I was oncall last night. My partner had a horrendous one where he couldn't sleep much due to the trickling in of cases all throughout the night. Hence I was not in the best of moods when I started to be on call.
During the early evening, it was pretty quiet. There was a patient waiting to be wheeled into the ward, an elderly pakcik who was being nebulised, and an anime character look-a-like who looked like he was about to collapse from exhaustion and fever.
I was told pakcik requested to be admitted. Apparently he was fit to be allowed home. The male ward was already one bed short of being full and I wanted to save the bed for someone who really needed it, rather than someone who thinks he needed it.
Despite being told that he could go home, pakcik threw a fit and sulked. Apparently he sat on the floor and dragged himself all over the place and finally went outside at the waiting area. One of the security guards then actually wheeled him in again later that night, put him on stretcher number three and there he stayed for the rest of the night.
Needless to say, pakcik had a better sleep than me despite having construction work going on merely a few feet away.
The next morning after sahur, I went to clerk a case of abdominal mass (since when abdominal mass of 8 months is an emergency, seriously lah) and pakcik was still there.
and I wondered, how bad can it be that this pakcik would rather sleep on a stretcher in an emergency department, rather than go home?
2 comments:
i have a feeling that, for some of our patients, the little attention that we give them at the emergency department is more than they would ever get at home. i met many pakcik and makcik who continue to work and support themselves on their own sampai kubur kata mari because they didn't want to burden their children (because their children have their own family to take care of). What nonsense. BS betul... i hope i won't end up becoming anything like their children.
Some old folk unfortunately need TLC, and unfortunately the ones that we so-called given them are more than what their children give.
Some parents would die rather than "menyusahkan anak sendiri". Parents instinct I guess, sacrifice themselves for the sake of their children - even though that children have their own grandchildren.
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