Critical Thinking Application Paper on Child Illness of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (All)

Critical Thinking Application

Rosa Zavala

Critical Thinking: Strategies in Decision-Making

WH09BSB06

Sara Sumner

April 29, 2010

Critical Thinking Application

As a working mother in the accounting field nothing prepares you to what happen to our family. On February 4th my employment went from an 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. to a 24 hour caretaker for my son Anthony who was diagnosed with a cancer in his blood called acute lymphoblastic leukemia. A cancer that develops in the bone marrow deep inside the bone where the following three blood cells are produced; red blood cells that carry oxygen and nutrients in the body, white blood cell that fight infection, and platelets which stop the bleeding. In Anthony’s case he had produce so many abnormal white blood cells that he was not able to fight any infections at the same time preventing his body to produce red blood cells and platelets. The cause of leukemia still unknown but, there was no doubt he had it and now we have to decide Anthony’s quality of care.

When Anthony was admitted to Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles it seemed that he was given a room with a revolving door. We had visits from doctors, nurses, social workers, case workers, and admission representative all with important information regarding Anthony’s care.

On the second day a doctor’s consultation was arranged to discuss the type of leukemia, protocols, scenarios, and clinical trials. There was a lot of pressure to enroll in a clinical trial but we wanted everything laid out the table first. As the parent critical thinking really played a part of the decision we made regarding Anthony’s care. We wanted to make an inform decision so we did some research. Although the doctors explained the protocol and the clinical trial we wanted the written plan. This allowed us to do a side by side comparison, give copies to family and friends in the medical field and come up with questions. Comparison of the plan were broken...