Nut job!!

I just read the following story in The Star today. How desperate can one get? IMO the headline should read as "Welder's plan to screw got screwed" :)

Welder`s love plans unscrewed
By MEERA VIJAYAN

JOHOR BARU: A welder who tried to elongate his penis with a nut found himself in a pickle when the nut got stuck after he had an erection.
The victim, from Taman Sri Skudai, had apparently been trying to increase the length of his penis ahead of his engagement next week when disaster struck.

t is learnt that the incident occurred on Thursday and the 20-something-year-old victim went to the Sultanah Aminah Hospital here to seek treatment when he was unable to get the nut off himself.
Unfortunately, hospital authorities were at a loss and had to call the Fire and Rescue Department for assistance.
A department spokesman confirmed that they received a call from the hospital yesterday, and sent seven firemen to help out.
They, too, were unable to remove the nut.
At press time, the nut was still firmly attached to the base of the man's genitals.
This is the second case in the past week involving objects stuck on penises. On Aug 25, firemen were summoned to the University Malaya Medical Centre in Kuala Lumpur to cut a steel ring from a patient's penis after numerous attempts by doctors failed to dislodge it. It is believed the patient, in his 20s, had slipped the ring onto his penis to increase his sexual prowess."

I think anyone silly enough to resort to such measures either has a disastrously small member or a pea sized brain. Maybe more of the latter.

I also wonder as to how well trained our public sector doctors are since they had to call the fire department for help in dealing with such a small matter (no pun intended). Or maybe the steel ring actually worked so well that a scalpel couldn't do the work and they needed an axe. :)

Update on Crap Doc

Last Thursday, I followed Noe to see her doctors. I met her oncologist (I'm surprised how young the doctor is..a little too young for my liking to be treating Noe and speaks with a wanna be accent) as well as the "world renowned" surgeon who messed up her chemo port, who also speaks with a "keh ang moh" accent. What is it with people who have been overseas to study...there's no need to show off your accent!!

I don't know about you but I have a certain expectation of what doctors should look like. And trust me, this surgeon looked more like a market pork seller than a surgeon. Prior to the visit, Noe took our advice and met Prof Y for a second opinion on her chemo port. As expected, Prof Y said that the port had to be taken out and what more it was infected/swollen and sweating from the scars. Unfortunately, the "world renowned" surgeon had to take it out since no one would want to touch his shoddy work. We were rather upset because that would mean Noe would have to get him to operated on her again. Poor Noe.

When it was our turn for the consult with crap doc, he was shocked to see that Noe brought friends with her and if I noticed correctly, he was trembling. And I must say that was quite satisfying. To his credit, this time he actually apologized for the non functioning leaky chemo port. But I was rather disgusted that he touched Noe's hand in the midst of consoling her. I was so tempted to tell him to take his hands off my friend but I had to control myself because he still had to work on Noe. Crap doc had the audacity to suggest that maybe Noe should let him carry out more test on the port. Come on!!! What other test are needed? The scars are sweating, the surrounding area inflamed and she was already burnt once by the chemo. Just get the bloody thing out before things get worse!!

One would think that rather than risk being sued, one would try to salvage what is left of a bad situation by suggesting that the following operation would not be charged. So when we clearly stated that it would not be right for Noe to have to bear the cost of any follow up operation, he agreed that he would not be charging her for his work but she would have to pay for other related medical and hospital charges for the operation. This got us fuming mad as it certainly wasn't by choice that Noe had to undergo another operation under GA. And guess what? Crap doc again had the audacity to suggested that maybe he should do the operation under the Government Wing rather than the Private Wing to save her money. Can you imagine how insulted we were!!!What balls!!!! (forgive my language- just so fed up with crap doc) Come on!! It's isn't about the money but the sheer principle of the whole thing. Doesn't he know that a leaky chemo port is solid grounds for a lawsuit? And to think he would rather risk his already "world renown" reputation over 2 measly thousands?!! All he needs is to do another 2 crappy operations on an innocent unassuming patient and all the cost would be covered.

To further reinforce his crappy-ness as a surgeon, he missed what I would think would be a rather standard procedure to check on especially with a cancer patient. As Noe just finished her first week of chemo and as expected according to her oncologist, her white blood cells were rather low and susceptible to infection. Noe clearly informed him twice that her WBC were low,(around 2.4) but he didn't even ask to see the blood test report and immediately scheduled a surgery the next day for the port to be removed. Thank goodness when we went back to see the oncologist and informed her that the operation would be the next day, she had the presence of mind to call up "crap doc" to suggest that he do the operation few days later when the WBCs improves. Is he crap or what?!!!

Anyway, Noe now has to wait for her WBC to improve and may only be able to remove the infected chemo port early this week. Guess what? Crap doc didn't even prescribe anything for the infection. The oncologist had to do his job for him!!

Please help pray that when Noe goes under this crap doc's knife again, he won't mess anything up and that her new line will be done much better by another doc in SJMC. (where I personally think she should have gone to in the first place)

Is It So Difficult For Doctors To Say Sorry?

Ok before I start griping about how unprofessional some doctors can be I just want to clarify that I do acknowledge that God has a purpose for everyone and truly there are some doctors who are put here on earth to be God's healing hands. Unfortunately, there are also some who have gone ahead of themselves and think that they are god and that the rest of the world owes them a living.

In my opinion, I believe that any doctor that goes into the profession for the money do not qualify to be doctors. If money is the motivation then truly these doctors are doing an injustice to mankind. How can a doctor look at a patient and only see dollar signs and not the welfare of the patient? How can a doctor look at a patient and not empathize with the suffering and pain that the patient is going through? How can a doctor look at a patient and not want to do their best to heal or easy the patient's suffering? I know everyone is allowed an off- form day but unfortunately I think when it comes to dealing with anothers life there aren't second chances.

When someone chooses to be a doctor it comes with the job that they are expected to live up to a higher standard of care. Clearly no one is perfect and mistakes are made. But when you are dealing with a life and a mistake is made, there is even more reason why doctors should learn to apologize. I understand doctors find it very difficult to acknowledge that a mistake has been made for fear of lawsuits but as the saying goes there are many ways to skin a cat. One need not apologize for the mistake but at least be empathetic and acknowledge the pain that the patient has to endure for the "unexplainable" event/ situation.

So what caused this ranting? I've blogged previously about my friend Noe. As mentioned in my earlier post, her last scan results were not good and she has to undergo a much more intensive chemo treatment, this time 3 sets of 5 daily session in a row with a gap of one week in between sessions. When she did her earlier round of chemo, it was decide that to ease the pain of all the poking and vein finding, she would insert a chemo port. So she went to see this doctor, Dr C Ng, who is supposedly a surgeon at the hospital she's being treated in. From what I understand from my cousin, a chemo port is usually inserted close to the neck region where there is less flesh. For whatever reason this is done I'm not too sure. Anyway, this "brilliant" doctor decided to charge my friend $4,000 to insert the port. But after her surgery, when she woke up, she noticed that the port had been inserted just above the swell of her breast. When she asked this "brilliant" Dr C Ng, he said that he did it for cosmetic reasons, in case she wanted to wear any low cutting tops.

Come on!!!! Here's my friend trying to fight for her life and he's telling her about cosmetic reasons. How idiotic can he get?? So when she went for next cycle of chemo, as expected the port did not function well. So C came (note he doesn't deserve to be called a doctor) he twiddled with the port and lucky for him got it to work. Unfortunately, that was the first and last time it worked. So poor Noe had her veins poked for subsequent sessions. When the first cycle was completed, she returned to see C and all he could say was to wait for the scan results in order to decide how to proceed. The best thing was that for that so called "consultation", C had the audacity to charge her for the visit. Not a word of apology!!!

Unfortunately, as mentioned, the scan wasn't encouraging hence this new chemo session. Since her forearm veins can no longer be poked, she returned to C and went under GA for him to put in a new port. Mind you, the old port still remains. This time he charged her $2000 to correct his shoddy work. Just last Tuesday, Noe began her latest series of treatments, and guess what?! the port didn't work again. Not only did it not work but it leaked. Noe was in such pain and was crying as the nurses took the line out as the chemo leaked and burned her surrounding tissue. As expected, C was no where to be found. Even the oncologist couldn't reach him!! It is so frustrating to see someone who is already suffering to have to suffer more because of another's incompetence. So now Noe has to be poked day after day through whatever feasible vein on her hand.

I'm sharing this because not only because I want to vent but to warn others out there to stay away from this doctor. He doesn't deserve to be a doctor. Like my friend put it, he was more interested in reading about some anal probe allegation on his desktop than looking at her breast :) That truly shows how committed he is as a doctor. The shocking thing was that apparently he's know among other doctors as a con-man. I'm not upset that he made the mistake, what I am pissed off about is that he didn't even apologize to my friend for putting her though all this. So dear people, be aware and be careful when choosing doctors!!

Sad week

It has been a rather sad week for me. First it was regards to my GM's mother who was recently diagnosed with cancer and had a hysterectomy. We visited her mom early last week and were very surprised that she recovered so quickly for a person of her age. She was extremely chatty and happy to see us when we where there. But lately, my GM shared with me that her mom over the weekend did sillythings like taking all her sleeping pills, drinking clorox and refusing to talk and eat. I visited her with a friend to pray for the mom and unfortunately it was so obvious that the lady I saw a week earlier was no longer the same. All she wanted to do was sleep and ignore us. I called my doctor friend and was adviced to get her to see the psychiatrist immediate. My GM immediately took her in the afternoon and the doctor prescribed some anti depressents and did a brain scan. The results came out and confirmed that her brain has shrunk. How is this possible? How can a perfectly sane
lady become senile just over one month? Apparently nothing much can be done except to hold the old lady and her family in our prayers as they face this new challenge in life.

The other sad news is about my friend Noe. She has just completed her 2nd round of chemo and apparently her latest scan doesn't look very promising. The doctors are now trying to figure out the next course of action. If you are reading this, even if you don't know her please please pray for God's healing to be upon her. Everytime I think of her I can't seem to control my tears but she with God's grace is so strong and cheeful. Please God, please heal her.

The latest crap/sad new I had to deal with this week was with regards to one of my manager's baby. The poor baby who is only 4 months old has been sick over a month and after being transferred from one hospital to another and after having been poke probed and puctured, the doctors can't seem to figure what is wrong with him. First it was suspected leukemia and then all the many test came out inconclusive. Today after being passed on the phone from one nurse to another in SJMC and all sounding rather reluctant to accept the child,they finally agreed to admit the baby once beds are available. Please pray that God will send capable doctors to help to help give this baby a fighting chance at life.

My prayer for this week is that God's peace and grace will be upon all those afflicted and that God will show me how I can help them and not feel so useless.