The truth

It was a dull shift… I had glanced through the web and found something which I don’t usually read from theStar. Indeed, my in laws had told me that theStar, the Chinese newspaper over the net is unreliable as most of them “write” for the government. I had come across some article over Malaysia Chronicles and Free Malaysia Today. Wow, it is truly interesting.

The 4 letter word started with F had almost burst out from my mouth when I saw the “Malay first, Malaysian seconds” phrase. Indeed the Red-white Kris Party had decided not to rely on the non-Malay voter. They had wanted to lure the rest of the Malay to support them and aim for the victory in GE13.

I had heard a story from my uncle during my stay in Malaysia. There was this consultant who worked for one of the racists in the past. There was this state development plan designed by the consultant, the consultant had submitted a plan with a budget. The racist was not satisfied with the figure and given the consultant a handsome figure to lay him off. The racist hired another consultant and the figure was 30x the amount…well, gods know where the extra money had gone…

It is eye aching when I saw the 1Malaysia slogan and more irritating and blood rising when I saw the 1 Malay phrase….

It is time…. Too bad I couldn’t join the group to flip the table as we had decided to go back early in January for Yun’s IC instead of the GE13. 

Yun is darn worry about her IC as this is a symbolic of growing up for her and Xian is very disappointed as he would be the only one without IC in the family…..

 

3000m above....

We had taken another trip to the National Park here in Taiwan during this summer holiday. It was a camping trip, 5d4n. The longest camping trip ever and one of the camp site had no electricity supply.

We had traveled to the highest road in Taiwan. During the trip, I had climbed the 2 peaks of the He Huan Mountain. Both of them were above 3000m. The air was so thin and I had to rest on every few steps.

The 1^st peak was a challenging one as we need to climbs stairs like road to ascend to the top. All of us made it to the tops…. Our 1^st experience of climbing mountain of more than 3000m. It was a special experience for everyone of us; the climb was complicated by the thin air above 3000m. We had to stop every few steps to gasp for air. I had seen many film regarding mountain climbing and I finally realized the feeling of shortness of breath on every steps…..

The next day, I climbed the 2^nd peak alone due to the rain; Ving and kids waited me in Fefe. I donned the rain coat and ascend to the peak , praising the LORD all the way up. During the ascend, I was so afraid that I suffered from a heart attack but still with the grace of LORD, I made it….

Each of us learns something from the trip. I am truly happy as I could take my children to experience something which couldn’t be bought by money – although money is still a must for these trips…..I am glad I am still energetic enough to take them up to the top….

Quality of care...

I had always considered the diagnosis and management of acute appendicitis as a index for an competent ED doctor...careful hx and PE would lead one to the diagnosis...

I had a cousin who is very much older than me… my granny and my mother’s eldest sister got pregnant almost the same period… My cousin was 20+ years older than me, a story regarding of him was shared amount us during our childhood.

We were warned not to do any sport after meals as one would get appendicitis (which is not true…). My eldest cousin had a big vertical scar across his belly. The story goes like this; he had suffered from abdominal pain and later seen at various clinics and he was only sent for ops after generalized peritoneal sign was noted. The ops was a major one as appendix had ruptured….

I had read over the net about this poor Indian chap who suffered from abdominal pain lately…

http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2012/09/24/ibu-kesal-dengan-layanan-buruk-hospital/
9/5 pt noted with diarrhea, abd pain, vomiting

9/7    9am seen in Klinik kesihatan - discharge

9/7 8pm seen in ED Seremban GH – discharge

9/8 ?   seen in private clinic

9/9 8pm seen in ED Seremban GH admitted to ? medical ward

9/10 9am diagnosed as ? appendicitis

9/10 4pm transferred to ? surgical ward and sent to OR…

It is queer that no doctor had ever mentioned the possibilities of peritoneal sign during the consultation. The Medical officers in Klinik Kesihatan ,ED Seremban GH and the private clinic doctor had discharged the patient despite of noted the pain and symptom for over 2-3 days. The 4^th visit to ED and the medical officer still admitted a patient with peritoneal sign to medical ward is a beyond standard medical care.

Could just shock my head…. Is it because those medical officers did not receive any specialist training making them incompetent or was the patient pain so non-specific.

There is still a lot of improvement for the health care in Malaysian..

Provider course re-visited....

 

I still felt depress over the failing of the instructor course… My ACLS provider cert had expired 1 months after the instructor course and I did not take up any course later… It was a must for medical staff working in the critical unit to hold a valid ACLS provider certificate – requirement for the hospital evaluation association. I had finally decided to take up one recently(the university’s hospital requested a valid cert if I wanted to work as a research fellow there)

I took a course organized by an education group in Kaohsiung. 1.5 days course. A small class consist of 1 lecturer (yeap, 1 man show) and 15 students. I am the only physician and the rest of them were 1 nurses (13 female and 1 male). The lecturer is one of the emergency physician in a local medical center. The course was solely designed for nurses and it was very bored for me especially for a person who been through the hellish instructor course….

Well, to make the things worse was I had to do my night shift at the end of the 1^st day course. I make it in time to the hospital and told Lem to relieve me 1 hr earlier the next day.

I was lucky as the call was darn good… I had a full 3 hours sleep…

Despite of the sleep, I was still sleepy during the morning. Nodding and wandering.. an impolite act, but I was too tire…

The was a long strip of food shop near the class. I got into a Ramen Shop and regretted my choice 15 mins later as it taste just like one of the instant noodle and it cost 80NTs....

The paper test was simple and I completed it in 20 mins. The skill station was even more simple and I left the class by 1:30pm.

I went to JK lane and tried to get a red HTC J for Ving. The initial visit at the famour SH 3C wholesale was unsuccessful, they had 1 red and 1 black but the red one was pre-ordered by someone. I turned to another HTC shop and got Ving the android phone…

The drive back home was tiresome but I still manage to make it…. After the test, I am quite sure that I would go for the instructor course selection progrem next year in Taipei....

Gain and loss....

Everything was smooth until the gastroenterologist department informed me that I had to report by 1^st of October and unfortunately due to the processing time of the university’s hospital, I could only report for duty on the 15^th of October. The conclusion was: I am not going to be eligible for the board examination 2 years later ….

After some communication and string pulling, I decided to give up and delay the training for another year.

I had no time to feel sad nor moan as

the second round of negotiation begun immediately ; the management wanted me to stay. They offered me a 3 year contract. Same salary of course…. With the frustration feeling, I was brave enough to asked for a 8% raise and after some unfruitful bargaining, I got what I want…I did not compromise this time . the hospital is at the verge of success and failure as the management was unable to hire any one recent few years…. I knew they are desperate and nothing much could be done…

Well, life was never fair but still, I got something. I thank GOD for looking after me and preparing me for the training. With the new increment, I could save up a handsome amount and looking forward for the training next year….

At the current dark age of economic regression, it is mercy from the lord that I still got my raise….

Money or fame ?

 

I had read the news about this young chap name Winson Seow over the net lately…. A young man who done some medical relief work in some war zone. He had shown some photograph of himself, donning a surgical suit performing surgery over the net. The news was spread and massively reported by local newspaper in Malaysia. He had even attended several television interviews. He had published a book regarding his work and fund was raise for his act. During his interview, he had claimed that he had graduated from the prestige Peking University Faculty of medicine and he held UK qualification of trauma surgeon and emergency physician plus a degree in psychology….However he is only 26 year old… At least 6 years of post graduate medical training to obtain such qualification and provided that he held a GMC recognized medical degree(Peking University is not on the list…) and secure a training post in UK. That means he graduated from medical school at the age of 20, and he entered medical school at the age of 15. That would make him a genius….such genius in Malaysia should have been reported by the local newspaper at the time he enter medical school….

I remembered the 1^st Malaysian genius – Z, he had entered MIT at the age of 12. Chinese entrepreneur had sponsored a large amount of money for him to complete his course. At the age of 15 he was accepted into Cornell University for his PhD, he received his doctorate at the age of 21. He returned to Malaysia 4 years later, however he had suffered from depression since then. 5 years later, he was admitted to a local government hospital and passed away on the next days…Such genius would be reported and never forgotten.

Some of the friends and ex-classmate had seen enough of his “lagak” and had started a anti-Winson Seow FB page over the net. His qualification was dug up and he had submerged from the surface of the earth. His father had instead shown up to apologize for his son’s act. 1+ months ago, his father a(Chinese medicine practitioner ) had defended his son that Winson is not opening a clinic nor charging anyone medical fee, he joined the medical relief work under contract of a company which would later sponsor his study as a medical doctor later on and such allegation who damage his reputation and affecting his contract and sponsorship later.

Well, sound just like another irresponsible parents I met in ED- just riding a bike in Kampung, need a license ka ? Father supporting lies of his son -à wrong kind of love….

The young chap had attended multiple interviews, talk and enjoying people calling him doctor and yet he claimed that he doesn't pursue fame nor money.....the donation was wired into his own account instead of a public account....

I had a junior who didn't practice medicine, he graduated from med school and further his study in Life and Death Issue and obtained a master degree. He had used his medical background giving talk back in Malaysia regarding the issue of life and death. In my point of view, that was crap..as he had never practice medicine and never struggle within his subconsicous regarding patient's life and death. But lately, I had read his news and he had omitted his background and use the title of Dharma Lecturer instead... well, a person with a doctorate is more convincing....  

Still couldn’t understand why bright student wanted to become doctor ? is it for the job satisfaction or the money ?

To be truth, I knew a doctor could earn a handsome income and that was one of the factors which influence my choice. To provide a better life for my parents and my family…