A goodbye

My boss will be leaving next week.

He is the last of the first generation of specialists sent to HTM when we were first upgraded to a district hospital with specialists. First there were three - tiga hero yg ganteng2 semuanya - but Dr Nizam left for Kuantan and then Dr Hanafi left to pursue his subspecialty and now the last of them will be leaving us too.

He brought me into Orthopedics and made a specialty that was previously more like "Huh?" to "I totally get it now!" - and at the same time, 'rescued' me from life that was the OPD. I learnt to suture and wound debride and perform Ray's amputations.

I have been lucky that in the progress of my career, I have had the chance to pursue a little bit of every specialty - in Setiu I was able to practice antenatal scans and learnt to insert IUCDs - and now I can do minor operations without my hands shaking like a leaf..!

But anyway, I digress - he showed us that bosses don't have to be super strict to be heard; that a soft reprimand can be just as effective as a loud one. That it doesn't hurt to lessen the scolding with a laugh. Your subordinates will respect you nevertheless.

He is patient when he teaches and firm when he needs to be. He always wants the best for his patients, so no wonder they all love him so much and would wait for hours just to see him. You can see the twinkle in the makciks' eyes whenever he teases them and you know it's not just for show; and it's not just the makciks, even young teenage (and not so teenage) girls go blushing and hair-a-twirling when they speak to him.

The first thing he taught us was that, in order to be a good MO or specialist, the first and most important thing is your attitude - knowledge can always be garnered but if you're an ass, you will always be one. (The 'ass' word is mine though)

Good luck boss, you will be sorely missed.....