Odysseys of George

I was on call yesterday. There was this young obese lady with a weight of about 90 to 100kg who was admitted to my ward with a diagnosis of acute appendicitis.

After having reviewed her, I continue reading…

It is so irritating when people expect the stars from government service hospitals and accepts the nonsense from private hospitals.

There was this young girl who got into an accident and was a little drowsy but more importantly she was suspected to sustain fractures to her cervical (neck) bones. However, after some investigations, the orthopaedic surgeons decided that all was fine and only then referred her to us. My medical continue reading…

Related articles:
my dear driver en jaafar and a silent killer

a news that made me sad

As I write this, my driver En Jaafar, is counting the hours to his painful death. The pain is so excruciating and his health has deteriorated so significantly that any procedure would hasten death.

My presence seem to comfort him. He was a good friend. Despite facing death so often, I suddenly realise that there is actually nothing more important to a dying man than a shoulder to lean on. It is just not comforting for the patient but also the family. However, the emotional involvement can be a little disturbing. I just feel so sad.

A poem for a friend.

Yes, I remember the days,
The laughters that we shared,
Yes, I remember the days,
Where my problems you helped dissipate,
Yes, I remember those days,
When you shared your deepest sorrows
How could I forget, how could I forget?

The news were painful,
But never as painful as the one you bear,
The sadness was piercing,
But never as deep as the pain and sadness you bear,
I can only imagine but only so helplessly,
I wished I could assist more,
But of only my words and of my silent prayers,
That they can reach the depths to comfort your soul.

I just wished life treated you better,
As the growth and pain rakes thru your spine,
As it pierces the depths of your soul,
Eating away pieces of your flesh,
Growing within ceaselessly,
Even with that you manage a smile,
That smile of memories,
Whenever you see me.

I thank you my friend,
For just being a friend,
For the many small things,
I have learnt from you,
I thank you my friend,
For believing in me,
From the very first day till the very last.

I bid you farewell,
May the good Lord comfort you,
I bid you farewell,
With heaviness in my heart,
I bid you farewell,
With a million apologies,
That in our course of friendship,
Have hurt you somehow.
I bid you farewell,
With tears of blood flowing within the recesses of my soul.

Mr G.C.George

Well what can I say it is November. The year is coming to an end and everybody seems to be settling their concerns.

As Deepa-Raya set in, the hospital decided to clean its Operating Theatre (OT) which were long overdue. They did almost everything, clean the ventilation shafts and the filters. They also did a swab count thereafter to evaluate the bacterial count in each OT. Just as that was over, the Head of Anaesthesiology decides to cut down our already precious OT time as there was a shortage of anaesthetist and anaesthetic medical officers. Actually no more surprises as this is getting to be a common scenario in the Malaysian Healthcare System. 2 female anaesthetist have gone into labour and are now in their post-partum leave. Then another is leaving to sub-specialise in some kind of sub-anaesthetic field in the transplant if not mistaken. The other has decided to follow another excellent anaesthetist who left to private practice. The anaesthetic medical officers have also dropped to half its original amount. So, general surgery total operating time per week was cut by one third. Therefore, we the surgeons, 7 of us, were made to postpone all surgeries that were not urgent to a much later date and preference given to cancer cases.

Well, suddenly there seems to be a sudden influx of cancer cases. Just todays clinic, we had 3 new breast cancers, 2 upper gastrointestinal cancers and 2 colorectal cancers. Guess what, one of those with stomach cancer is a 95 years old who appears to be in a better health then the other 50 year old gentleman. As it is, I have three urgent cases to do within the next 3 weeks. Omigosh!

To make things worse, I will be off to Singapore for the 1st Asian Pacific Gastric Cancer Conference for a few days!!

Many things occured over the last few days starting on Wednesday. Sorry for not writing!
It all began like something you would read on a story book. With this my blog will sound sombre!!

Life started almost as usual with me reaching work and doing my rounds. Then I get a call from a friend. It was about Rosma’s younger sister. Rosma started strong as she related the events to me. I remember she telling me about her sister during the raya holidays. As she spoke, her voice started to break and then she started sobbing so strongly that I was at loss of any form of consolation and she later, started speaking again. ” Dr. George, my sister is only 27 and is still unmarried. She just graduated.”

As the story goes, this young lady for no apparent reason started behaving aggresively. She never had any similar episodes before and there is no family history of any psychiatric disorders. Her change in character made her family take her to a hospital which immediately admitted her to a psychiatric unit. 3 days later, a smart psychiatrist questioned the events and felt that there was a definite clinical reason that was brewing. However, the younger brother being a university graduate was taken into supernatural causes and convinced the parents for discharge at own risk. Being sure that she “dirasuk”, they brought her to see a bomoh. During the period of treatment by the bomoh, they realised that she was progressively unable to walk and unable to control her ability to urinate. She was getting weaker but their confidence in the bomoh was overwhelming. 2 weeks later and 3 days prior to this admission, she started fitting. Initially it was a few times a day which progressed to a fit every 10 minutes. Rosma and her aunty was trying to convince the family especially the younger brother that she was getting worse and she needs medical attention. The brother refused and insisted that the bomoh told him that her fits were signs of removing the bad omen from the body. After much convincing and pleading the others in the family agreed to bring her to the hospital. She was diagnosed to have meningo-encephalitis, an infection to the brain matter, and was intubated and the family was told of her serious condition. When I reached the hospital to visit, she was in ICU and had collapsed twice needing CPR(cardiopulmonary resuscitation). All I could do was shake my head in pity as I knew she would not survive. Her kidneys shut down the following day and she passed away 4 hours ago.

It amazes me to see how strong the community’s believe in bomohs. In that two weeks as she deteriorated, they stood in confidence for the bomohs “healing” ability without questioning. Imagine if the doctors took that long, they or any other public in general would have made a lot of complaints. They did not even give the hospital any chance to investigate. And shockingly even the highly educated are guilty of such ignorant confidence. Better, it has also influenced the other races also.

To make things worse, is that she most likely would be alive if she had her treatment earlier and that makes me very sad and angry at the same time. I really feel depressed about her death.

I believe in prayers but I definitely do not believe in traditional healers. To make the public confused, the health ministry has condoned this traditional healers and has actually set up a centre for alternative medicine. How dumb? Then, it is not surprising, to attain votes they are willing to break all things fundamental. We, the doctor have gone against this but as usual it always fall on deaf ears. We even told them to rename the center to complimentary medicine as this treatment is in no way an alternative option. Rather then spending money on that, the health ministry can use that money to improve the patient care and doctors well known plight.

The truth, many waste time and money in being told that these bomohs can cure, and will only seek treatment when it is very late be it cancer or infection. Why?

About meningo-encephalitis:
http://www.patient.co.uk/showdoc/40000763/

Today is my mother’s birthday. Hey want to make a guess how old is she?

Mrs. Mary George or dearly called by her children as Ammachi or her other “children” as cikgu is a Scorpion like me… OK that explains everything…!No!No! The person extends beyond the zodiac. A peculiar character with the whole spectrum of colour – much like the rainbow a constant one.

She was a teacher in SMK Keat Hwa in Alor Setar teaching Biology to the upper secondary and Form Six students. She was there for most of her teaching carrier and a dedicated one. While walking around in Alor Setar town, there will always be somebody who will suddenly recognize her and call “Cikgu” and the chatting will start.

We share a lot in common apart from the zodiac, we love to travel. I still remember drawing a large flower with many petals for her birthday when I was something like 5 years old. She was so touched by it. I wonder whether she remembers!

So any guess? She is 70.

Happy Birthday Ammachi! I love you!