Odysseys of George

We have seen them and we have a poor image of them especially after the Oct 8, a group of Mat Rempit went on a rampage in Bangsar, smashing the windscreens of cars parked along Jalan Medang Serai after a resident yelled at them for making noise in the wee hours of the morning.

Two days later, a three-year-old boy was killed by a Mat Rempit while crossing the road in Kota Baru.

On Oct 15, a band of 20 threw stones at the Kubang Semang police station near Bukit Mertajam, protesting the arrest of two comrades.

So what are we dealing with here? A bunch of rebels? Or are they just simple idiots? Can the government really do much? The UMNO youth wants to rope them in — their opinion is superficial to me. Politics and politician cannot be trusted. Anyway, I gather even that the response is far from good. Then the Youth and Sports told them to register as they can then have proper races for them and yet the response was cold. What do they want?

These are youngsters – they want to have fun and the more illegal it is the better. The hot blood could not care less about death far less others. They want to look macho, so then they rope in some girls to fill up the gap and put on the high with the smoking and their syabu. Then they dare and put a race. All done in the instance almost no preplaning. Sounds familiar? Yes the movies Fast and Furious. The only difference is that the kids here don’t have that kind of cash to buy themselves and modify the cars but trust me there are already a group of rich kids who don’t do modified Honda cups but to the minimum modify a Wira. The attraction to this will only get more as more and more barring to social outlets gets under scrutiny or get to expensive. Even better when it appears to be an acceptable culture in the first world such as America and Japan when movies are screened.

This is an unhealthy culture of any youth. This kind of activity often related to gangterism, drugs, free sex and etcetera ….

Do we handle it like how we handle the drug addicts and vice? Has the ‘war’ ever ended or to say the least improving?

and another version

and another for the light hearted

Mat Rempit

I send a friend of mine, my diving buddy, a happy deepavali greeting.
He replies saying thank you and by the way, what is a mammal in a sea called?

I am not sure I know the answer. Anyone care to help? Will sms him to get the answer and tell you guys unless he reads this blog too.

There are a few principles to follow

1. Recognition of the snake
– this is important as the antivenom to administer depends on a correct identification.
– I suppose you can learn about the common snakes in your area or take a picture of the snake or draw it or if the adrenaline level is high and your neuronal function is a little numb from the events then you can try killing the snake.

2. Immobilisation
– the venom tends to spread rapidly mainly by way of lymphatic system
– application of bandages and splints as to immobilize the injured part and the patient is ultimately important.
– application of tourniquet should be sufficiently tight and not to the extent to prevent blood flow.
– Calm the patient down. Make sure you and the patient are in a safe area. Otherwise there will be two to treat.

3. Get to a nearby health facility early

4. The controversies

– Washing the wound
– some areas like in Australia they do not really recommend washing the wound as they can swab the wound for venom identification in their test kits. Others believe washing the wound would reduce the venom load. Personally I feel that washing increases movements and most of the venom is already deposited deep within the subcutaneous tissue.

- Cutting the wound and sucking the venom
– this is definitely not recommended anymore as the first rule in first aid is not to put oneself and your patient in danger. Drinking vinegar does not reduce the risk. But I notice many American based documents actually recommend suction without cutting and the special suction device kit for snake bites. Then again do we carry one everytime?

I wonder how many qualified first aiders carry a mask/face shield with them all the time? The face shield / mask is for mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and I keep one in the car and one in my wallet.

from Wikipedia

Nudibranchs are sea slugs belonging to the suborder Nudibranchia, the largest suborder of the order Opisthobranchia. There are more than 3,000 described species.

These sea slugs are soft-bodied snails. The adult form is without a shell or operculum (a bony plate covering the opening of the shell, when the body is withdrawn).

The word “nudibranch” comes from Latin nudus meaning “naked”, and Greek brankhia meaning “gills”. They breathe through a branchial plume of bushy extremities on their back, rather than using gills.

Nudibranchs have cephalic (head) tentacles, which are sensitive to touch, taste, and smell. Club-shaped rhinophores detect the odors.

They are hermaphroditic, but can rarely fertilize themselves.

They are carnivorous. Some feed on sponges, others on hydroids, others on bryozoans, and some are cannibals, eating other sea slugs, or, on some occasions, members of their own species. There is also a group that feeds on tunicates and barnacles.

Among them, you can find the most colorful creatures on earth. Because sea slugs, in the course of evolution, have lost their shell, they have had to evolve another means of defense: camouflage, through color patterns that make them invisible (cryptic behavior) or warn off predators as being distasteful or poisonous (aposematic behavior). Champions in their colorful display are the Chromodorids. The nudibranchs that feed on hydroids store the hydroid’s nematocysts (stinging cells) in the dorsal body wall. This enables the nudibranch to ward off potential predators.

These are some pictures that I took:

Well I generally enjoy watching Samuel L Jacksons movies and since there were snakes in it that was an extra reason to catch this movie. However, I was a little dissapointed. The story line and script were satisfactory and the main cast in the movie are the snakes. Samuel L Jackson could not come out strong as all the other actors who played an important role were mediocre. But, I must say they managed to get good scenes from the snakes. They also portrayed a not-recommended- anymore technique of removing the venom. The lady drinks a cup of olive oil to prevent the venom from hurting her and then makes an incision over the swollen forearm of the small boy and sucks the venom.

Most of the world’s most deadliest snakes actually resides in Australia.
Check out this link : http://www.flyingdoctor.net/monographs/snakebite.pdf
This is about the management of snake bites in Australia and Papua New Guinea by Dr S.K.Sutherland and Dr. J.Tibballs
Some extract from there are :

Potency of venoms
Some Australian snake venoms are more potent than those of notable snakes in India, Asia, Africa and North America. Eleven Australian snakes have venoms that are more potent than the venom of the Indian Cobra (Naja naja) which causes many thousands of deaths each year in India and Asia.

Table 2 Snake venom potencies

Small-scaled Snake (Oxyuranus microlepidotus) 0.025 Australia
Common Brown Snake (Pseudonaja textilis) 0.053 Australia
Taipan (Oxyuranus scutellatus) 0.099 Australia
Mainland (Eastern) Tiger Snake (Notechis scutatus) 0.118 Australia
Reevesby Tiger Snake (Notechis ater niger) 0.131 Australia
Beaked Sea Snake (Enhydrina schistosa) 0.164 Australia
Western Tiger Snake (Notechis ater occidentalis) 0.194 Australia
Chappell Island Tiger Snake (Notechis ater serventyi) 0.338 Australia
Common Death Adder (Acanthophis antarcticus) 0.400 Australia
Western Brown Snake (Pseudonaja nuchalis) 0.473 Australia
Lowland Copperhead (Austrelaps superbus) 0.560 Australia
Indian Cobra (Naja naja) 0.565 Indo-Asia
Dugite (Pseudonaja affinis) 0.660 Australia
Papuan Black Snake (Pseudechis papuanus) 1.09 Papua New Guinea
Stephen’s Banded Snake (Hoplocephalus stephensii) 1.36 Australia
Rough-scaled Snake (Tropidechis carinatus) 1.36 Australia
King Cobra (Ophiophagus hannah) 1.80 Indo-Asia

1. Taipan
–

2.Small-scaled Snake (Oxyuranus microlepidotus)

3.Common Brown Snake (Pseudonaja textilis)

4.Mainland (Eastern) Tiger Snake (Notechis scutatus)

5.Indian Cobra (Naja naja)

Maybe next time I will write about how to treat snake bites.

I was on-call yesterday.

It was so quiet …. the silence was painful. To make things worse, three quarters of the staff in this hospital is from Kelantan and many have left or leaving before the Raya celebrations. The streets were empty and it rained heavily later in the night making the boredom and the heaviness of the heart worse. I did a laparoscopic appendectomy which just means even the operating theater was quiet.

I cannot stand this, especially after being used to a heavy busy call since my early medical years. All my doctors shudder when they are on call with me as my calls are 90% of the time very busy. But probably the other reason why I cannot stand this quietness, because my mind tends to rest in the recesses of my memory which is also too painful for me, a long unsettled issue which maybe one day ….. it is personal! Sorry!

Goodness, I must be reaching pathological levels.

Luckily, there is some church activity going on tonight and probably visit one or two of my friends — that would keep my mind off things.