Adik Yok Shan - The Sorry State of Our Doctors

Do you still remember about one-month old baby girl that lost her hand due to negligence by one doctor in Hospital Tengku Ampuan Rahimah in 2007 (you may want to read here)? Yes, Adik Yok Shan will turn 3 years old this year. Look at how cheerful she is in the above photo during the recent CNY, as featured in TheStarOnline here, despite that she is one arm less. I know she will grow resilient and for what the doctor has taken away from her, may we give her better chances in life.

"When babies look beyond you and giggle, maybe they're seeing angels" ~ Quoted in The Angels' Little Instruction Book by Eileen Elias Freeman, 1994

Have you read about my Third Angel being hospitalised early this month here?

Well, he was warded in the same hospital - this is such a derelict, over-populated hospital and that makes it the best place to train budding doctors (that's what Pak Busu, father to my Little Women of Penang, told me). It is such a shame - a state declared as Developed State by one botoxed-guy in 2005 (self-declared apparently), having such a poor hospital in its Royal Town.

I was enraged when my sis-in-law told me that my Third Angel had his antibiotic tube up on his head because the doctors couldn't find his vessels anywhere else. Shish! I told her to tell the doctors that if anything happens to him as a result of that, we would sue them.

So, I asked my Pak Busu - aren't doctors supposed to be trained well in getting the needles into blood vessels? He told me, "Nope". Woo. That's alarming if a doctor could not do it right! It's like an art, not anyone could perform. What?

I am aware that it is not an easy task to find a vessel when one is being hospitalised (yes, we get scared and all our vessels start to constrict) and it is even more arduous when one is vertically-challenged like my Third Angel. But, why can't the medical schools teach their students where and how to under such circumstances? Alamak!

I accompany my parents to see their doctors at the government hospitals every now and then and most of the time, they would be asked questions as if it was their first time there when the files are in front of the doctor's eyes. And most of the time, I would probe them with leading questions (of course after getting preliminary opinion from my Chu and Pak Busu) because the kind of questions they asked my parents could be misleading and I know I have to get them to stay on the straight line. Thank God, there are a few great doctors that go beyond their line of duties to deal with their patients like Mr. H and Mr. Cyril, and not forgetting my Chu and Pak Busu.

Maybe you would say in your heart, "kalau nak servis bagus, pergi la hospital swasta!". For me, that's an easy escape for ones who could afford (we could but my dad is a pensioner, so why not use the benefits he's entitled to) but I am more concerned about those people who can't (do you know that our poverty level has increased lately?)? If anything happen to them, would anyone bother to investigate? Why should we allow such dismal performance to continue at the expense of our taxes? For me, we need to do the right things right the first time. Ini dah 52 tahun merdeka dan berlaku dekat Negeri Maju (dia kata)!

"A baby is God's opinion that the world should go on" ~ Carl Sandburg

Hence, shouldn't we get this world go on accordingly, not just filling it with activities that mean nothing, so that there will be no more cases like bubbly Adik Yok Shan?

I always make a point to do something to anyone as if I am doing it for my loved ones. Will you, Doc?