Callum: Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English, I’m Callum and with me today is
Jennifer. Hello Jennifer.
Jennifer: Hello Callum
Callum: Now Jennifer, would you like to help me with a little experiment?
Jennifer: Sure, what do you need me to do?
Callum: Just stay there, don’t move.
(Sound of slap)
Jennifer: OW! Why did you do that?
Callum: Did it hurt?
Jennifer: Of course it did!
Callum: All in the name of science and learning English Jennifer because today we’re
talking about pain! And I wanted to find out if you have a high pain threshold.
Jennifer: Well you could have just asked – you didn’t have to hit me!
Callum: Ah, yes, I suppose I could have. Sorry about that. Anyhow, moving on, here’s
today’s question.
An anaesthetic is a drug or gas used to stop pain, particularly during medical
procedures, but which language does the word come from?
Greek, Latin or Old Norse? What do you think Jennifer?
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Jennifer: Well I think there are a lot of words from the Greek language when it comes to
medicine and things like that so I’ll say Greek.
Callum: OK, we’ll find out if you’re right at the end of the programme. Now Jennifer, do
you think pain is a good thing.
Jennifer: Well, I’d rather not have it, but I suppose it does tell us that something is wrong.
Callum: Do you think it would be better not to be able to feel pain.
Jennifer: Well I think that would be great, particularly after the introduction to this
programme!
Callum: Steve Pete from Washington State in the United States was born with a rare
condition which means he has never been able to feel physical pain. He was
interviewed on BBC radio about his condition. When was it first diagnosed?
Steve Pete
Well I was diagnosed with it at a young age. I was a toddler when I began chewing pretty
much the whole front portion of my tongue off.
Callum: So Jennifer, when was it diagnosed?
Jennifer: Steve says that it was diagnosed when he was a toddler – which means when he
was very young and just starting to walk, so he’s maybe 12 months, 18 months
old, something like that.
Callum: Children that age love to chew on things, don’t they?
Jennifer: Yes, they do, and in Steve’s case it was his own tongue that he chewed on!
Callum: Ouch! His parents then took him to a paediatrician, which is a children’s doctor.
Listen now to what this doctor did to test Steve.
Steve Pete
My parents took me to my paediatrician where he took a lighter, placed it underneath my foot,
held it there for a moment until my skin began to blister and then he had a pretty good idea of
what it was that my condition was.
Callum: So what did the doctor do?
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Jennifer: He used a lighter to put fire under the toddler’s foot until it started to burn.
Callum: And because the child didn’t react in any way he was able to figure out that he
had this rare medical condition which is called Congenital Analgesia.
Steve’s brother shares this condition, so what kinds of problems did it cause
them when they were growing up?
Steve Pete
We were always getting into trouble, we kind of pushed things to the extreme. We’d always
end up with broken bones, we’d be visiting the hospitals frequently, wearing casts throughout
most of our childhood. So it was quite difficult.
Callum: Jennifer, what was his childhood like?
Jennifer: He says it was difficult. They made regular visits to hospitals and spent a lot of
time wearing casts – a cast is the thick plaster protection that is put on to
broken arms and legs. They got lots of broken bones because they didn’t feel
pain.
Callum: So they didn’t know when to stop doing something which could be damaging
their body. Have you ever had to wear a cast?
Jennifer: Luckily I’ve had no broken bones so no, I’ve never worn a cast.
Callum: I’ve never had a cast either, but I did have a major operation this summer and
there was a lot of pain after it. But because of the pain I wasn’t able to move
around very much, but that was good, because it meant it gave my body time to
heal. If I hadn’t had that pain, I would probably have caused even more
damage.
Jennifer: I find it hard to imagine what it must be like to never feel physical pain.
Callum: I know, and in the same way Steve Pete finds it hard to imagine what it must be
like to feel pain.
Steve Pete
I’ve never really tried to imagine what it would be like to feel physical pain. I do understand
the emotional pain part though. But when it comes to empathy which is kind of interesting it is
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hard for me to feel sorry for an individual who’s going through a painful situation when it’s
regarding physical pain. I do have difficulty with that.
Callum: He talks about the difficulty he has with empathy. What’s empathy Jennifer?
Jennifer: Empathy is the ability to understand someone else’s feelings and appreciate
what that they are experiencing. Because he can’t feel physical pain, he doesn’t
really feel sorry for people in painful situations.
Callum: After hearing about the problems of this condition, do you think you’d still like
not to feel pain?
Jennifer: Well I still don’t like feeling pain but I think after hearing this I realise that it’s
very useful. What about you?
Callum: I agree with that. Sometimes I would like the pain to be less but I think on
balance it’s good to have it.
Well just about time to go but before we do the answer to today’s question,
which was about the language origin of the word anaesthetic.
Which language does the word come from? Greek, Latin or Old Norse? Jennifer,
you said?
Jennifer: I thought it was Greek.
Callum: And you were absolutely right, well done, congratulations with that.
That’s all from us today. Thanks very much Jennifer.
Jennifer: Thanks.
Callum: And I should say in case anyone was worried, no presenters were harmed during
the making of this programme. Goodbye.
Jennifer: Goodbye.
