Verbal First Aid: What You Say Can Be As Important As What You Do: Part 2

In part one of this three-part series, we looked at how words and images affect the body and recovery. Here’s how to test the theory in the field.

In the 1970s, psychiatrist M. Erik Wright created a pilot study on the effect of the right words on recovery, as described in Patient Communication for First Responders and EMS Personnel: The First Hour of Trauma by Donald Trent Jacobs, PhD. In what was called "The Kansas Experiment," Wright divided first responders into two groups. One utilized its customary mode of performance. The other followed these three steps set out by Wright:

• Minimize extraneous input. Move the victim away from distractions, such as hysterical relatives and those who might offer dire prognoses or ask such damaging questions such as, "Is he going to die?"
• Communicate this simple paragraph, word for word. The worst is over. We are taking you to the hospital. Everything is being made ready. Let your body concentrate on repairing itself and feeling secure. Let your heart, your blood vessels, everything, bring themselves into a state of preserving your life. Bleed just enough so as to cleanse the wound, and let the blood vessels close down so that your life is preserved. Your body weight, your body heat, everything, is being maintained. Things are being made ready in the hospital for you. We're getting there as quickly and safely as possible. You are now in a safe position. The worst is over.
• Eliminate unrelated conversation. The program was all about the words, what was and wasn't said, during an emergency. His protocol required only the recitation of the paragraph above.

The results of the study were decisive. Patients who were in serious danger or were not expected to recover, but to whom this paragraph was said, surprised the first responders and emergency room physicians by doing much better than expected. Wright reported the only downside was the difficulty for the group of first responders using the protocol not to spoil the experiment by telling the others to try it, too.

While it is not necessarily recommended that you memorize the paragraph, it does succinctly demonstrate the protocol. Establish rapport. Reassure, but be realistic. Make therapeutic/healing suggestions, and continue the rapport and sense of safety.

What You Say Is What Is Seen

Imagery is "the natural language of the unconscious mind," Dr. Emmett E. Miller explains. What you say to a person in this trance-like state is often visualized, seen by the mind in pictures.

Imagine yourself on a very hot day, thirsty and dry, opening the refrigerator and reaching for a beautiful, juicy half of an orange that's sitting on the top shelf. You know how delicious it will taste, how the juice will soothe and quench your thirst. You remove the plastic that is keeping it moist and you put it to your lips. You bite in and then realize it isn't an orange at all, but a lemon. It is bitter. It is powerful. It is making your poor mouth pucker.

Notice what happens to the saliva in your mouth! And you're not even in that altered state. What we think about, we picture on some level and the body listens.

Now notice what happens if you say to someone, "Think about any animal in the kingdom of animals, any animal but elephants. Don't think about African elephants with their huge tusks and fan-like ears, and don't think about mother elephants and baby elephants…" Well, in fact, all that person can think of in response to that request, is elephants, because there is no other picture one's mind can grasp onto in the sentence, "Don't think about elephants."

So now imagine a grandpa walks across the room and falls down, holding his chest in fear and panic. His granddaughter, who loves him so much, runs over and says, "Grandpa! Grandpa! Don't die!"

He was only thinking about the pain. But now he thinks, "Did someone say die? Could I die?" And then the fibrillations worsen, even though granddaughter's words were motivated by love and concern.