Communication Breakdown

What can be more frustrating or upsetting than for a nurse not to be able to communicate with his or her patient? Or the other way around for that matter.

On the medical brigade to Honduras, I learned to take posture, facial expressions and actions into consideration while assessing patients. The people of Honduras speak Spanish, and I do not.
I was able to assist the dentist with extractions and we had a young teenage boy come into her chair. We did not have a translator because the dentist knew enough Spanish to communicate what she needed to with the patients. So she spoke to the boy in Spanish and asked him to open his mouth so she could examine him. While doing this she was also making hand motions, so the boy opened his mouth. Once the examine was finished, she told the boy she had to pull 4 of his teeth, but she would give him a needle so that it didn't hurt him. The boy just shook his head. We both assumed that he understood what she was telling him. I loaded the syringes for the dentist and we got ready to start. The boy took one look at the needles and almost jumped out of the chair. He looked scared to death. We both tried to talk to him, with me not knowing very much Spanish, it was quite difficult to try and calm him. I know most kids and adults too are not a lover of the dentist or the needles, but this boy was really acting like he didn't know what was happening.
It turned out that the boy was deaf. Both of his ears were closed in and he could not hear a word the dentist was telling him. He knew that the dentist would be there and would be able to help him, but didn't know how it would be happening. We were able to find a local that could communicate with him and help him understand the procedure that needed to be done. He had his teeth pulled and was very cooperative.
During the time that we didn't know that he was deaf and he was really scared, my heart sank. I felt absolutely terrible that I could not help this poor boy. We kept a translator close by for the rest of the trip!