Whose life is it anyway?

Awww I hate getting up early… really need to get circadian rhytms in order again.

With 3 Mcdonald’s chicken nuggets, marmalade bread and a cup of chilled HL milk in my tummy, CJL sets off to the KL general hospital…

Driving!

With dad navigating, I took the wheels and made my way from the house, to Pudu, under a tunnel, through a highway, passed the national library, took a left turning at the roundabout near my primary school, and finally entered the hospital compound. whee~, apart from a little hiccup when crossing lanes and turning, everything else went like an automatic car.

Reached the hospital some moments before 9am. Registered and came out to wait. Just the fact that I’m surrounded by doctor aspirees excite me beyond compare. NON of my friends at school want to be doctors and I have a feeling I’d easily resonate with the people here.. after all, we have lots of stuff in common.

Sure enough, first guy I met was David from Miri, who is currently studying at Taylor’s. Later something unexpected happened, Ying Ling appeared! Who’s Ying Ling? Well, she’s my class monitor in standard 6! What a pleasant surprise indeed.. then another surprise.. Wah Chin who is also a primary school mate appeared! LOL, it’s almost unbelievable that 6 years ago we hardly know each other and today we’ve all been short listed by JPA to attend this program.. awesome!

So we chat and chat and chat some more.

A speech by the hospital director started the ball rolling for the program. But it was the deputy hospital director’s speech that really held any meaning. He gave quite an entertaining speech, which was accompanied by slide show displays of hospital life… It seems the ministry REALLY THINKS that these people here do not know that its not easy to become a doctor. Obviously its no easy feat, but having attended several education seminars, as well as listened and read of several first person account about a doctor’s life, I think I have AT LEAST a vague idea.. lolz

Dr Ghazali Hasni included some interesting facts in his presentation though. He reminded us that a person is only worthed about $38.50. This figure was apparently obtained by a scientist who calculated every element in the human body and calculated the sum of all the elements in accordance to market value. So according to the doctor, in order for a person to be of value, he needs to have well, values… good moral values and what not.

It seems that the KL hospital is 130 years old, and that doctors in Malaysia are always needed to work extra hard due to the shortage of local doctors. Considering the government’s target of 1 doctor for every 800 people is hardly achieved with the current ratio of 1 doctor to roughly 1400 people, this supports my theory that doctors or doctor wannabes in our country are indeed a rare breed.. lolz

According to the doctor, benefits of becoming a doctor include:

- Gauranteed job

- Regarded a leader and respected by society

- Financial Renumerations of various kinds

- As well as the availability of living quarters for doctors

Personally though, I’d say the benefits also include:

- opportunity to continuously learn and study about the human body as well as use the acquired knowledge for the benefit of society and self

- opportunity to help others, and have a hand at preserving, protecting, and promoting public health both physically and mentally

- opportunity to save lives

The second part would include the requirements of becoming a doctor:

- To perform duty beyond self, and not be choosey

- Caring towards patients and staff - meaning doctors must always make a 120% effort to love, emphatize, and symphatize with for example, a patient’s ailments

- Profesionality, being able to behave in a professional manner in work, meaning having good character, and preserving the dignity of a patient - confidentiality

- Ability to work as a team- doctors do not work alone, and more often than not, they’re the leaders in a medical procedure, so descent leadership abilities are most certainly in demand

- Able to work smart, and also be disciplined and systematic. Without of which a doctor will most certainly fail in balancing time for studies, career, and personal life.

- Like challenges - a doctor must be brave and be accountable for their actions, as well as to be consistent and responsible because any irresponsibility in practice would require them to answer to God.

- High self esteem and high emotional intelligence are also needed in order to work efficiently and effectively

- well attired and mannered will certainly be a plus in first impressions

- and last but not least, anyone who wants to be a doctor must LIKE being a doctor

Challenges of becoming a doctor

- need to burn midnight oil because of the significance of study materials on short notice - however don’t burn yourself

- upon graduation a newly qualified doctor will need to work extra hours as housemen in hospitals

- doctors are also exposed to hazardous environments, they can get sued in court, face the temperaments of the relatives of patients, contamination or infection by a deadly disease, etc

- doctors will also often be needed to work on short notice for long hours

- doctors won’t exactly become overnight millionaires

- there are risk and successes in private practices

- guarded family life

- limited social life

- and also of course, stress all the time, but with proper time management as well as anticipation of events, this factor could be easily combated.

Well, after the lecture we were also exposed to gory photos.. mm yum. next was the group splitting and lunch. this was the only time I snapped photos.. lolz

Mmmm some nice pots in the hospital

Here’s David and Ying Ling.. argh camera shy Ying Ling makes life difficult

Following David out of the hospital to yam char outside, wow a post office in a hospital… how convenient

Woo what a rare sight, a van FULL of nurses unloading their goods, er I mean, nurses.. lolz, good thing they didn’t chase after me later.. wahaha

Have you seen these people??? LoL… I snapped this catchy notice board in front of the hospital police station.. so dear readers if you see these people please remember to dial 999..

A nice scene outside the KL general hospital. Of course, I was sweating profusely while taking this picture, it was 1.30PM in KL!!

A shot at the sky, I just love experimenting with angles.. lolz

The hospital building marks its defiant protest against crooked cigarette butts…

JABATAN OTORINOLARINGOLOGI

LOOK VERY CLOSELY.. there’s a nurse chatting with her handphone under the blue roof behind some black color grills.. no that’s not hantu, she’s not even aware her picture’s been taken.. LOL

I had CHAR SIEW PAO for lunch. chat chat and chat some more, and then finally we returned and started our first exposure at our respective departments. Me being lucky was in group 2 along with Wah Chin. and our first stop was the forensic department… YAY for me, Gross out and vomit for Ying Ling.. lolz she got sent to some outpatient department.

First we were briefed about being a forensic pathologist by Dr Rohayu Bt Shahar Adnan, simply put, its a specialization by doctors in a field which assists the law, and put in even simpler terms, the doctor’s job is dissecting people, and performing post mortem after post mortem after post mortem…

There were some important facts in her presentation, among which was the fact that Malaysia had only 16 forensic pathologists! and we had the honor of having 1 in our presence! while CSI had like, 5? working together? LOL

Some of the work of a forensic pathologist

- Certify the death or identity of dead person, only the police have the authority to issue a death certificate, and autopsies involving criminal cases can only be carried out in public hospitals.

- Verify the time from death, this must be done carefully as the post mortem can only be done once

- Record and identify injuries on a dead body

- Identify if a sickness is the cause of death

- Give the cause of a death

- Make a summary about a death

A good deal of criminal law will also need to be studied by the forensic pathologist. Well, after some explanation on that, we were presented with several cases that were worked on by the Doctor. Some were accidents, some were homocide, suicide, natural death, and of course sometimes, unknown.. lolz it seems most of the people who appear on the slide show were drug addicts, as the doctor relates that normally drug addicts put tattoos on their bodies to hide the puncture marks of syringe needles… all of the cases were very sad sights… people who kill themselves and others in the most depressing manner, and succeeding at it… even worse are the dreadful accidents that occur, makes one realize juz how mortal we mere mortals really are… makes one realize that… forensic pathologists make excellent killers, because they know all the loopholes of the law and ways to bypass post mortem detections!

After that was done, we were treated to a rare visit into the operating theatre.. EWWWW… the smell of dead bodies at the morgue, remind me of the time I dissected my poor dead old goldfish… yuck.. the stench.. I had to give it a 8th storey drop burial… and yet the forensic pathologist WORKS with such stenches EVERYDAY… how they can tahan.. yes of course some of the scenes were very gory.. but as the doctor relates, we fear what we do not understand, once we understand the human body well, there really is nothing to fear.. or feel, except for sympathy towards an unfortunate victim, who was someone’s child, sibling, friend, parent, whose life was brutally snatched from the earth… and its up to the forensic pathologist to help bring justice to his death.

It was a really educational experience lar, I got to try first hand an equipment that was used to fracture skulls.. COOL… well, sort of, just got to turn it on and wave it around, and we were also shown the basic suit a doctor wears the operation too, which is 2 layers.. I think I was bugging the doctor with the most questions, Lolz.. good thing she enjoys answering them too!

Well, later we got our papers chopped and signed to prove we’ve been here, it sure was fun, I think all of us felt the same…

Ah… finally got home, got to drive again to dinner… oh yea, dad helped me collect the YPC prize from Pudu girl school. Seems that there were 40 straight A students receiving stuff.. what stuff you ask? well…

Certificate of achievement… 300 ringgit… some books… a meal voucher for 2 person at a fancy restaurant… and.. does the invitation letter count? lolz

Hmm.. need to do some research for day 2 of the hospital program..

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