Should we keep UMMC Astro-free?

It's Sunday, but since one of my colleague is away in Taiwan, I covered him for the weekend duties. I came in for my morning ward round and late morning, I met one of the Medical Officers in the Common Room. While waiting for her, I came across a piece of note on the wall. I snapped a picture of it on my mobile, but for some reason I can't transfer it to my laptop. It was a simple feedback form from the committee asking what they would like to have in the room for the future. One of the reply was to have Astro, the satellite TV company here in Malaysia. Some body wanted a subscription to include the sport channels. The request was promptly rejected and the reason being it may jeopardise patient's well being. Hmm... seems far fetched? Let me tell you my experience.

Wednesday, 7th June 2002. World Cup, Japan. England playing Argentina. I was working in Manchester then. Everyone was watching the match in the doctor's common room. It was just before 11 am due to the time difference. Score was nil-nil. 42 minutes gone in the first half. Every one was still glued in their seat. I can count there were about 50 of us in the small space.

It has been a tense game, mainly played in midfield, but in term of technique, the Argentinean were clearly superior. After 19 minutes, Owen Hargreaves was injured, and was replaced by Trevor Sinclair. England lost what ever left of their midfield superiority. A stray pass, and Owen got through towards goal, but took a heavy touch. From nowhere the keeper came in and upended him. Pierluigi Collina, the referree, has no choice but to point to the penalty spot. Beckham had the penalty duty, not only to score a goal, but to bury the memory of France 98 when he was sent off in the quarter finals for kicking Diego Simeone, an Argentinean midfielder. Everyone remember that infamous incident right?

The room was quiet. Becks put the ball on the spot. Took five steps back. It seemed an eternity. Suddenly all our bleeps went off in synchrony, "CARDIAC ARREST, CORONARY CARE UNIT; CARDIAC ARREST, CORONARY CARE UNIT". Argh! Luckily I was not on call. The anesthetist shouted, "whoever that is, he deserves to die!". Beckham scored seconds later.

Hmm! I wonder if you are watching such a tense match, with the bleep going off, what would you do? I suggest no Astro in the MO common room. The UMMC website should also say, "please come to UMMC, where the doctor will be on hand 24 hours a day and their common room is Astro-free!" Long live UMMC! Would you sent your relatives into a hospital with Astro installed?

Update on Monday, March 16, 2009 at 10:10PM by Haris Abdul Rahman

Managed to upload the said image

ManYoo 1 - Liverpool 4, and my pre-game rituals proven right ... ish

Oh dear! Vidic really got spooked tonight. Turned into an ordinary defender by Torres who had an excellent week, a stormer in the midweek game against Madrid the other night. I am optimistic still about winning the League. It is the consistency that counts over a period of many month. It is not about just having a good week, and getting beat later by the likes of Middlesborough.

Not only that I am a football fanatic, I am also born superstitious. I always put on my right shoe before the left. Enters a room with my right foot. Always stepping into a vehicle with my right peg, hence Malaysia being a right-hand drive country prove tricky when I enter into the driver's seat. Recently Manchester United has had a good run. Winning all and sundry, not always in style, but winning none the less. I would like to think I have put in my contribution in the winning streak. Every weekend game since Xmas, I always go out to a Mamak joint near my place and buy myself Mee Ladna, tandoori chicken and naan bread. I then don my 2001 long-sleeved home kit, with the number 4 and name 'Veron' printed on the back. ManYoo won every game, van der Sar went on to break the British record etc etc.

I was going through the ritual again today. But shock horror! My red replica shirt is in the washer! Therefore, I wore my 2003 shirt with 7 Ronaldo instead! At least that would be worth half the luck. Oh no! It's definitely not working. Or as Randy Jackson said it best' "I'm not feeling it, dawg!". I supposed it is only a game, but I am sure the phrase, "Sports is not about the winning, but about the taking part" was coined by a loser. I suppose if we were going to mess up, let's do it well and proper. Take it with the chin up. There are other games to be won, and I can bet Liverpool will lose their next league match. Watch this space.

But first things first. Have to call Alex Ferguson and apologise on behalf of my maid for not washing my shirt in time for the match.

Friggatriskaidekaphobia

Hmmm ... that was I am sure a mouthful. Google the above term, and you'll come to its definition. It is the fear of Friday the 13th. And this year alone, there are 3 Friday the 13ths, today, last month and on the coming November. Why are people friggatriskaidekaphobic? If you count all the months in the last 400 years (that is 4800 months), the majority of 13th of the months actually are Fridays - 688 of them, with Sunday and Wednesdays close second at 687! So Friday the 13th are more common than we think and they should stop making frigging movies out of it!

This Friday the 13th also marked a milestone for me. My first ever day on call as a Consultant. Yes .... after tomorrow 8 am, I can say, been there, done that and worn the T shirt, providing everything runs smoothly till then. When I was a houseman, doing 56 straight hours on duty for the NHS I was complaining of too much work, and that my senior not doing much to help out. Then a year later, being a Senior House Officer (equivalent to Medical Officers in Malaysia), I complained that the Casualty Officers giving me incomplete referrals. Cursing them for not doing this and that!

Promoted to Registrar come with a different job description, and the one I hated most, taking on other specialty referrals! The Surgical Houseman found a lady with low blood sugar, what does he do? Call his SHO, and guess what he says? Call the Medical Registrar. So your job is reduced to taking referrals from other Housemans! Argh! When you turn up at their ward, they did not even bother coming up to you to tell you about the case. They were too busy setting lines etc!

Hey! I am now doing Consultant calls. So what had happened today? 10 am, call from Department. You have a referral, an 83-year-old with a broken hip in the Orthopaedic ward. They were planning to take her to theatre but noticed that her blood pressure a bit high. Had to get a medical consult prior. Presto, that's where I come in. Saw the lady. She was known to have high blood pressure and she was writhing in agony with her hip pain! Imagine how high my blood pressure went when all that needed giving was some painkiller meds ... and may be a slap on the face of who ever decided to call me! Ha!

Time to hit the Casualty floor to see what's cooking then. Wish me luck! And may your Friday the 13th be a lucky one!

United 2 - Inter 0

Woke up early to catch the last 10 minutes of the Champions League matches. United was cruising away, while Arsenal were preparing themselves for the extra time at Roma. Vidic and Ronaldo scored that night. Arsenal went on to win the penalty shoot-out and might play United after the draw on the 20th. Spend the morning perfecting the CRF for the Febrile Neutropenia studies while sorting out other issues, amongst them setting out tinyurl for my future links.

Grand rounds and Day Care followed suit. The afternoon CME today was prepared by Dr Iqbal. He spend 30 minutes talking about Multiple Myeloma. The talk was preceded by a overview of Imipenem by MSD, who also provided some nice Turkish salad for my lunch. Spend the rest of the afternoon going through some Myeloma cases that might be published in a local pharmaceutical bulletin, followed by a short case session with the final year medical students, who are anxious with their upcoming Final MBBS in two weeks.

Currently stuck in the office waiting for the rain to stop, before going home to the kids and Anita. Had a handful of papers to mark later. 

Update on Thursday, March 12, 2009 at 10:24PM by Haris Abdul Rahman

Finally reached home at around 8. Completed the alteration for the CRF on Filemaker Pro. Have to catch some rest as I will be on call tomorrow. Might be able to complete all the paperwork in time for the weekend. Spent some time updating Idlan's page - link posted on the right!

Day Trip to Johor Bahru

Had an early start today. Cought a glimpse of the football score before leaving for KLIA. Damn Liverpool leading Real Madrid 3-0. It ended up 4 nil. They are playing United this weekend, and for sure they will get a stuffing. Left for KLIA finally at around 5.30.

Took slightly longer than expected on the empty morning traffic, taking an whole hour. Finally settled in and waited for Zack. He had made an online check-in last night and bringing over the printed boarding pass. Boarded the flight for 7.25. Luckily so as we found out later on that the 10ish flight was cancelled. Seems to be a regular occurrence on MAS now in their plan to cut operating cost. Reached Senai Airport a little after 8.15 and went ahead to have breakfast.

Found out that Dato' Chang was around to do his hospital visit. The CME started around 1.15, with only 20 MOs attending. Chang pointed out that the attendance could have been better with more support from hospital management. Reminds me of my previous talk in Hospital Melaka where around 60 people attended. Rushed to the airport to make the 3.50 flight, in time to hit the KL rush hour on the drive back home.

In the lecture, I touched on definition of febrile neutropenia and approach on the empirical management when it comes to initiating antimicrobials. Went through the IDSA guideline, then pointed the resistance pattern in UMMC. The Q&A was interesting, but hopefully the message was clear enough.