Walking back to my office on Menara Timur in UMMC following my evening rounds late on Tuesday, I came across a familiar sight above. That was the corridor along on the third to the fifth floor of Manara Timur. Those floors were where the labs were situated as well as the Psychiatric ward. The corridor leading up to there from Menara Utama along the Anaesthesia Department were be dark and isolated at night. From there, I had to take a narrow staircase to my office on the fifth floor.
Back in 2005, I remember vividly an encounter. It was still during the days when I had to stay on site while on call - now I do my calls from home. Late one evening, I was called to tend to a patient on Menara Timur. While walking along the third floor corridor, I saw a familiar silhouette of a patient on mine on the fourth floor. I thought nothing of it until I arrived at the ward. I asked one of the nurses what was the patient doing along the corridor that late at night. it soon dawned on me that patient actually passed away a couple of months prior at his hometown in Johor.
He was only in his late 20s at the time but his cancer proved difficult to treat. He also had some issues with his family, one of those stories where he left his hometown early to prove himself in KL. He did quite well, with an internet business, but unfortunately he was diagnosed with lymphoma a few weeks after his engagement. A few months later, during his chemotherapy, his fiancé left him. Devastated and heart-broken, he gave up hope. He was also not very close with his immediate family and me and my staffs were his confidant. He was very fond of us, and when it was very clear that his disease was not curable, we tried hard to convince him to return to his hometown for his family to look after him in his final weeks. He did so in the end, grudgingly.
News came back that he passed away a few days later. Family was actually glad that he returned home to them.
When I told the nurse about the encounter, it was apparent that I was not the only one who saw this 'apparition'. A few of the nurses and helpers did so as well. Some of them were convinced that he was not happy that he had to go home. The ward Sister once talked to him and heard him say that he wanted to die in the ward, because we were his 'family' as far as he was concerned. A bit later, we had a collection to have a prayer at the hospital surau for a Yasin recital, and since then, we hoped he had found peace as there were no more sightings of him.
Earlier this year, we had a death of a young Malay gentleman, again with lymphoma. He was also very fond of us, and said that he wanted to die in the ward. Sadly, he got his wish. Even though we try to convince patients to spend their dying days at home, they sometimes prefer to pass on in the hospital, where they probably felt safer. After all, most of them had had spent sometimes a couple of years having treatment with our unit, and they do feel a sense of closeness, especially those who were younger.
Saturday, June 4, 2011 at 10:37AM 
