When I was seven years old, I remember my dad sitting down with me to have a conversation with my sister and I . He told us that mom had a sickness called breast cancer that would be a very long process to get through but that she was going to get through it. At that time being, my sister and I had no idea what cancer was due to our young age, and we thought nothing of it. I remember sitting next to my mom on the couch that night and she started to cry. I asked what was wrong and if she was in pain and she said she didn’t feel well from her being sick. I remember going to the hospital with my dad my mom and my sister for her check ups and then one day my dad told my sister and I that mom was going into surgery to help her get all better. After surgery when my mom was recovering I asked her if she was doing better and she, once again, started to cry. She said she was still very sick and many more treatments and surgeries were going to be needed. My dad told us she had stage 4 breast cancer since the doctors did not catch it in time. This is where the biomedicine system needs some improvement. As I got older and learned why her cancer got to a stage 4, it was because she went to two doctors before and said she was fine and didn’t have cancer. It wasn’t until weeks later that she insisted the doctor does more testing to her because she had a huge lump under her arm and she felt sick, and thats when they found out she had cancer and was going to need immediate surgery and treatments. If she did not go to that last doctor and insist she needed more tests done, she would have not been here with us today. Although, a positive of the biomedical system is that once they found out she had such a severe stage, they immediately treated her with the proper medicines and surgery. It shows how quickly they acted and how much they care.

This goes to show that the tests they do to you need to be looked at more carefully and if some illness or disease is even suspected the slightest bit, to not just say forget it and send the patient home and hope for the best as they did for my mom. Although, this also shows how quickly they act in emergency situations like this and how technology in her surgeries and lab testings helped her get through this faster.

The last doctor my mom went to did save her life. If she had not gone here she would have passed away. The cancer was already spreading throughout her body and she needed a double mastectomy. The thought that this doctor alone saved her life and gave her the immediate medical attention and treatments she needed really shows that this is one thing the biomedical system exceeds in.

One other downfall of the biomedicine involved in this situation is that they gave her chemo treatments that were too strong for her body. After every round of chemo she was coming home and her body was rejecting it. She was very drained and sick, and her primary doctor said that she did not need chemo this strong, so she called the doctor where she was getting her treatments and insisted on a lower dosage of the treatment. On top of my mom being weak from her surgeries and the cancer itself, the chemo was making her feel even more sick and way weaker. Cancer itself does more than enough damage to the body, but the chemo dosage she was receiving was just adding to that. The doctors that were giving her the chemo should have looked into the other possible dosages they could have given her and would have been just as effective. This is where the biomedicine system needs to improve in.

I know that the biomedical system is improving its flaws as of today and is doing everything to make it the best that it could be. This system will always be changing and improving and making changes daily as more research is done. Even though the biomedical system is great and saves many lives every day, it still fails sometimes and more research will need to be done.