美国国家公共电台 NPR Trendy Hospital Clothing To Make Cancer Patients Dress 'Well' Even When Unwell

 

LOURDES GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

Spending long stretches of time in the hospital can be emotionally draining. There's the loss of basic comforts, the sterile¹ environment, fluorescent² lights and indignities³, like those open-backed disposable gowns. To try and address this, Nikla Lancksweert developed a line of more stylish⁴ clothing for hospital patients. She told us the inspiration was very personal.

NIKLA LANCKSWEERT: My mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer when she was just 52 years old and suddenly plunged⁵ into the world of hospitals and medical treatment. And it was really notable to see how very quickly she lost her dignity. And it's not intentionally⁶ so. It's just if you're wearing the wrong clothes, and you have to be helped to dress and undress, then you might not want to go for a walk, which means you end up staying in your room. And you become sort of institutionalized incredibly quickly.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: So you went from thinking, I wish there were better clothing options for my mom to, I'm going to make better clothing options for my mom and people like her. How did that actually happen to start a clothing line?

LANCKSWEERT: I was lucky enough to meet Claire Robinson, whose own mother had breast cancer and who was experiencing much of the same issues that my mother had gone through. And then we realized that we needed to have somebody with real fashion design skills and not just determination. And so we were lucky enough to meet Fiona McGreal who wanted to help us come up with a set of designs that really work in hospital but that look completely normal. And that, for us, was the key thing - is that we wanted to de-stigmatize ill health.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: When you have to design clothing for patients, what has to be taken into consideration?

LANCKSWEERT: We worked with nurses to say OK, which parts of the body do you need to be able to get to? And so we came up with - for women, we have a back-opening dress, which is actually the closest thing to a hospital gown. But you would never guess it. I've worn it in the playground. I've worn it to the supermarket. But it has all that ease of opening in that it opens at the back. And it also has openings down the arms and a very discreet⁷ opening to the stomach.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Why is it important to have patients feeling better about the way that they look?

LANCKSWEERT: Well, if you feel self-confident - and therefore in charge of your medical treatment - then you are much more likely to want to get up and move around and ultimately recover faster. But there's also a very physical aspect of it, which is if you don't do those things, if you just stay in bed, there's actually a higher risk of infection. And you lose your muscle tone, which makes walking ultimately harder. So your hospital stay becomes longer.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: You called the company after your mother.

LANCKSWEERT: Yeah.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: What do you think she'd think of what you've done?

LANCKSWEERT: I think she would be amazed. (Laughter) I have had nothing to do with the fashion world, and I don't think I'm known particularly for being fashionable. But in fact, Inga was my mother's name. But it's only afterwards that I realized looking it up that it actually means a hero's daughter. And that's very much how we feel - that this concept is in honor of the heroes in our life. And I hope it brings a great deal of comfort and dignity to others and just break this vicious cycle that patients often find themselves in.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Nikla Lancksweert is the co-founder of the clothing company INGA Wellbeing. Thank you so much for being with us.

LANCKSWEERT: Thank you.

1 sterile   

adj.不毛的，不孕的，无菌的，枯燥的，贫瘠的

参考例句：

• This top fits over the bottle and keeps the teat sterile.这个盖子严实地盖在奶瓶上，保持奶嘴无菌。
• The farmers turned the sterile land into high fields.农民们把不毛之地变成了高产田。

2 fluorescent   

adj.荧光的，发出荧光的

参考例句：

• They observed the deflections of the particles by allowing them to fall on a fluorescent screen.他们让粒子落在荧光屏上以观察他们的偏移。
• This fluorescent lighting certainly gives the food a peculiar color.这萤光灯当然增添了食物特别的色彩。

3 indignities   

n.侮辱，轻蔑( indignity的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The soldiers who were captured suffered many indignities at the hands of the enemy. 被俘的士兵在敌人手中受尽侮辱。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• What sort of indignities would he be forced to endure? 他会被迫忍受什么样的侮辱呢？ 来自辞典例句

4 stylish   

adj.流行的，时髦的；漂亮的，气派的

参考例句：

• He's a stylish dresser.他是个穿着很有格调的人。
• What stylish women are wearing in Paris will be worn by women all over the world.巴黎女性时装往往会引导世界时装潮流。

5 plunged   

v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降

参考例句：

• The train derailed and plunged into the river. 火车脱轨栽进了河里。
• She lost her balance and plunged 100 feet to her death. 她没有站稳，从100英尺的高处跌下摔死了。

6 intentionally   

ad.故意地，有意地

参考例句：

• I didn't say it intentionally. 我是无心说的。
• The local authority ruled that he had made himself intentionally homeless and was therefore not entitled to be rehoused. 当地政府裁定他是有意居无定所，因此没有资格再获得提供住房。

7 discreet   

adj.(言行)谨慎的；慎重的；有判断力的

参考例句：

• He is very discreet in giving his opinions.发表意见他十分慎重。
• It wasn't discreet of you to ring me up at the office.你打电话到我办公室真是太鲁莽了。