Damn.... 1 more critical case in ICU... and 1 unstable in Iso...

I was flipping through the latest issue of "Spring" (a sort of newsletter for residents), and came across this page, where 4 children (aged 8, 6, 3+ and 3 years old) are asked several questions to see how much do they really know about Singapore.
I am especially amused by the answers given by the 3+ and 3years old children.


Boy, 3 1/2 years old.
Q: What is the name of our President?
A: Huh?

Q: What animal is the Merlion?
A: Baby Lion

Q: What do you like best about National Day?
A: (Pints to book on insects) See the ants? I like the red ants better

Q: Er.. Okay. What is your favourite Singapore dish?
A: Eggs

Q: Who is the founder of Singapore?
A: Find what?

Q: Complete this sentence: Singaporean people are ...
A: Nice. Because my friends like to play with me


Girl, 3 years old.
Q: What is the name of our President?
A: Is his face on our paper money?

Q: What animal is the Merlion?
A: It sprays water from its mouth

Q: What do you like best about National Day?
A: We put up the Singapore flag at our window -- our neighbours also.

Q: What is your favourite Singapore dish?
A: Just white rice, please. I don't like vegetables

Q: Who is the founder of Singapore?
A: (With prompting from sister) Goh Chock Tong.

Q: Complete this sentence: Singaporean people are ...
A: Indian, Malay and Chinese.
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Interesting! I shall ask my 5 year old nephew the same questions too!

Medical Miracle

I always joked that one reason why I want to work as a medical social worker is because it is the next best alternative to being a Doctor. Since young, I have this interest about human body and always being fascinated by grossly and bloody scenes, such as the real organs, medical procedure.

I happened to watch this reality tv show "Surgery Saved My Life" on Channel 5 just now, and it showed case an organ transplant at John Hopkins in Baltimore. If you have watched Grey's Anatomy, there is an episode where there are 6 couples who sort of i donate my kidney to you, you donate yours to hers, and she donates hers to him. I thought that it is just one "exaggerated" scene in the drama, and who knows! such programme really exist! Amazing!

It is actually called Living Donation, which you do not need to be related to the recipient. In the show, it has 3 couples -- 3 donors and 3 recipients. There's a father (recipient)-daughter (donor), husband (recipient)-wife (donor), and dunno1 -dunno2 (i can't remember the last couple's r/s). So the daughter donates to dunno1, dunno2 donates to husband, and wife donates to father. The 3 couples are only allowed to meet one another after the whole transplant surgery ends. This to prevent any hiccups, as one person's withdrawal from the surgery, will affect the other 5 people. The surgeries are all one at the same time in one day.

In the show, they really showed the "live" surgery, like how the doctors remove the donor's kidney (and yes! they really used a plastic bag to bag the donor's kidney from the body as shown in Grey's Anatomy!), wash the kidney in cold water, how they connect the arteries to the kidneys and oh, one crucial step is to test that the urethral can pass urine before connecting it back to the bladder! Interesting!

In case u want to know how the surgeries went, the answer is: successful. All the 3 donors are well and kicking.
However, according to the show, the transplanted kidneys will still have 25% chance of showing rejection within the nx 60 days. So, in the end, out of the 3 recipients, only 1 managed to survive. From what I see, the 2 who have passed away, are of older age and seemed to have co-morbidities. One died due to a unusual lung infection (new kidney showed no rejection though), and one died about 4 months later due to heart condition.

I think so far in Singapore, Pierre Png and Andrea DeCruz would probably be an example of living donation. Not too sure if there is any other instances.
If otherwise, I doubt HOTA at this moment can make any significant improvements in expediting the organ waiting list.

In the midst of H1N1 ... ...

... ... it is very important for healthcare workers to be compliant to hand hygiene and wear mask.

In office

Phone camera is a very good tool...

khoon chai wee laughed at me for wearing yellow and there happened to be some bananas in the pantry..

well... my surname is yellow wat ..... ......

posing with the always-not-very-fitting scrubs.

(y i say camera phone is good.. coz i secretly took this in the toilet!!)

The eventful batch

Some of you would have know that I am currently having my Grad Dip course in counselling practice at Counselling and Care Centre..

And it has been an eventful period with the whole H1N1 saga, and recently, Anthony Yeo's demise. Anthony Yeo has been a much respected counsellor in Singapore, and I believed that his demise has actually affected many counterparts who are working, or have once worked with him, and of course, the countless clients' whose life has been touched by him. You can sign the online condolences book at the Counselling and Care Centre website at http://www.counsel.org.sg/

Hopefully there's nothing more down the road, and the eventful batch can complete the course uneventfully!!

how much do you know about ur colleagues and how much will you want ur colleagues to know?

Got to know very recently that a colleague's child is not well, and apparently was admitted to hospital, and that she has been staying over at the hospital to accompany her child for the past few days.. To think that some of us have actually been working quite closely with her for the past few days, but I actually did not noticed anything amiss about her.
We were planning to visit her child in the hospital, but realised that we dunno her address, her child's name, age, or husband's name.

Then it is back to the question of "how much do you know about ur colleagues" and "how much will you want ur colleagues to know?"

Upon reflection, I think she did mention that she felt "relieved" when another colleague has offered to take over some of her load. Was it a clue that we should pick up? being a MSW, I felt quite bad for not picking up something from her.. Or she was covering so well that she did not even show any signs and symptoms of possible distress?

I dunno. Personally, i think i do not know much of my colleagues and I am sure that my colleagues dunno me well too. But it is because I do not revealed much. there are things that my friends do not know too.