Another case of sub-standard health care

February 6th, 2008 at 23:59 · Filed Under Critiques, Days in My Life, Friends, Injuries, Medical, WTF 

I wrote an article about sub-standard health care provided by government hospital sometime ago. Read it here. Today, we experienced another with our friend, Richard, who had a terrible accident last night.

We were going to grandma’s to help prepare the CNY eve dinner. It was about 1100+ when we arrived at the general hospital. Richard’s leg had been plastered without any surgery. LA and I were shocked and we got further details of what the specialists said from Richard. He told us one female specialist said he needed a surgery and the other male said no need surgery. WTF! What specialists were they? Were they qualified? I doubted.

We confirmed with a few friends who worked in hospital and they told us surgery was necessary to repair bone fractures. The earliest surgery the general hospital could schedule for Richard was next Thursday. It would be 10 days after his accident! WTF! He could have infection and had his leg amputated! We quickly provided him options to seek professional medical treatment in private hospital. He was concerned with insurance claims and the medical expenses. Private health care is many times more expensive than government hospital. I helped him to sort out some insurance doubts and advised him to decide quickly because today was CNY eve and there would be followed by two public holidays and weekend. Charges could be double or triple in operating theater and medical fees.

We waited until about 1645 and he finally called me that he had decided to seek professional medical treatment at private hospital. Without any delay, LA called her ex-colleagues in private hospital and arranged an ambulance and informed the doctor to standby.

By 1730, he was transferred to Putra Specialist Hospital and was under Dr. Ramu’s care. Surgery was scheduled at 2100 and after the CNY eve dinner, I went to see him at around 2000. Richard’s parents had gone home for dinner and he was alone. Poor Richard. I could understand his loneliness and fear as I had experience a surgery in 2006.

Before 2030, the nurses came in with an OT wheeled bed. They changed him. He was too embarrassed to get naked in front of the female nurses (his first time in front of female :) a virgin I supposed :D) He finally submitted to the sweet persuasion of the nurses. There gone his virginity! LOL. I accompanied him to the OT waiting area. That’s the furthest I could go. I comforted him and saw him being pushed into the OT. I went home and called to inform his parents.

I called his sister around 2350 and she told me Richard was soundly asleep and had not waken up after the surgery. I was relieved to hear he was fine after his surgery. Get well soon, my friend.

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One Response to “Another case of sub-standard health care”

  • Hospital visit on first day of CNY on February 15th, 2008 0:44 1

    [...] we went to Putra Specialist Hospital to visit Richard. He met an accident and had his ordeal at the general [...]

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