A Replacement to Writing? 2005/2006

KK Hospital - Children's emergency

My sister has been running a fever for 10 days that would not subside despite having seen the doctor. Yesterday my mum brought her to the clinic again and the doctor there told her there might be infection in her lungs and wrote a referral letter to be brought to KK Women and Children Hospital.

The scene at the children's emergency department was depressing. Kids were mainly coughing or running a fever. One came in and made a retching noise then promptly retreated into the toilet. Another was squirming on the floor and refused to be brought to a room. He was behaving more like a child at a departmental store who was refused a toy than one who is sick. The parents were getting agitated and embarrassed and were trying desperately to get him to stand up and walk. Later on I saw the parents sitting separately on a row of chairs in the "room-behind-the-red-doors", as I shall call it. Another case of spoiled brat and strained relationship. After we had seen the nurse, we proceeded to the registration and payment counter during which I witnessed a plump eleven-year-old girl who was sitting down at the nurse's table with one hand on her chest struggle to breathe. Nurse put a plastic bag over her nose and mouth and instructed her to breathe slowly and relax. Her breathing slowly eased and later on returned to normal, at least externally. Nurse said she is just too nervous. Something like panic attack. A couple came in craddling their 16-day-old red-faced baby. For what reason, I don't know.

We proceeded to the waiting area next. 5 pages or so of Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye" (read and re-read) later, somebody called my sister's name over the PA system. We approached the red door and entered the room-behind-the-red-doors. It was there I saw the parents of that brat sitting on two ends of the row of chairs. The father was on the phone, the mother leaning against the arm of the chair which was closer to her child, who was lying on one of the beds in the room. My sister took a blood test, prior to which she was very nervous, and was told to wait 45 min or so for the results.We proceeded back to the waiting area where I watched a mother wheel her child on a pram around the place. A mere 10 or 15 min later our queue number was shown on one of the doctor's door. Surprised, we went in. Doctor checked her lungs, her stomach, and then instructed her to do a chest X-ray. We did just that and then returned to the waiting area again. A girl, maybe about 3 or 4 years old came over to where we were sitting, twice. The first time her mother came over and carried her and then pulled a phamplet from the rack on the wall beside us before returning to her seat. The second time, the kid came over and climbed onto the chair beside me and then attempted to climb onto my chair. She was fair and cute and I desperately wanted to pinch her. Sadly, her mother came over and carried her off. There were too many people around anyway.

We received the X-ray about 7 minutes later, and then gave it to the doctor as we were told to. A longer period later, during which I watched "Lost" and read another 10 pages or so of my book, my sister's name was again announced over the PA system and we approached the same doctor's door.

Turns out my sister has Pneumonia. Slight infection of the lungs, incessant coughing and fever, restlessness (trust my mum to figure that out), were all symptoms of pneumonia as we later read from a phamplet. And so we returned home at about 11.30pm and I was too tired from all the observing to do anything except sleep.

posted by tstar @ 9:53 AM