Bitter pill to swallow!

Aftershock (2022)
Director, Producer: Paula Eiselt and Tonya Lewis

In the 70s, active labour management was the craze in the Obstetrics circle, especially amongst the countries that looked at the UK as their point of reference. This kind of treatment was first tried out at the Royal Dublin Hospital, promising short labours, lower caesarean section rates and safer outcomes. It soon became the golden standard of managing parturient mothers in most labour rooms.

There had been debates on whether Dublin's figures and definition of labour were only agreeable to some. Many argued that the system tends to over-medicalise something quite natural that people have been doing for aeons. Medical intervention tends to involve surgical intervention, it is alleged. Unfortunately, with eyes constantly scrutinising for clues to stir dirt when a medical outcome is not to their liking, medical practitioners tend to practice defensive medicine. Better be safe than be bogged by handling complications, a battery of legal suits and the threat of being struck off the register.

An often overlooked and unmentioned fact about Dublin's 'active management' is that mothers had a named midwife with them, i.e. a midwife who sees her during pregnancy and through her labour. Labouring mothers are at ease with a familiar face besides their partner. It is said to allay anxiety and generally gives a feeling of achievement. This is why many opt, in the West, at least, for homebirths or at birthing centres.

This documentary is about two maternal deaths which occurred within a short span of time within a locality. In October 2019, a 30-year-old, Shamony Gibson, died two weeks after her delivery of pulmonary embolism. The family allege that her initial symptom of breathlessness during pregnancy and after delivery was trivialised. In the second case, in April 2020, Amber Rose Isaac had to be induced for worsening liver functions and low platelet (HELLP syndrome). She had to undergo an emergency Caesarean Section. Unfortunately, she died on the operating table with extensive haemorrhage. The family was unhappy that the staff were late detecting her medical condition.

One might say it is a medical misadventure. In this time and age, people unfortunately still die during childbirth. Somehow, the BLM (Black Lives Matter) movement needled its head to push for the family to rally to demand justice. They find a disproportionately high number of Black women are failed by the US maternal system. After infiltrating every nook of society, the BLM movement and their leftist friend have something else to stir true.

The widowers of Gibson and Rose Isaac form a strong bond and rally to highlight their plight through rallies. They seek systemic change in the medical system and legislation to ensure proper care.

[PS. One thing often overlooked is that the population is marred with the problem of obesity. Obesity carries high morbidity in any medical condition or intervention. Pregnancy, when the body is in a hypercoagulable state, brings forth even more danger. No medical practitioner worth his salt will ever talk about this to a plus-sized patient for fear of being accused of body shaming.]

[PSS. As medical services become more expensive, compounded by the fear-mongering drive of the pharmaceutical and allied industries. In this increasingly litigious climate, when over-investigation is necessary, medical services are at risk of being exclusive to the rich. The WHO's cry for primary medical attention as a human right remains, at best, can be only given at the bare minimum. Restricting expensive treatment to the deservingly ill but can ill afford is the bitter pill to swallow. Sadly the patients who need the therapy most are those not financially able to pay. The bow has to break somewhere]

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Mortality grounds us

Living 2022

Director: Oliver Hermanus

You remember a time when you were looking at the world that passed on by. You see the stream of people all grown up, handsome, poised, brimming with confidence. You tell yourself that you want to be like them with lots of friends and be likeable. You just could not wait to grow up. In your inner circle, you have friends who think highly of you. You consider yourself the life and soul of a party.

And poof! You find yourself to be an old fool. You are a party pooper, a bore, a high-strung individual and a killjoy. People shun you. The younger ones would rather stay away from you to have a good time. They look at you as Scrooge and find excuses to stay away with a six-foot pole.

You wonder whatever happened to the bubbly youngster that you once were. Have you become that lone child in the playground with a perpetual sourpuss face who does not want to share his toys?

We sometimes lock ourselves in a comfort zone. We think we are all mighty and immortal and that there is no need to conform to the needs of others. Everything changes when death stares you in the face. Suddenly you realise the futility of it all - the pride, the Ego and the meaningless self-aggrandisement. You want to leave your legacy, nevertheless. You become one-minded, wishing to leave behind something for people to remember you by. The mind is willing, but the body is not. You become jealous of all the young people with such a positive outlook on life and with one thing they have, but you do not - time.

Mortality grounds us. It gives a purpose in life. It questions the meaning of all life and, in its way, tries to justify the reason for our existence.

In a purely artistic way, this message is conveyed in this film. It is a remake of Akira Kurosawa's 1953 masterpiece 'Ikiru'. 'Ikiru', in turn, was based on Leo Tolstoy's short story. Read here about Ikiru.

Set in 1953, in the office of the City Council of London, where stiff upper lip and haughty British class consciousness rules, the head of the Department, Mr Middleton, is diagnosed as having terminal cancer. He is a lonely man, having lost his wife earlier in life. He is not exactly close to his son and daughter-in-law. They see him as a necessary burden they must tolerate before they can lay their hands on his retirement money to improve their living conditions. Mr Middleton is not exactly pally with his subordinates, either. He believes in maintaining his distance from them as the hierarchical order dictates.

His chance to meet with one of his younger workers outside work as he digests his disease helps to re-ignite the ember he had lost. He made his life ambition to push for a children's playground that some members of the public have been tirelessly seeking.

Middleton dies, leaving everyone talking about his dedication. His workers vow to strive to improve the system. After the wake, as everyone returns to their daily routine, it is business as usual, back to its usual snail's pace. Nothing actually changed. All the resolutions to change are just small talks in the passing.

Without the fear of death, or if the thought of death is far away, people become complacent.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.