Incompatibilities of professional and religious ideology: problems of medical management and outcome in a case of pediatric meningitis.

Abstract The hospital admission of a 9-month-old black child for treatment of possible meningitis began a 3 1 2 -month encounter of divergent ideologies between the family (devout members of a Holiness Church) on one hand and orthodox health practitioners on the other. These contrasting beliefs led to increasing estrangement among those who had “natural” and/or “legal” sanction to work in the best interests of the child. The struggle ended with a psychiatric evaluation of the mother as “paranoid schizophrenic”. This paper describes the medical and social history as seen through the eyes of the medical team and social worker. It suggests that their interpretation of the situation was influenced by certain values central to the culture of which the orthodox medical system is a part, as well as by others which were learned during medical training. The religious beliefs of the mother are utilized to explain her behavior during the acute stage of the child's illness. Finally, an approach is offered which, in a future situation of like nature, might lead to better communication and greater understanding on the part of both family and medical team.