Dead Men Walking

One of my greatest regrets of working in the Anaesthesia department is the lack of follow up.

In other words, I hardly know what happpens to the patient after they leave my care. Surely, the greatest satisfaction one can have is to see someone brave through a stormy illness and step out to greet the sunny skies.

The majority of our patients are seen in the intensive care unit or the operating theatres. You can be well assured that none of these patients are allowed to WALK out, much less be discharged from the hospital!

Yet, God has a way of throwing a few 'sunbursts' along the way.

One evening, after a particularly tiring day, I stared blankly at the parking lot while lining up to pay for my purchases in the hospital shop. Silently, I was resenting the long queue that was obstructing my planned quick exit from work. As I turned to study the people in the long queue, I could not help but notice a young man.

He must be a young punk.

You know, they are the sort who dress up like hip-hop artiste wannabes, sunglasses and all even if it's so dark they can't see beyond their fingers. He had a jumper with a hood pulled over his head, knee length shorts with worn-out sneakers. Then I noticed something else - he was thin, abnormally, heart-wrenchingly thin.

Oh wait a minute... I know this guy...

I could hardly suppress a smile when I finally recognised him. Short of calling out his name, I tried to catch his eye, but he was obviously trying to remain as anonymous as possible.

Gary* was a young hairdresser admitted to ICU for severe complications after several cycles of chemotherapy. I had seen him in the ward, brought him into ICU, saw him deteriorate into a coma and wondered many times if he would survive the ordeal. Following that I was rotated out of ICU duties and, like many other patients, didn't know the continuation of his story.

Seeing him stride out of the shop, arm full of junk food, was probably the highlight of my week!

On another occassion, our ICU team was headed to the hospital canteen for a quick morning break. As we stepped into the canteen, we were stopped by a hospital attendant who worked in our department. He shook our hands and introduced us to his father - another patient who had a miraculous recovery.

Months earlier, Ali's* father was involved in a car accident that left him with several fractures and a huge clot in his brain. The neurosurgeons did their best to clear the clot, but the initial clinical signs were bad and we concurred that he had a slim chance to recover from his coma. As expected, he deteriorated further and the family was called in and kept updated about his progress. Somehow, Ali's father hung on precariously, but remained in a coma.

The family was so thankful for what little signs of life he had, and the tireless efforts of the ICU staff that they bought us lunch packets one day as a sign of their appreciation. Again, I was finishing my ICU rotation, but quietly signed off the chances of this unfortunate man.

Imagine my surprise and delight, to not only see Ali's father again, but to see him walk unaided into the hospital compound months later for his clinic follow-up.

Such patients are refreshing rays of sunlight through the thick, overcast clouds that often hang over our ICU patients. Most have lives hung precariously over the edge of life and death. Daily, our ICU staff toils to tip the scales in their favour. Often it just doesn't seem to be worth the effort.

These 'sunbursts' makes it all worthwhile.


*not real names

Shooting Hannah

I must say it felt kind of weird taking a 10 month old baby to a photo shop to have her picture taken. But Hannah didn't behave according to her young age - throughout the photo shoot, she was perfectly composed and cooperative, perched on a stool (while Po-Po and Daddy held her tight just out of shot) not making a single noise.

Why did we do it? Well, Hannah needs a passport. That's right, her own passport. She can't be added to Mummy or Daddy's passports, she has to have her own. With a picture. Goodness knows how she is going to convince immigration of her identity when they look at her photo in 5 year's time, but we will worry about that later. The important thing is we get a passport ready for (God willing) Hannah's big trip to England in December.

I must say I am quite pleased with the results. The BIG blackish bruise on the left side of her forehead was conveniently covered by her wild fringe. Her two bottom teeth can just been seen through her vague smile. She looks quite grown up (for a 10 month old!) in her wistful pose.

And she did such a good job of charming the young lady serving us that we got a couple of 'touched up' photos for free. I think they are intended for us to enter more competitions. Well, the lady showed us all kinds of fancy effects and borders (none of which really grabbed us) but eventually we settled on the 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' design in commemoration of Hannah's favourite song.



Angelic, isn't she?

Shangri - La

If you happen to be in KL, more specifically the Bukit Bintang area, this weekend, it may do you good to listen to this bit of advice.

While strolling through the shopping malls or crowded pedestrian walkways, if you happen to experience chest discomfort, difficulty breathing or any uncomfortable physical sensation, you may want to head over to the Shangri - La.

Evidently, we are not talking about the mythical Himalayan utopia, but the classy hotel nestled in the heart of the glitzy Bukit Bintang.

After all, hundreds of healthcare staff, including the leading Intensivists of this country, as well as several from Australia, Hong Kong, Ireland, the USA and Singapore are convening at the venue for a weekend conference.

It was quite a sight seeing tourists clad casually in shorts and sandles studying maps under electronic signboards with flashing messages such as: Haemodynamics - Sabah Room

Why do I think you might be even remotely interested in something like this? Who knows. Perhaps there'll be something more exciting in our next blog.

(We can't be talking about Hannah all the time)

* Latest Web Album Photos *

It's been about 3 months since we uploaded photos to Hannah's Web Album. But now I've got a bit of time on my hands (3 1/2 weeks, to be precise). Here is the link to the latest pictures:

Hannah at 8-10 months

And remember the photos are quite high definition, so perfect for downloading/printing if you are so inclined.

A winning photo?

Just decided to blog this 'cos it's my favourite photo of Hannah right now. She can be really adorable at times.

Here she is showing off three tricks - standing by herself (she can pull herself up using just about anything more than a few inches high) and waving. The third trick is not quite captured in this shot. You can probably make out that she is standing next to our Hi-Fi. Well, she has already located the volume control which she enjoys fiddling with when her music is playing (or when Mummy and Daddy are watching a DVD).

Now I entitled this "A winning photo?" because we have resurrected our photo competition hopes with this one, along with a couple of other cute shots. Hey, Pampers don't grow on trees, y'know. I mean, it's about time Hannah started paying her way in life...

P.S. Anyone know any Mother/Baby magazine editors?!

Father's Day

...or as Han said in church today, an 'afterthought' to Mother's Day!

Well, Hannah didn't forget her Daddy today. Chris got a rather handy book, in preparation for our new apartment (should be ready by early 2008 - click here for a link to an old blog on the apartment). In case you can't make out the title in the picture, it is "Home Improvement 101" (from Black & Decker, no less!)

So the gauntlet has been thrown down, it would seem, for Daddy to ensure the new apartment is inhabitable. But as Chris happily pointed out to his wife, to avoid any hint of sexism, most of the pictures in the book are of women wielding spanners, screwdrivers, drills and the like. Even the front cover features a woman with a paint roller. Ah, yes. Equality of the sexes. Let's not forget that when we get our new apartment. ;-)

Ok, let's finish this one with a call to all 'Fathers' reading this - post a comment with YOUR Father's Day gift and we'll see if we can spot any trends...

Sermon Update: I have mananged to upload the latest sermon to Archive.org, so now you can download a smaller (20MB) file or even just listen to it by online streaming (just like all my other sermons). Here is the link, and the link on the right-hand panel has been updated too:

http://www.archive.org/details/Leviticus19

Recordings from church

Here are two different types of recordings with very different content matter!

The first is some video footage of Hannah, recorded by our friend Eddy. Very sweet. For those of you who haven't seen Hannah in the flesh, you will get to see Hannah doing a bit of crawling and standing.



The second is Chris's latest sermon. The title is "Standards for Holy Living" and it looks at Leviticus 19 to see what it says to us today. Click here to download, OR go to the 'Sermons' section of the blog on the right-hand side.

Unfortunately my previous method of uploading audio files didn't work this time, so I'm temporarily using a free service called Badongo - it means you have to download a 40MB file, with no other options! My file will also be deleted in a few weeks' time. :-(