1 Malaysia

The ward is very multiracial and shared by male and female patients. Some rooms are for male patients while others for females. There seemed to me more male patients, they were mostly Indian men with lung cancer due to heavy smoking, and also liver cirrhosis due to heavy drinking. The men are mostly from the lower echelon of the society.  Most of them seemed to have problems understanding medical care as they fought the nurses over needles, drips and blood drawing.  Some even threw their medication away.

X ray of a lung with cancerous cells.

The Indian male patient who had been howling all day and all night now screamed at the top of his lungs for help.  It was unnerving to listen to him.  Nurses rushed in and he was scolded for pulling his IV tube out, moving his arm away in the midst of blood drawing, and kicking at his dining table.

My mother striked up a conversation with an elderly Chinese lady next door. She couldn’t sleep at night so she promised my mother to take care of me at night. Sure enough, she came around at night, drawing the curtains around me to prevent the cold air conditioned air from over powering me, pulling at my blanket so that my toes were covered, and asking me if I needed warm water.

I told the elderly lady that
she was an angel in real life.

Around midnight, a loud commotion was heard, an Indian man shouted, “Ooi, how can you poke the needle in him when he is in pain?”

Then more shouting, the nurses yelled, “Call the security! He is pulling off the IV tube!” 

Two security men rushed in and took the friend out of the ward.  He pleaded with them that he had no money for the bus and it was too late to walk home. The security man told him to sleep on the chairs on the ground floor or get out of the hospital totally.  I listened as if I was listening to a radio drama series. One can hear clearly everything that occurred in that room in the dead of the night.

The male patient continued to moan throughout the night. I wondered if he ever got any sleep.

Because I have not been able to sleep.

By Ching Ching