Inspiration from Selayang Hospital.

During the period between 24th to 28th March, I have paid my first visit to a hospital, Selayang Hospital.

Should you not know why I was there for five days, here's the reason.

I have applied JPA scholarship for studying medicine. All applicants who have applied for medicine course and meet the minimum requirements would have to attend an exposure program, that's this "Program Pendedahan Kerjaya Seorang Doktor".

Since I do fulfill their requirements, there I was!

There're about 60 students also attending this program in Selayang Hospital. And we were divided into group A, B, C and D. Different groups would be visiting different departments.

I went there with two friends. And it turned out that we were all in different groups. I was in group B, Soon Yee and Jian Yeow in group A and C respectively. I did not grumble or dislike that arrangement, since fate brought us apart (did I sound overly serious? haha). In fact, I do believe in destiny and fate. In some cases, the result is all up to our destiny. But in another, it's us who should work out for our desired result. And we are not supposed to put the blame on "luck", "destiny" or "fate" if things turn out not as desired. That's just a lame way of escaping the responsibilities to be shouldered. That's my principle and I really hope I would never have it compromised.

Back to topic. My first department to visit was Orthopedics. There are more than 20 beds in the department. And the male and female patients are separated. Is this a practice in every hospitals? This practice is good in a way...haha.....

The staff nurse (That's what we call a normal nurse, because there're many different rankings among nurses. There are head nurses, staff nurses and trainee nurses. "Nurse" is just a general name) explained to us about the department and some gadgets used on patients. After that, we were left to communicate with the patients and their families, if there were any. Besides medical knowledge and experience, communicating skills is also none the less important. Doctors are simply doctors. They can't really know what happens to their patients without talking to them and digging the history of the patients in the first place. They are not God. God knows all but doctors don't.

What's more, some patients can be really emotional. You have to talk to them nicely. I had this experience there. A female patient bit a nurse there when the nurse talked to her. I was not on the spot and thus did not know what the nurse said or did to the patient. But then, we went there and tried to talk to the patient. Due to the fact that she's a Chinese and there's no Chinese nurses there, my group members asked us (the Chinese) to talk to her and find out her problems. I admitted I was being a bit busybody. I thought Chinese would be good to Chinese(ga gi lang). We asked "How are you" in Chinese but she stared at us, with blood on her hand, if not mistaken. In the end, we were proven to be useless-we could help nothing.

During this five-day visit, I had officially paid my visit to Obstetrics & Gynecology, Accident & Emergency, Surgical Department, Forensics, Orthopedics and Specialists' Clinics including urology and dermatology. These are my official visits because I also went the paediatrics without official permission with the other three new-found friends.

From this visit, I have seen the sufferings and ordeal of the patients. Some fall down from motorcycles and broke their limbs, some have their leg amputated and some are terminally ill with late stage cancer, days numbered and virtually waiting for death. I could see that death is certainly not their wish.

Right there and then, I thought, the people out there, who have ever thought of suicide upon being blown by a failure or distressed by countless bad happenings on them, never realize that the patients here are moaning and groaning with physical pain, yet praying and hoping hard to survive the ordeal and get on with life.

How could someone choose to end his life when someone else there is struggling to continue with his life?

How could we not treasure life when a tremendous number of newborns in this world die and do not have the slightest chance to see the world.

How could we not drive cautiously when many other motorists involved in accidents broke their legs, become paralyzed and regret what they did?

How could we still smoke and lead unhealthy lifestyles when the people with lung cancer and heart diseases regretted their action and swore to change their lifestyles?

We do not usually learn our lessons from other people's happenings. We tend to learn them the hard way. Do things need to be so? Ponder on that. The decision lies in your hand. After all, you are the one who decides on your life.

For me, I have decided to treasure my life and never take my life for granted. I am more determined than ever to become a dedicated doctor that can reach out to the sick.

I know that being a doctor is not merely about diagnosing and treating the patients. It's about trying his/her best and going all out to save precious lives.

Scientifically speaking, the fusion of sperm and ovum gives us our lives. But it's God who enables the fertilization process to take place. Supposedly, it's God who creates us. We are all very prized gift from Him to this world.

Should we not treasure our lives?