Of Ghost Stories

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.

Of Flooding

We often hear scary stories about flash flooding in the middle of KL town. Yes, it was getting less frequent with the advent of the SMART tunnel, but it was still an issue after heavy downpour. And one such downpour happened this morning.

Luckily the rain abated by 10 am. The main areas where it was still a problem was around Jalan Duta-Semantan intersection as well as Brickfields between KL Sentral and Bukit Persekutuan. I was caught at one of thses points before, and it was so bad that I would avoid these spots everytime it threatened to rain. And I must say the recurring theme at these places were constructions and road building. Bracing myself again this morning.

Gorgeous Blue Sky

I woke up this morning with a bad throat, temperature and body ache. I tried to call for my wife and then I realised that I had no voice. Had a couple of sprays on my throat, the pain was a bit better and the voice was slowly coming back. Reciting the advice from my ENT friend, the worst thing I could do was to whisper. That would cause more strain on my voicebox.

The clinic this morning would be a monster since one of my colleague was away in Kelang, another involved in exams and a few of my MOs were either on leave or ill. My ENT friend told me to take the day off, but looking at the clinic and also the Nurses Day lunch, I think I'd better turn up, at least until lunch.

Rather than driving in myself, I was driven in by our driver to work today - in glorious sunshine. The heavy rain overnight certainly lifted the haze somewhat, but I was not optimistic that it would last that long.

P/S: I would highly recommend hiring a driver if you can afford one. Being driven into work in heavy traffic while being able to surf the net and tweet, plus updating the blog was sheer bliss!

Anjung Siber

A couple of months back, I was disappointed to see one of the badminton court at UMMC - the only one as it turned out as the other one was closed last year and turned into office space - closed for good. The space was turned into an Internet space for UMMC staff and was dubbed Anjung Siber. No it was not idea to give it such a lame name. 

The area was turned into rows of PC stations, all linked to the hospital LAN, but Internet enabled. We were able to surf even Flickr and Facebook - rather lake excuse to ban Facebook when even UM have a UM Facebook Page. I had a quick look at the space yesterday. Visited the blog, my Flickr space, YouTube and Facebook. Speed-wise, there was nothing to shout about - I get faster connection on my iPhone as a modem, although I was sure that the purpose of the space was merely to provide access. Unfortunately, I was not able to access the hospital Xray system from the terminals as I was hoping to be able able to email out some of the CT report to broached into my database. I was able to log into the blood results though.  

On the whole, I think having a dedicated space for staffs to surf the net was avoid idea. The place was not air-conditioned but as it was actually shaped like an airvent, it was not warm. There were fans to keep surfer comfortable. The space was pretty tight though. So if you were looking to do some work while surfing the net, this was not the place. The space was also of available to patients or visitor as you would need the hospital login to access the stations. If the purpose was to be able to surf the net and have a quick peek at your email account, then I guessed the space did its job. 

Last Day! Hurray!

It would come to an end. In fact, I wrote this during lunch, and we would have another couple of sessions before the workshop done. All in all, it has been a success. This was the third time that I was tutoring a similar workshop, and I must say, this has been the best lot. We would be discussing how we could integrate what we learned in the last couple of days in our daily practice, and looking forward to hear what the participants had to say.