Friday, March 24, 2006

Make Way For The Ambulance Please

Kuala Lumpur-Karak Highway. The road was no good for more than a year
and yet the users have to pay full toll(ambulance excluded).



I was at an interview meet yesterday noon when i received a call telling me that i had to accompany a patient to Institute Peadiatics, Kuala Lumpur the next morning.

We started off at 5.30 am so that our patient, *Aulia will arrive early and could be attended during the morning rounds. Aulia was born in Kuantan 1 1/2 years ago with intestinal atresia and corrective surgery was done. She later developed complications and was down with sepsis, unresolving streptococcus infection. She was admitted to our hospital 1 week ago for pyrexia of unknown origin presented with jaundice, hepato spleenomegaly, anaemia, thrombocytopenia, leucocytosis, multiple lymphadenopathy, and failure to thrive. She was stabilized and later to be sent for her further management at Institute Paediatric where she was regularly treated.

However, the story I want to tell is not about Aulia but the road ethics of our road users in response to emergency sirens. We entered Gombak at about 7.40 am in the morning and the traffic was heavy. I was almost to tears when i saw the drivers quickly make way to allow our ambulance to pass. If its a two-lane road, they will try their best, adjusting their crawling cars so that our ambulance can pass through. They will steer to the left or right which ever appropiate as a good responsible samaritan would be. I guessed that was the best they could do to a stranger in great need and may be dying in the ambulance. We arrived at Paediatric Institute around 8.00 am. Hats off to Kuala Lumpur drivers at Gombak-Setapak!

At Jalan Pahang, near Titiwangsa. The cars are moving away from the dotted line.


We sent Aulia to ward KK3, had our breakfast at Kampung Baru and started back home at around 9.00 am. At Bentong, we received a call from Kuantan to fetch an unconscious patient at Batu 10 Jalan Gambang. He is the father of one of our consultants.

We reached the house at 11.20 am. *Pakcik Hassan was unarousable and secreations were dripping from the corner of his mouth. He had history of hypertension, cardiovascular accident, ischaemic heat disease and on medications. He was unconcious for almost 6 hours. and we didnt have a glucometer with us to check his blood glucose level. Nevertheless, we set a 1/5 DS drip and gave a shot of 50% dextrose. it is best not to miss a hypoglycaemic coma which is easily treatable.

We were on the road again at moderately high speed with the sirens blaring. There were not many cars on the road and the mood was really relaxing. A few cars gave way but most drove as nothing was happening. Many drivers hesitated but eventually moved to the side. There was a car that decided to overtake another slower car first before getting back to the left lane. A few just ignored the siren and continue on the right lane. A vast difference between Kuala Luampur and Kuantan road users!

Approaching Kuantan at Jalan Gambang. A very relaxed driver. Sefish? Ignorant?


We arrived at the emergency unit 5 minutes to 12.00, get Pakcik Hassan inside, proped him up, did oral suction, oxygen 3L/m via nasal prong, ECG stat, RBS was 8.4 and get the doctor on duty to manage him.

Again, kudos to the KL drivers along Gombak-Setapak!

*Not their real names

19 comments:

dith said...

I must concur that Kuantan has the worst drivers around, selfish and reckless...

Maybe we should revamp all the driving schools in Kuantan!

I am not proud to say that I hate Kuantan drivers!!!!

Anonymous said...

Bandor Kontan tu rame orang betina ke weh, ni sampe riuh ngata drebor Kontan boyok boyok?

Boogey said...

Dah beli dah magazine tu. Memang best. Pang5 ke Kuantan malam ni. Jaga magazine awok, kang lesai kena sebat.

Anonymous said...

assalamualaikum, I got into your blog via kenakelayan. Road traffic is terrible in MAlaysia, i agree. I'm always terrified whenever on the road. Dont trust most of malaysian drivers.

anyway, about the patients in your blog, (not that this is important, but i'm curious) In the UK - they don't allow you to use patients real name for open discussion. Malaysia tak pe eh?

Mama Pongkey said...

Oh my god.

I was driving between Kerteh and Dungun one fine morning and a car hogged the road the whole way while flashing the emergency lights. I was so annoyed that I took a picture of the car while at the traffic lights. The car was identical to that selfish car, down to the plate numbers, except for 1 digit. Deja vu indeed! What's with silver Kancils starting with CBK anyway?

Ikelah said...

DITH
in the 70's-80's the reckless drivers were those who were from FELDA scheme when the price of minyak sawit was rocket high and they started to buy cars, with or without licence.

aki anjang
road hoggers biasa perempuan melayu pakai tudung. andaikata dia pakai spek hitam, depan mata atau atas pada dahi, laju pulak bawanya.

anon
wassalam.
meamng tidak boleh real names. nama samaran yang biasa digunakan.

kenakelayan
sewaktu balik dan selepas simpang empat segamat-gambang, ada sebuah kancil yang ambil selekoh dan terbabas dalam longkang tepi jalan. tidak pasti apakah pletnya. Pandangan ramai bahawa kancil tak setabil, mudah terbabas dan lembik. Kebenarannya masih belum disahkan oleh Perodua. Mungkin Puan Hanim boleh memberi komentar.

Mama Pongkey said...

Puan Hanim sekarang tidak membawa kereta (tak muat di belakang steering wheel). Akan tetapi dia sudah lama tidak berkancil. Hatta berIswara dan berHonda lagaknya.

Izhal said...

fuyoo, thanks for the ambulance ride... kalau jam sure lepas amblance lalu orang follow rapat... that time ambulance ni jadi jam plougher... hmmmm, susah jugak orang dalam jam ni kan... pakai hon sekali la, letak air hon dalam ambulance sure berkesan punya... just a suggestion though...

bukan ada patient doctor confidentiality ka? but i guess since tak kenal doctor ikelah and aulia ni sapa its okay... heheh...

one more question,
dalam ambulance wajib ada doktor ka tuan doktor??? bukan ada paramedics macam ER tu je ka???

have a great weekend dr. azmi...

Edward Ott said...

Very nicely written you put me right there with you. And by the way i love your profile picture, baby tiger is very cute.

Salam

Anonymous said...

Ehem...ehem...the roads along Jalan Gombak-Setapak would be the roads I would usually be driving most days. I must say that I've seen drivers in busy, jam-packed KL,trying their best to make way for ambulance and police patrol cars with their sirens on.

Tapi, yang rude and inconsiderate pun, ramai juga, but I'm sure that you know that I'm NOT one of them....ehem...ehem...:))

Anonymous said...

Salaam..
The sight of people parking in reserved parking space for ambulance or the less fortunate is disheartening.. so it's good to know that KL people are still considerate.. No comment about Kuantan drivers, though ;) But I just wanna say something.. I find it very very very annoying that certain drivers always took the advantage of following the ambulance closely so that others would make way for them too. Ugh.

Anonymous said...

Indeed Ayumi, saw that too(drivers taking advantage of following the ambulance) a couple of times. Guess there'll ALWAYS be the parasites. UGH!! UGH!!!

Queen Of The House said...

Some people purposely follow behind ambulances so that they can get a smooth drive. Teruk tak?

But the jam at Ampang/Ulu Kelang is always merciless to ambulances ... jalan sempit, sesak.

Anyway, I hope that little girl's okay ... reminds me of my baby, also born with intestinal atresia (surgery at 3 days old), as well as VSD and a host of other conditions that came with Trisomy 18.

Ikelah said...

kenakelayan
berbahagia mendengan puan hanim sudah tidak lagi memandu. selamat pemandu-pemandu lain. ;)

izhal
dalam ambulans tak wajib ada doc. ini kes special, atau kes-kes berisiko tidak stabil yang mungkin memerelukan resusitasi.

edward ott
thanks....May Allah give His Blessings.

pycno
mengenali anda, tak mungkin anda 'kejam' dan 'tidak bertimbang rasa'. saya sungguh terharu pada pagi tersebut kerap kali pemandu tidak mengendahkan siren ambulans.

ayumi
meletak kereta di tempat ambulan berhenti di unit kecemasan sesungguhnya tidak bertimbang rasa dan berpekerti buruk. sikap pentingkan diri ini akan memakan diri. mereka yang menjadi ekor ambulans mengambil resiko berlanggar kerana jika ambulans membuat brek kecemasan, pelanggaran boleh berlaku. mementingkan diri adalah sifat sifat iblis.

pycno
parasit memang menyakitkan kerana ia menyedut segala hak orang lain.

QOTH
jam di ampang teruk kerana mereka membuat laluan tak rasmi/tanpa izin. ini adalah soal sikap.
saya tumpang sedih dengan anakanda puan yang trisomi18. saya pundah tak ingat 'features' trisomi itu. adakah ia sindrom edward? kalau betul, saya pernah tengok satu dengan karekternya kecil dan 'nipis' emasa saya masih belajar.
semoga Allah memberi kekuatan pada puan sekeluarga.

jellyfungus said...

belum pernah naik ambulance lagi. docs kat first-aid station tu tak kasi. depa kata menyibuk ja. hmm.

MA said...

My cousin died while on the way to the hospital in an ambulance. Walaupun mungkin ajalnya sudah sampai - but whenever I see an ambulance with siren blaring - I would immediately squeeze to the side of the road and say a little prayer to the patient inside. Remembering my cousin who didnt make it.

I once saw - through the small window at the back of the ambulance - the paramedic was in the acts of resusitating a patient.

Thanks for the insight of what goes on in an ambulance ride.

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