was a girl, then she’d perhaps have a very different opinion.

Moreover, when the father and son arrived at the hospital a couple of days later for a re-examination, Loren again asked a male nurse to help him – and this caused a new surge of surprise in the head nurse. However, the male nurse finally showed up – and in a private conversation he said that such situations often happen, and his female colleagues very often take it personally.

Image credits: EVG Kowalievska (not the actual photo)

“Usually, medical personnel do not distinguish regarding the gender of patients and nurses and doctors – unless, of course, the opposite is specifically stated,” says Iryna Stasiuk, an expert in syndromic therapy from Odesa, Ukraine, whom Bored Panda asked for a comment here. “However, if the patient or their parents declare that they need a nurse of the same gender, then the situation is completely different.”

“Of course, medical ethics implies that a doctor or nurse perceives any person who receives medical services solely as a patient. But at the same time, if there is a direct request or demand regarding the nurse’s gender, then it is a different matter. Here, perhaps, the nurse was confused by an argument between the boy’s parents too.”

“By the way, in practice, in many clinics there are much more female nurses than the male ones, so the probability that a boy will be assisted by a woman is bigger purely mathematically. Which, of course, does not negate the fact that medical personnel must respect the patient’s privacy,” Iryna summarizes.

The vast majority of commenters to the original post also note that, in their opinion, both the nurse and the boy’s mom were being wrong here. “I find it very difficult to believe that no one has ever asked that nurse to give them privacy before, and even if true then it’s high time someone did,” one of the people wrote in the comments.

“Your ex also needs to lighten up. Your son is reaching the age where he isn’t going to want his mom seeing him naked anymore. It’s developmentally appropriate for him to seek more independence. She needs to let him grow,” the responder added quite reasonably. And what do you, our dear readers, actually think about this story?

People in the comments sided with the father, also claiming that the nurse behaved quite unprofessionally here

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