Popis: |
In La Réunion, as in other overseas regions, people requiring highly technical treatment are transferred to hyper-specialised hospital departments in mainland France. This therapeutic mobility in the French overseas territories takes place within a national political boundary and is financed by the French government. Nevertheless, it also leads people to cross geographical and cultural boundaries, distancing them from their family, social, and cultural environments. This article proposes a “thick description” of different consequences of therapeutic mobility in the French overseas territories by recounting the “lived experience” of patients who have undergone a haematopoietic stem cell transplantation. This experience is shaped by the financial issues implicit in remote care, by logistical and administrative problems unforeseen or unthought of by the institution, by the mobility skills required, and by the suffering and disorientation caused by distance. Parenthood is one of the major issues in the health transfer experience. |