Miraculously I Live To Tell My Story – Part 4

….after the first night at the ICU

Fresh “troops” rolled in and they were brisk and business like in what they did. Then the Doctors appeared. Darting back and forth while sieving through patient’s medical records.

It was at this juncture that Doctor Hilmi appeared at the foot of my bed. He looked up at me and asked, “You have Diabetes?” I gave him an affirmative reply and he went on to ask me why I refused to take medication to treat my Diabetes.

After explaining my reasons why I chose to manage my Diabetic condition by a change of lifestyle and discipline over my diet, Dr. Hilmi replied in a pompous manner that I was technically wrong in having made that decision and he went on and on to deride my folly in not subscribing to drugs to control my Diabetes.

“Doctor, do you mind checking what is recorded for my blood sugar level in my medical records that you now hold in your hands, please”, I hastily defended myself. “What is the latest reading of my blood sugar?”

Doctor Hilmi turned red in the face, preferred to remain silent. I gave him the answer. “Doctor, is it not 5.8? And that’s non-Diabetic, if I may add. That’s how effective my management of Diabetes is over drugs.”

Food Sucks

Two slices of bread and a cup of black coffee for breakfast. No butter, no jam, no nothing. No eggs. No creamer.

Worst of all, I had no cash with me and my Bank’s ATM Electronic Cards were left behind at home. Hence, I could not get someone to buy me something better for breakfast from the Cafeteria.

The Heart Guru Visits Me

The Heart Specialist finally appears at my bedside. He has a retinue of doctors and nurses as he moves from bed to bed.

One of the Doctors explains to the Heart Specialist about what is my condition. Then they start to talk about other things and share some moments of laughter.

Doctor Hilmi is with the retinue and he is as quiet as a Church mouse. Gosh! he almost looks as though he was peeing in his pants every time the Specialist looked at him. Anyways, the Specialist looks at me, points to the ECG printout and says to me, “You had a Heart Attack. You need to be kept here for observation for 5 days. This is general practice as it is known that repeat attacks happen most within the first five days.” And off he went.

That’s it.

What’s Wrong With The System

I noticed that almost everything is delegated “away” from the Heart Specialist and is taken care of by whoever is designated to do this and to do that. The Heart Specialist appears and looks at the records of the patient’s vital signs, cracks a few jokes with his fawning aides, speaks to the patient in what Christian’s would term as “Pentecostal tongues” and walks off majestically.

The Heart Specialist only knew me by my bed number. He failed miserably as a Specialist to connect with me on matters that landed me there in the first place – to get the Specialist’s assay and what-if’s in the curative process.

Diagnosis

So all I knew about my problem is that I suffered a heart attack because a piece of paper said so. And hopefully it is a piece of paper that belonged to me and not to some other patient. But still, it is the paper that is pointed at and I am declared a heart attack case.

What else did I learn about my health or unhealthy condition?

Nothing. I am not supposed to know. So that if they made any mistakes, I wouldn’t know they made mistakes. Like I was not told that the Heart Specialist that first morning had instructed that I be given an injection to dilute my blood. And I learned a day later that the order was not followed and I was never given the injection. See what I mean?

Next: More to tell about my Diagnosis