death of a medical student....

I was parking my car outside the lion govt. clinic and heard the news from the radio regarding a Malaysian intern from my alma mater who committed suicide after assaulting another staff and burning down a locker room….

After I settle down in the clinic, I had glanced through the net and got a small piece of information.

My last encounter with intern was 8 years ago when I did my medical posting of haemato-oncology posting in my alma mater university hospital. Unlike internship in my old days when the intern had to trace data and prepare for rounds, the intern’s life was free and easy. During one of the night calls, the nurse had called me at 3 am and said, “ Sorry, Dr L, I could not locate the intern and could you please manage this feverish patient for me…”. Absconded from night shift ? well, that was an easy life…

Internship had changed a lot as they had no license and there is nothing such as a provisional registration here in Taiwan, as to avoid medico-legal problem, they are excused from many duty since then. Thence the govt. had changed the rule and modified the structure of medical education. They had change d the 7 years med school (incl. 1 year of internship) to 6 years of med school only. And the 1 year PGY training would be extended to 2 years. The total years of studying + training prior to 1^st year resident training is unchanged. But a medical graduate had to pass his part 2 license examination before entering the PGY1 training.

According to one of the report, the victim, our junior L, is currently at his last few day of internship however due to his poor performance, he was unable to receive his diploma as he had failed his internship and had to re-do it next year. He had been troubled by adaption and financial problem in the past and taken 1 year leave from his study few years ago. Some are lucky to graduate and change his carrier path but some….

Condolence to his family…..

I had never wanted my kids to follow my path, I had told many of my friend, “ One person in the family suffered is enough……..”