2.sori sheila/sop,aku maseh mengumpul gamba2 dan info tentang mombasa..insyaallah qareeb..gul ensyallah ya zalame
3.cam biase,aku repost email dari aunties/uncles aku yg aku rase amat berguna untuk semua..esp budak medic..coz its written from doctors-to future doctors..
jadi..lepas ni jom stadi pedo/pediatrics ;)
dear nari, tiah and all.
thanks for the advice. i'm better after a course of augmentin (which is of course out of bounds to the medical team doctors, unless their specialist intervene). i gave another course to my room mate. he has diabetes, some funny wound at the toe and bad URTI.
i met the emergency physician (whom i performed coronary angiogram upon, a year ago) and promised him that i will operate underground only. i am a pilgrim here, doctor second, unlike nari. the other day, i found one hajjah unconscious by the roadside. i was about to commence CPR when someone splashed her zamzam water. bingo! she's up again. her pulses at the carotids were present, so my initial assessment was a bit difficult, furthermore you're doing it in the full view by the roadside. silap2 kena belasah dek laki dia.
today we went to visit jabal nur, jabal sur, arafah etc, tapi tengok dari bawah je lah. . i still cant compute how i climbed jabal nur/gua hira' many years ago!!!( i was 32 then) it looked so high now
Dear apul
when I was there, our hospital was like a war zone, especially toward hari wukuf. Trolleys of patients came in non-stop, patients collapsing everyday, we had a few deaths every day among Malaysian pilgrims..It was worse in Arafah , where the death rate was even higher.
somehow in mekah I was very touched with the deaths, unlike in Malaysia where a death is just another death. we bonded with th patients and had a common mission as pilgrims.
I used to make coffe and tea for them. and in between doing rounds I would sit by the beds and chat with them.
I remember one 90 year old man ( I coulntnt believe Tabung Haji allowed him to get on the plane!!!) who stayed with us for the whole Haji season, never going out to the Masjid. I used to bring water to his bed for air sembahyang, combed his hair, took him out to the balcony for some fresh air and lectured him for sleeping too much. I eventually got to know him quite well.
one day he asked me, ada Mee maggie tak? of course we did not supply maggie. Anyway, I went down to the sundry shop just accross the street and got a packet of mee, not maggiee. I went to the kitchen, made him the maggiee, and watched him eat. he ate quietly, finished the bowl, pushed the bowl away, and had the cheek to say "tak sedap!! but that old man made me smile because he reminded me of Tok Wan.He was totally bald, just like Tok Wan. I still have the picture I took with him.
I was particularly moved because most of those who ended up with us were really really old, many were in their 70's. They had no business to be doing haj at that age, they couldn't even walk to the masjid on their own!. they were decent kampong folks. They had saved all their lives, and when there was enough money, they were just too old.
they could not handle the trip, they had never left their kampungs, they could not eat the food (they needed sambal belacan, and nasi panas and ikan kering!).they succumb to pneumonias mostly. Their as old and as withered wives would sit by the beds day and night watching their husbands going down and down, and saw how we rescuscitated their husbands, and when all had failed and they were told that their husbands had died, they sat quietly and stared into space, not quiet believed that they were now alone. Their husbands of half century were now gone. We would ask them for family members, no they would say , they came alone with their husbands.
Then the Saudi Authourity came, and unceremoniously took the bodies away in a jiffy, and that was the last time they saw their husbands. No goodbyes, no prayers, no mandi mayat. And the wives would still be sitting on the chair beside the bed, still stoned.
Apul, if you ask me, all doctors should do a stint in Mekah, or in a war, it just changes one's outlook as a doctor, and as a human being. I wish I could go again with Tabung Haji, (I just need to call a few friends there) but at my age, I dont think I would be fair to the patients. The work is too physically hectic and emotionally draining, not enough sleep, too intense. It's like being on call EVERY DAY in a busy emergency department !
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