the worst

that's the superlative my colleague proclaimed a few days ago.

he was berating the way the nurses ill-prepared for his surgical case. i had to agree with him. it was messy & it slowed down the whole OT list.

i do miss those days when the nurses were more dedicated, competent, conscientious & thorough in their work.

when things run like clockwork with minimal self-inflicted disruptions.

when there was just one or two private nursing schools.

just in case you didn't notice, private healthcare isn't what it used to be. ringgit & sen, now more than ever, precedes service.

i am sure you have your own horror stories or even personal experiences to tell.

camping out

finally, the boy is roughing it out......

tent - checked

sleeping bag - checked

bottles of drinking water - checked

note book - checked.

it's his scouts' camping trip. was it held out in the forest or forest reserve? outdoor camping site? on a field?

actually, none of the above.

it was held in the school compound. still, that hasn't dampened his enthusiasm for the outdoors, for roughing it out away from the comforts of home & for bonding with the fellow scouts.

however, he did call for help...to replenish drinking water for the 3-day camp out.

GST.....the final word.

seriously, none of us thinks the govt has thoroughly thought & worked out the breathe and depth of the GST.

how is it they were flip-flopping over the GST for pre-paid top-up cards?

is healthcare exempted or not? if not, why announce otherwise?

why the need now to consider to increase the number of medicines to be exempt or zero-rated?

be assured the saga will not end with this recent confusion.

how is it that they didn't learn from countries that implemented GST ages ago & avoided their mistakes?

i know for sure GST, as a consumption tax, is a fairer form of tax collection, but perhaps the timing is premature, or that it should have started at a lower level, say 2-3% first.

& there should be no exemption nor exception. tax everything but at an affordable & less painful bracket first.

while the government is whipping up confusion at every turn of the implementation process, the rakyat is suffering.

aren't you?

sigh!

GST 2.0

i stared at this for some time.....

while many are fortunate to be able to seek attention at medical centres & specialists' hospitals, this booklet is stark reminder that, while we often take things for granted, like clean running water & electricity, there are those on the other side of the social divide who are not so privileged, having to make do with river water & kerosene lamps.

& then there are those whose healthcare needs can only be met in government-run facilities.

i had a middle-aged lady recently who was admitted to the ICU for a critical illness. after a week of intensive treatment, we managed to get her thru the most difficult period but by then, her family's fund was running low & they requested for her to be transferred to the ICU of the local public hospital.

believe you me, it's extremely difficult to get such a vacant ICU bed but by a twist of events, we managed to get a vacant bed the next day. she was promptly transferred but unfortunately, she passed on after 2 days.

it's impossible to say if she'd have a better chance at survival had she remained at our hospital but it did leave a hollow feeling in me.

with the expected RM22b to be collected this year from the recently imposed GST, hopefully we'll get .......

.......a better public transport system instead of a luxuriously-furbished jet plane for the private use of the elite few

.......basic necessities for the rural folk instead of a monthly million ringgit electricity bill for just one dwelling....

......and well-trained medical staff in well-equipped public hospitals instead of mushrooming private medical schools recruiting mediocre students.

GST

goods & services tax.

or, government say thanks.

or, a mean april fool's joke.

but i say...

"Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's" matt 22:21

the govt is determined to get its pound of flesh. you can't change that now, even collectively, but you can determine who rules at the ballot box.

the pilot light & the hypocrite

we are having a demo machine in OT to be appraised for possible purchase.

the briefing on the operation of this machine was given by the vendor some days back & we're taking turns to use & get familiar with it.

i noticed this white light (arrow) on the right side of the machine...

i thought it was the pilot light, which is normally switched on when the main OT lights are switched off during certain procedures. we weren't doing any of those procedures, so i proceeded to switch it off.

the machine suddenly stopped & the screen went blank. as it turned out, what i thought was the pilot light was actually the power on-off button. good thing the vendor was present & she immediately pressed the button again & the machine came to life. phew!

i've often chastised my assistants that they shouldn't do things if they are not sure how or when they should be done & to ask 1st if unfamiliar with the procedures.

looks like i should heed that advice myself. after all, when you point one finger at someone, three other fingers are pointed back at you.

i bowed my head in shame.

makanan sampingan

those were the exact words the patient replied with when i asked her if she was having a late dinner. it's the local phrase for a supplementary meal.

admitted for a nose procedure the next day, she was eating fried mee with fried chicken when i dropped in on her at 9pm. having had dinner just 3 hrs before & now, another full portioned fried meal? i'd suppose that's common practice in this age of 24-hour fast-food restaurants & mamak shops.

still, she ought to exercise (pun intended) caution considering that she's only 22 years of age & already weighing 99kgs.

there must be some truth in a recent print report that Malaysia is the most obese nation in the region. furthermore, a case is being brought up at the European Court of Justice to consider obesity as a disablility. the implication for employers is that they may have to treat overweight employees better & even provide support, be it psychological or medical.

we may not be far behind this.

passing the torch

my senior in med school passed away recently while on a family vacation. he was in coma for a few days prior to that & it was an uncanny coincidence that on the day of his passing, his son was supposed to start year 1 in med school!!

i remember him well as a jovial fun-loving guy because we stayed in the same hostel for a year. we never met again after graduation 30 years ago & i only knew about his passing because his son & my daughter are classmates now.

it's almost like his demise was timed perfectly to coincide with his son's start in his medical career. i am certain, in this twist of fate, he will carry the torch his late dad proudly displayed all these years.

my friend TJ, may your soul rest in peace.

tuition

the bane of most students & a major expenditure of most households.

because scoring straight As is the lifelong target from kindergarten to varsity.

OK la, i am just exaggerating.

but not by very much.

case in point : me.

i had taken BM tuition up to form 3 but not at form 5. which explains why i got a strong credit in form 3 but only a pass at SPM level. (yes, you've guessed correctly that i wasn't a straight As student.)

so, tuition is actually quite useful, if taken in the right attitude.

now that the boy is in form 1, we are thinking of trying to take the right attitude for his tuition. we came to the conclusion that he will only take BM tuition for now & he will be home tutored for the other subjects. i took it upon myself to teach him maths & science. however, today, he asked me a geography question.

so, what better way to study ...no, master geography than to take out the secret weapon.....

a map of the world....with latitudes, longitudes, international date line & the Marianna trench. that should keep him from mischief for a while!!

:-)

flown the nest.....again!

 

my daughter has gone back to varsity a week ago.....and yes, even after all these years of living away from us, i still miss her much.

very.

in the 3 months she was home, we managed a family vacation to hanoi & penang, played hosts to her friends on 3 different occasions & shared many happy memories eating out at her favourite food haunts.

                      **a most delectable pandan pancake with gula melaka & matcha green tea**

however, there are 2 stand-out events that particularly endeared her to me :

1) she taught me to appreciate the now concluded sitcom How I Met Your Mother. well, she didn't really taught me, but it's just that she has been watching it & when i watched with her, i sort of caught on. yes, it's legen.......(wait for it).......dary!

2) we enjoyed our walks/jogs around nearby the taman rekreasi. away from the prying eyes & ears of the rest of the family, we managed to share some of our dark secrets.....

"the long and winding road, that leads to your door, will never disappear" (beatles)

PS. i forgot to mention she left another mark behind, one we will not forget for a long, long time.....

                                                       **ouch!!**

helping someone start a car

there are a few extra stuff i keep in my car.....

1) torchlight & umbrella;

2) spare cash;

3) spare bottle of plain water (for washer reservoir) AND battery water;

4) cloth gloves (for tyre change);

5) battery starter cables &;

6) a big stick (for self-defence);

i don't have a small fire extinguisher which would be useful as well.

i was at the petrol station today when i saw someone trying to start up a car with battery cables but for some reason, it didn't work. still, i was quite impressed that someone kept those cables handy. i have used my own cables twice & it successfully got the car started both times. so, i thought i'd find out why. apparently, one of the cable wasn't placed firmly on the battery terminal. a clue would be to see sparks fly when you attach the cables.

once that clip was readjusted, the car started at the 2nd attempt.

ah....my good deed for the day!

here today, gone today...

ahh....life is so fragile...

48 year-old man who has been smoking all his life had chest pain yesterday afternoon. he walked into A&E & was wheeled into the cathetherization lab to confirm the diagnosis of coronary artery disease.

even before the procedure has commenced, he became sweaty & progressively drowsy. within minutes, Code Blue was activated & after an hour of vigorous resuscitation, he has become another statistic of preventable death from heart disease....

.....leaving a trail of tears & wails from his young family.

then the finger-pointing started.....

...he had just tucked into lunch with the family....

.....he was OK when he walked into hospital......

.........what did the heart specialist do in the cath lab....?

................did he do something that killed him........?

when questions like these are thrown about, you know might not get paid this time....

ahh....just another day at the office!

another foot in the mouth....

it was quite easy enough preventing singapore-registered cars from filling with subsidised RON 95 petrol. anyone can spot such a vehicle from miles away - just ask our highway patrolmen with speed cameras.

but just how are you going to make high-income Malaysians pay the full price for fuel? making such an announcement even before the details are worked out is typical of our faux pas-strickened lawmakers.

for example, how are they going to decide the level of high income? how are the petrol station staff to decide who these people are? what happens if the drivers of the BMWs & Mercs are really the lowly-paid drivers? what if i asked the wife to fill up for me? will there be separate pumps for unsubsidised fuel?

i can imagine the distress the petrol station owners are going thru. installing whatever system to discriminate the car owners is going to cost money & these won't be cheap because some crony will be getting this contract &, if true to form, this will eventually die a natural death ala AES.

however, if this bird-brained idea actually worked out well, i should stick my own foot into my big mouth.

another one bites the dust

anyone remember ericsson?

of course not, because no one remembers losers!

sony bought over the ailing swedish cellphone manufacturer some years back & that's that. now that microsoft has bought over nokia, the latter's name would soon suffer a similar demise. (read here)

but we malaysians have no fear of that happening here. with solid unfaltering government support, our distressed car-maker proton has more lives than a cat.

it almost became volksproton, though!

hidup proton!!

if your elderly parent is in hospital....

very often we have elderly patients coming for surgery & because they usually are afflicted with various medical problems, they take a myriad of medications for their ailments. sometimes they forget to bring these with them when they are admitted & their spouse/children cannot remember what these medications are.

so, i was pleasantly surprised when i saw this note attached to a patient's file.

not as detailed as i would have liked, eg. dose & frequency not stated, but it's good enough, esp when there are times i haven't the foggiest idea what some patients are suffering from & what medications they take.

and that would be like sailing into the high seas without a compass....

the fat lady has sung......finally!

it must be the longest school exam saga in history.

the final paper, mathematics, is held this morning & at 9.15am, the students will finally be freed from their angst, no thanks to the bumbling people at the ministry.

it was exactly one month ago to the day when the UPSR exam began. what was meant to be a straightforward 3-day exam has degraded into a 30-day fiasco.

even before the dust has settled, the same fellas there decided to thread on thin ice & proclaim that forecast results would not be allowed as entry requirements for pre-U courses, undoing a practice that had been in place for decades, only to do a U-turn after a public uproar.

this, and the debacle concerning language for teaching maths & science, & local universities not participating in the ranking exercise, has just strengthened the view that the name of the ministry should be changed.

to the ministry of un-education.

careless or forgetful?

i went to pump petrol this morning. imagine my horror when i realised my credit card is not in its usual slot in my wallet.

i retraced my recent movements. the last time i used the card was yesterday evening at jusco. i remembered i had hurriedly kept the receipts & card into the wallet & may have dropped it in my haste to pay at the parking payment machine.

so it's gone now. alarms flashed in my mind. did someone pick it up? how much credit did that person rack up at my expense? full tank of petrol? new LED tv? business class air tickets?

arrgh.......!!

when i got home, i quickly ran thru my clothes & other personal effects & the shopping bag but it wasn't there. i called the card centre immediately to cancel the card. to my relief, no one had bought a tv or air tickets.

credit cards, like internet banking, can be a double-edged sword. use it wisely & it's a great modern convenience. foul it up & you get nightmares.

this is not the 1st time i had lost a credit card but i have been fortunate not to suffer any loss other than a few desperate moments.

i need to be more careful. we all do.

exam leak...again!

i think it's more common than we are told about exam paper leaks. most probably occur at school level & are overlooked or deemed insignificant to be reported.

but when it is headline news on TV or print media, you know the leak is serious & extensive. it's unfortunate that my son is affected in this year's UPSR exams.

if this can happen at a primary school exit exam, is it not unreasonable that this security breach could also be happening at secondary school or even university exams?

i remembered it happened at the MCE (predecessor of today's SPM) BM paper in the mid-70s. the leak was discovered AFTER the students have sat for the paper & the replacement paper was arranged to be held after the last paper of that exam. i can imagine the frustration of the students at that time because a similar incident happened to me years later.

when i was sitting for 1st year exams in varsity, one of the lab exams was leaked & that paper had to be retaken the following day. i didn't sit for that paper but that's another story for another day.

coming back to this UPSR fiasco, it was honourable of the 2nd education minister to apologise to students & parents but no amount of apologies is going to alleviate their angst.....

except when they catch the culprit(s) & prosecute with a deterrent sentence......

and in a different country, the education minister would have tendered his resignation.

UPSR

it's that time of the year again.....

the exam season is upon us & along with it, comes its baggage of burning of midnite oil & of candles at both ends, sleep deprivation, last minute revision & extra tuition classes, amongst other labour-intensive tasks.

and the age-old tradition rears its ugly head....that the parents sit thru the exams as much as the students.

diving into shallow waters

just be careful when diving. or driving.

ok, just be careful in everything that you do.

this is the horrendous injury sustained when someone tried to dive into shallow waters.

 

this MRI scan shows a badly-fractured neck with extensive damage to the spinal cord. he can barely lift up his arms & cannot move or feel his legs at all. he required surgery to stabilise the neck (to prevent further damage) & the chances of recovery are slim.

 

what started out as a fun day at the beach has turned into a nightmare for this chap. let's learn from this & prioritise safety above all else.