Is it the patient, or the doctor?

www.yvonnefoong.com

Yvonne Foong is a victim of a rare disease called Neurofibromatosis, which causes a string of tumours to grow up her spinal cords and near her brain. This compresses her nerves and paralyses her in many ways, in which, took plenty of years to recover from and to walk again. Partially blind and deaf, even now, she's still battling to live a normal life. Before all of this, she was just a regular growing teen, learning ballet and figure skating, passionate and confident about her future. And though this disease might have crippled her in many ways physically, she stayed strong and pull through with the expertise of modern medical help. She writes about her life in her website, and aims to create awareness and support for her cause.

I thought this particular article she wrote ring plenty of bells for us, to what most of us face from our doctors in Malaysia, especially those working under our goverment.

Read on if you please.

Article: Is the patient lazy or the doctor?

April 26th, 2010 | Category: Caring For Dad

Mom just told me that the UMMC doctor said dad can walk, he just doesn’t want to move. I told mom not to believe her.

Unfortunately. I am all too familiar with these doctors. That happened to me when I had my spine surgery at KLGH in 2002.

After Neurosurgeon Johari Sinegar removed multiple tumors along my upper thoracic spine, I couldn’t sit or stand. When I propped the bed higher and higher to sit up on my own, one of the doctors who I suppose was the MO said to me, “What’s the use of sitting up when you cannot even walk?” The doctors and nurses said that I was lazy.

They wanted to discharge me even before the physiotherapist could work with me beyond simple bed exercises. Mom yelled at the doctor and asked him how could he discharged me when I could not even walk.

He buckled up and allowed me to stay on. Then the physiotherapist could continue to work with me. Two of them needed to do it together. One carried me and held my body upright. Another bent down to hold both my feet in the standing position. My soles could not even feel the floor when we started. I felt like floating and was afraid of collapsing.

They did this a couple of times before giving me a walker. With the walker, the physiotherapist clung onto me and the walker closely as we walked to make sure I did not fall. It hurt so much to walk but I recovered all thanks to the physiotherapists.

So when doctors in this country say that you are lazy, they just want to be done with your case as soon as possible. Don’t let them pull down your self-esteem.

Just a lil food for thought. You can trust anyone, but above all, you must trust yourself.

TC! ~ DEezer/