peer pressure

it's that time of the year where there'll be a string of kiddie birthday parties, as a few of them were borned in the months of april & may. yesterday's was the 1st.

A, the birthday girl told my son this: if you don't bring 2 presents, i don't friend you!

she made this demand because her other best friend E would be bringing 2, but what A didn't realise was that E will be going with a sibling, hence 2 presents. naturally, the boy innocently asked the wife for 2 presents too, but he accepted the explanation why he'll only need bring 1.

kids sure experience peer pressure at a tender age!!

anyway, the bunch of them had a great time:

musical chairs...except for a boy who's not into activities;


getting wet after the water balloons have been thrown.

man in the mirror?

today he showed his true colours again.

he demonstrated his gung-ho antics, trying to execute a procedure he was not properly trained to do...when he should have solicited his subspecialty colleague for assistance;

he belittled his assistants when they brought him equipment he was not familiar with....when he knows deep inside him that without them, he could not proceed;

he started blaming the patient for presenting with a difficult problem....when he should realise that this patient (& many others) will contribute to his next overseas vacation;

would you like this person to be your doctor?

i hope...no, i pray that i was not staring into a mirror.

lipstick

i wore this clean shirt to church this morning & some time during the sermon, the wife noticed this strange lipstick mark at the back of the shirt - strange because she's certain it's not one of her colours. i frankly told her i didn't know how it got there & i was sure she will interrogate me after the service.

oddly, she didn't mention it again until we were home & having lunch. she said a middle-aged member had made it a point to tell her that earlier in the morning, she accidentally walked into me while she was in a hurry, & transferred some of her lipstick onto my shirt. i remembered that incident but didn't give much thought to it as i considered it trivial.

i wonder what would have happened if this lady didn't inform the wife about it?
(i also wonder how the wife can notice the lipstick mark when she's supposed to be listening to the sermon)

so, girls, ladies & wives, sometimes (& only sometimes) when your man can't explain the lipstick on their external clothing, give them the benefit of the doubt, ok?

the call

he's probably the chubbiest 5-mth-old i have seen - weighing in at a massive 10kg. unfortunately he has sustained a bleed in the brain - i know, you're thinking, "oh no! not another brain surgery post!", but bear with me for a bit.

the difference is that it's very unusual for a 5-mth-old to have a bleed in the brain when there is no evidence of trauma. he is the long-awaited 1st-born in the family & had been cared for by his own mother & granny. after 5 days of not feeding well, the parents were shocked to know their precious little boy has a brain clot.

the surgery was a success & the father decided to go to Bangalore in India to offer prayers, perhaps for thanksgiving or for a full recovery to health, to the deity of his faith. after hurriedly obtaining a visa, he took a flight just today. i wished him a safe trip.

i did wonder what i would do in his position. it's perfectly understandable that desparate people do desparate things. probably not for me are the visa & airline ticket. maybe just a call to Jer 33:3

'Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.'

the aftermath

it's exactly 1 week after the general election, & the aftermath had been variously called:

1) tsunami

2) whitewash

3) brave new world

but as a star wars fan, i'd like to call it A New Hope:


of course, as current events unfold, you can expect a backlash from the ruling party at the next general election, which appropriately should be labelled, in starwars-speak, as


may the force be with you.

the first stone

apparently, the 1st stone had been cast.

the pain i endured is only exceeded by the grief i feel for this person - sadly, a born-again believer who possesses many virtues, which unfortunately, do not include being charitable or magnanimous. i pray this person takes counsel from James:

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 1:22

i also received this sms:
"For one must not love sometime only but always. And let not men's sin dishearten you - love a man even in his sin for that love is a likeness of the divine kind & is the summit of love on earth"

the wife sent it.

fall from grace

history has rich examples of people who has gone down the slippery slope - from a position of respect & esteem, only to plunge into the pit of depravity. from perfection to sin.

we all know about adam & eve, & king saul from biblical times.

currently, it's the ex-health minister & the judiciary, & in the last decade, an democrat ex-US president & a string of japanese ex-prime ministers.

but, yesterday, I fell from grace.

and i'm encouraged that no one has yet casted the 1st stone.

Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.
Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.
psalm 51:1, 2

**image :Michelangelo's Temptation and Fall from the Sistine Chapel Ceiling**

gift of life

it's the 1st of 3 or 4 blood donation campaigns that the hospital organises annually in conjunction with the general hospital to boost up blood bank supplies. (note: private hospitals still get their stored blood from the govt hospitals)

i have been donating since i was a freshie at varsity & i consider this national service. in addition to fulfilling a social responsibility, there have been reports that blood donors may derive health benefits from this. (read here & here)

but recent stringent guidelines have prevented me (& many others) from giving since 2003 due to the fear of transmission of the so-called mad cow disease, a condition which gripped europe at its height in the 1990s. (read here & here).

unfortunately for me (& the wife & daughter) british beef is as juicy & tender as you can get anywhere. if i start writing crazy or bizarre, you'll know why.

but that shouldn't stop others from doing their bit for society. 60 pints of blood were collected today, so that's at least 60 people who'll benefit from this act of kindness - a gift of life.

PS. i forgot to mention that having donated 18 times, i now am entitled to FREE out-patient treatment & 2nd class ward admission for 2 whole years? ain't that grand or what??!!

an eye for an eye

as the nation welcomed The Rat, i know of 2 families who will not join in the festivities.

a 27-yr-old insurance agent was admitted in coma. apparently he had woken up that morning feeling faint, then had breakfast & suddenly lost consciousness. a brain scan revealed a massive blood clot, probably caused by a ruptured abnormal blood vessel, called an arterio-venous malformation, or AVM for short.

although surgery to remove the clot was successful, the initial damage caused by the clot had been substantial. he did not regain consciousness & was pronounced brain dead 10 days later.

in a surprising twist of event, his father consented for both his eyes to be donated for corneal transplant. that the deceased had an unquenchable thirst for life was undeniable - even after vital support had been withdrawn, his heart resiliently pumped on for a good 20 mins...

....before giving up.....

....as if defiantly declaring that his time should not have ended at his prime.

i pray that through his eyes, the two recipients will see that kindness, goodness & mercy still abound in this depraved world.

the other family will mourn the passing of their 21-yr-old daughter, involved in a head-on collision on new year's eve with another car allegedly driven a drunken driver. the latter died at the scene of the accident but the girl was admitted to hospital with severe head & abdominal injuries. she underwent emergency surgery but succumbed 4 days later.

2 tragedies,
2 young lives snatched away,
not of their own doing,
but yet others gamble frivolously with theirs.

why kids should help out at home

1st & foremost, they help lighten the load of their parents, esp if they don't have a live-in maid.

2nd, these chores, when done together, facilitate bonding between parents & the kids.

3rdly, the kids may just teach the parents a thing or two.

for instance, the boy was helping me wash the car today. while i'm using the sponge, he used a plastic watering can with a long spout.....for those hard-to-reach places.


i rest my case. (i hope the ABS still works!!).

Sons are a heritage from the LORD,
children a reward from him.
psalm 127:3

to err is human

i must have said or done something to alienate a colleague at work. this i heard from a 3rd person, in whom this colleague had confided.

why would he bring his woes to another person when he could have easily clarified the issue with me? esp. when i am such an easy person (ahem!) to talk to? after all, there aren't many rifts a few rounds of beer can't heal.

to cut a week-long story short, i did what i thought was the (morally? diplomatically?) right thing, given the uneasy circumstances, & extended apologies to the "aggrieved" party.

the prominent advocate of peace & non-violence, mahatma gandhi, once remarked:
"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong."

i hope my aggrieved colleague is also a believer of peace & non-violence.

moreover, to forgive is divine.

return to innocence

yesterday, i resigned from my current practice at a private hospital to rejoin what used to be called University Hospital but is now known by its upmarket honorific University Malaya Medical Centre.

when i turned up at my old department, it seemed like nothing has changed & the usual suspects were all there to welcome me home. yeah, i felt right at home here.

which should not be surprising because this is where it all started for me - 1st as a starry-eyed impressionable med student & then years later as a cynical med officer pursuing specialist training.

then i woke up.

it had been a dream alright, but could the scenario be more than just a subconscious & unspoken desire festering in the background?

perhaps, secretly petitioning for a return to innocence? only time will tell.....

Don't care what people say
Just follow your own way
Don't give up and use the chance
To return to innocence.

That's not the beginning of the end
That's the return to yourself
The return to innocence
(return to innocence by enigma)

growing old?

i like routine - because i generally dislike surprises. maybe i'm a control freak - i need to know what to expect & to take hold of the situation. that's why it's the same routine every lunar new year.

Eve : reunion dinner with parents, siblings & their families.

1st day : receive relatives in the morning & then visit friends in the afternoon.

2nd day : spend a day out with the family. last year it was at Berjaya Time Square - the kids just love the theme park. this year it was at the Animal Safari at A'Famosa. they've got quite a good program going.

besides the bird show...



and animal show..




the other top attractions are the safari ride around the zoo..






and the main cowboy show...








yes, it was a commendable local effort to entertain the masses & certainly worth a day out. the boy was riding high .....

on an elephant, that is....

& messing with the natives.

and then, suddenly i felt that the new year celebrations are over for me. is it that we are all getting on & these celebrations do not matter much anymore?

or, am i just missing out on something (big?) in this life??

are we (really) criminals?

read this from alex's blog, today's Star & malaysian medical resources.

again this shows life's irony.

people who kill mongolians & kidnap children (& soon, also lawyers & judges who holiday together) are running around free while doctors in private practice, some of whom are barely making a decent living - i know because some are my friends - are being penalised heavily on minor offences. is there any one in private practice who doesn't feel strongly that the Private Healthcare Facilities and Services Act 1998 is way too draconian (for lack of a better word)?

yes, there are black sheep among us - i know because some are my friends, too!! - & by all means, the ministry of health should go after them. for others who commit minor offences, they should be punished accordingly, but a RM120k fine & in lieu a 3-mth jail term? was anyone maimed, kidnapped or killed?

hopefully, the new minister of health will restore some common sense in the enforcement of the Act, or even revise it, if need be.

or have we gone too far down the slippery slope?

safe journey home

radio stations are doing their part in promoting safe driving esp. during this festive season. the statistics include an accident every 18 secs & a death every 11 mins. sometimes it's really not our fault - the other driver is either dozing off at the wheel, or texting on the handphone, or is just plain reckless. the recent death of 3 young passengers travelling on a bus (read here and here) is testament to human folly.

how about pulling off stunts?

recently, a 16-yr-old girl came to hospital to have her external fixators (metal bars used to stabilise complicated fractures) removed. i remember her well, because she was here last year to have them inserted, together with a couple of screws. she was a back-seat passenger who had sustained a fractured pelvis in an accident. apparently the teen-age driver has recently got his driving licence & while on the road, the front passenger (another teenage boy) decided to do a stunt - he suddenly pulled on the hand-brake. the car skidded & crashed onto a tree - the driver died on the spot, she broke her pelvis at several places & was bedridden for 6 mths. as if to show how ironic life is, the prankster got away unscathed, & perhaps even without remorse as the girl revealed he didn't even visit her in hospital.

we can't stop others from speeding like crazy or prevent bad weather during travel. on our part, we can make sure that we have enough rest before driving, ensure all passengers buckle-up (including those in the back seats), our vehicles remain road-worthy, & that traffic rules are adhered to.

we can't avoid reckless motorists (nor falling rocks & oil slicks) but we can pray for travel mercy & divine protection.

drop by www.buscrashnomore.blogspot.com/ to find out what we can do/contribute to prevent unnecessary road fatalities. isn't scary that as i wrote this post, 140 accidents have occurred, taking 4 lives with them?

safe journey home one & all! have a blessed lunar new year & happy holidays!

another joker?

it was coincidental that i took this picture of the boy in peaceful sleep last nite. this morning he woke up giggling to himself. when i asked him what was so funny, he said he'll tell me a joke. i thought he was going to relate one of those events that only he found amusing but i relented nevertheless.

he asked, why did the banana go to hospital? when i said because it was sick, he corrected me - because it wasn't peeling well - & continued giggling to himself.

a-ha, he has a sense of humour after all! later, he revealed that he heard it from noddy on tv - i hope it's the 1st of many to come.

A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. prov 17:22

doctor's orders

asthma is a disease of the small airways that channel the air we breathe into the lungs. during an attack, the airways become smaller & increase the resistance to breathing. in the most severe form, the airways become so small that little or no air passes through, thereby limiting the amount of oxygen to the body.

this lady has had asthma for many years. last year she was admitted to the ICU with asthma so severe, she collapsed & had to be hooked up to a ventilator to assist breathing. she recovered completely after 2 days of treatment & was advised to take her regular medications - it was her reluctance that resulted in the attack in the 1st place.

she came back again last week. she had been unwell for several hours & then collapsed in a car driven by a colleague. it was some time before she reached hospital. the asthmatic attack was controlled within the hour but the delay during the journey to the emergency department had resulted in a lack of oxygen to the brain, resulting in irreversible injury.

she has been in ICU for a week & hasn't woken up yet. a brain scan will confirm the damage & in all likelihood, she will be vegetative. the costs, not just financial, will be enormous - her children will lose a doting mother & her students will lose an excellent teacher.

what if..... she had religiously taken her medication, like the doctor ordered?
what if.....she had immediately come to hospital at the 1st sign of trouble?
what if....?

the joker

bible trivia : who was the greatest comedian of the old testament?
answer : samson, because he brought the house down.

we were studying the book of Judges for CG tonite & i thought that was funny. however, what the other Joker accomplished this evening was not so hilarious for the legion of teenage-girl tennis fans....

....he knocked top-seed Roger Federer out of the Australian Open.

sob, sob.

saturday classes

some schools are having saturday classes to make up for the extended Chinese New Year break. presumably that's where this 14-yr-old girl in school uniform was heading. riding pillion, she was knocked down & sustained a serious head injury - a blood clot within the skull, called an extradural haematoma (white & lens-shaped on the right of the brain scan above).

without surgery she will succumb with severe brain damage. for some fortuitous reason, the family decided to send her straight to a private hospital about 45 mins away by road, instead of the local district hospital. a brain scan was done to confirm the diagnosis & surgery commenced within the hour to evacuate the clot. she is now recovering well in the ICU.

not many students have the luxury of being driven to school by their parents or drivers. i myself went by the omnipresent bas sekolah. do these fortunate ones ever pause for a moment to appreciate the good hand that Fate has dealt them?

i pray for those whose daily journey to school are affected by the harsh weather & are fraught with danger while on the road.

may the Good Lord watch over them always. amen.

slip & fall

the expected life span of an indonesian woman is 72.7 years, compared to 76.7 years for her malaysian counterpart. (source).

so when this lady came all the way from indonesia to have surgery done on a broken hip (or more correctly called fracture of the neck of femur)....

....sustained from a recent fall, she could be considered fortunate on at least 2 counts.

1st, at age 94, she has exceeded her expected lifespan by an incredible 21 years & still enjoying an active & independent life (which resulted in the fall in the 1st place) & 2nd, her family could afford her good private medical care not readily available back home.

she was operated upon last week & a hip screw was successfully inserted to bridge the fracture.

after resting a few days, she would be able to move around with a walking aid/frame for a few weeks & will resume her normal life within 2 mths. (read here)

the elderly are more likely to sustain this injury, said to be related osteoporosis ("bone loss") due to the reduction in female hormones in the post-menopausal age, & in male hormones in elderly men, although men seemed to be less affected than women. (read here and here.)

isn't it ironic that this lady has to seek appropriate treatment her own country could not accord her, while her ailing 86yr-old fall-from-grace ex-president, in all likelihood, is currently receiving the best available medical care, not to mention wide media attention.

even more ironic is the reality that she would most likely outlive him.