Being in HR

Being in HR has ups and downs, we get involved in the happy news such as marriages and births of children but we also get involved in the sad news. The family losses, the medical interventions, the deaths by accident, suicide, illness.

Today, I have just been informed that the daughter of a colleague in another department is suffering from a rare genetic disorder, so rare (1 in 500,000 children) that I won't mention what it is here as a search by him would probably throw up this post. She started off at age 5 with diabetes, then came news of the disintegration of her optic nerve, now it's urinary damage. When the doctors added these together, they came up with a diagnosis that has chilled us all to the bone. The little girl will celebrate her 10th birthday next month and the prognosis is that she won't live beyond 30. And the years between now and then will be filled with a steady deterioration of her body, including her nervous system.

The parents are devastated because so very sadly, she has this disease due to a recessive gene they both possess but which exhibits only mild symptoms, if any, for the parents. The horrible feelings of self-blame are obviously running rampant with them. And there lies in hospital right now, a little, almost-10-year-old girl, sinking into the depression which is another symptom of the disease.

My role will be to help in whatever way I can emotionally and in the administration of their medical benefits. Thankfully I believe our insurance will mean that is one worry they won't have. My colleague is off work for the week ahead, at least, and here I sit trying to plug work flow holes and start on the medical paperwork. In the weeks to come, I'll be sitting with him, offering my professional and personal support. And right now I'm struck by the memory of the joy of this first-time dad presenting me with her birth certificate, just less than 10 years ago.

My heart aches.