HOSPITAL COOKED MY SON

Fatherhood has a penchant to reveal man’s stupidity. I was a proud man until about 20 years ago. During the birth of my son I realised I knew nuts. When my wife was 6 and a half months pregnant, she developed a condition called PIH, Pregnancy Induced Hypertension, I wrote about this in my earlier blog. Dr Sheila from the Klang maternity hospital immediately asked us to go to University Hospital as it was an emergency and a matter of life and death for both mother and child.

I wanted both to be safe, it never occurred to me that I may have to choose the life of either one. But, what if I have to choose. Shall I choose the life of the mother over the child or should I choose the child over the mother. This was a question I was glad I did not have to answer, nor was it asked. At that very moment I was not even thinking.

Reflecting on it now, I asked myself what if I choose the mother over the child. I believe my wife will feel guilty and may not forgive me for the rest of her life. On the flip side, if I had to choose the child over the mother, I will not be able to live with myself. Being a Chinese I wanted both, just like most Chinese who bet the 4D will buy the same number from 3 different companies, Kuda, TOTO and Magnum. There was one more possibility, what if I have no choice and loses both.

But all the above did not happen at that time. My wife and I were too busy being worried.

My wife was so worried that the baby could die as it was as he was more than two months premature.

Myself I was worried because I do not know what I should worry about, maybe because baby was not in my stomach. The only thing I was thinking about was the condition of my wife.

The blessing was when we met the gynecologist who happened to be my brother in law’s ex classmate. His name was Dr Hanif, former doctor with the navy and later moved on to University Hospital. Dr Hanif’s sister was my wife’s friend. When he recognized my wife, he immediately move her to a better bed at a better location for easy monitoring. This was when I don't mind some benefits from connections.

Because my son was premature, he had to exit the sideway via caesarian, a method named after Julius Caesar, you can read it up yourself.

My mom and dad were there too during the day of the surgery.

My son was delivered in the morning of 28 March 1997. He was so small at no more than 1.89 kg and had to be placed in the Pediatric ICU. I can see the veins and arteries under his translucent skin. At the ICU I could see that my son was connected with no less than 10 wires to a few machines. He was on oxygen ventilator too.

The very next day, Dr Hanif met me in the morning of 29 March. He told me my son was too premature, his brain was not fully formed and he cannot breath on his own. So a special injection that will stimulate the brain to function was needed, and it cost RM1200 and I must pay by cash or cheque immediately. Dr Hanif told me that as a friend this is the cost price that was to be paid direct to the pharmaceutical company.

I didn’t think too much and said yes please go ahead with the injection and I wrote the cheque, good thing I had my cheque book that day.

Dr Hanif administer the injection and immediately after I can see my son’s brain moving and heart started to beat on its own.  What a magical drug it was, just RM1200 and it helped my son’s brain to function. I was thinking what if we order 200 plus such injections and gave to our parliamentarians.

On the 3^rd morning at 8 am on 30 March, I went to visit my son in the ICU. Turning into his incubator I saw three ultraviolet lights trained on my son. Dr Hanif said it was normal that prematurely born babies usually develop jaundice. I left at 9 am for work.

At 6pm I went back to the ICU and went to my son’s incubator and saw the three ultraviolet lights still trained brightly at him. I looked at my son and he was all black. I quickly went to see the nurse and asked her to turn down the power. The nurse told me, "Sir that is not your son, your son is out of the ICU and moved to the normal baby care unit, that one ah, is an Indian boy."

It does not matter how many times I told this story; it still brings laughter to the audience and embarrassment to me.

Till this day I still feel stupid to think that the hospital will let my son cooked under the UV lights.