Puppets on a string....

Continuation from 1st October 2010...

'Down but not out'

 "Not bad," I thought to myself. After being unconscious for a month since the first day of Aidilfitri, being in the twilight of things in a world of paranoia, delusions and hallucinations afterwards, recovering from nosocomial infections, recovering from cellulitis after a poorly set infusion line, pressure sores, and still recovering from the weakness of both upper and lower limbs, it is nice to see Farouk alert, jovial and poking fun at himself after five months of hospitalization! And I have not gotten to the point of asking about his experience after 12 cardiac arrests. And he has not even completed the narration of his escapades in the four different hospitals in the Klang Valley. He attributes his victory so far to good deeds that he must have done, and God is slowly deducting them one by one. Looks like he has a lot of catching up to do to replenish his good records after this ordeal is all over!

Being a cardio-thoracic surgeon himself, he has had the first-hand experience of a sick patient in a very precarious position. The whole experience has been a very humbling one for him (and all of us as well). At least in the first month of his illness, he was unconscious (to be worried about himself).

He actually was stricken by a mild febrile illness after a week of field research at the Orang Asli settlement in Gelang Patah with his medical students which eventually turned out to be meningoencephalitis (infection of the brain and its covering).

I do not plan to be a spoilsport. Farouk plans to write his memoir on the events of his ailment after he has made of full recovery, and we will all hear it from the horse's mouth. With his fighting spirit, that faithful day is quite imminent. One take-home message; we whine, we cringe, we fret, we complain, we demand, we prosecute for our rights, but at the end of the day, our lives are so vulnerable, like a puppet on a string. Like the Malay proverb says, 'Telur di hujung tanduk'!