The Mellow Afternoon of June 2010
Angel Reign has turned a year old last month. She reached
that without any huge health trouble.
She can walk this time as well as climb back and forth in her blanket
hammock. That afternoon, we are both in
her room. Her dad is lying down on the sofa watching tv waiting for his call of
duty.
The overexcited one year old, who has just learned to walk
maybe a month ago, threw her pacifier on the floor. I need to go to the dining area to sterilize
it. I left her playing in her ‘duyan’ and as I glance I saw her
walking her way to the living room back and forth seems like practicing her
steps. I get the cap of the thermos and
put the pacifier inside, pour water enough to cover the tip of the orthodontic
pacifier. It is on the left corner of
our oblong-shaped wooden and glass dining table. The distance of the thermos cap is maybe half
of a ruler. I felt some urge to drink a
chocolate so I decided to leave it sterilizing for a while and I headed to the
right far end of the table where the choco jar is. Since Angel is not wearing
her beeping shoes, I did not notice she is near the table that is about two and
a half feet tall. I always make it sure that all the chairs are tucked-in
because she can climb it. I am about to pour the powder on my cup when I heard
Angel terribly crying! I saw her beside the chair, sitting on the floor and her
shirt is wet with boiled water –seeing the thermos cap and the pacifier
scattered…The chair is not moved at all.
I speculated that she might just step on the chair’s foot support
(wooden panel on each side so as to help it balance) that is why she was able
to reach the thermos cap and accidentally drenched herself…
That water in the thermos, as I recall was just boiled
twelve noon (12nn) and the incident happened 4pm, my diary says. It is not the thermos that fell but its cap
with the sterilizing pacifier, it is nearly a cupful! I was shocked! I remember shouting “Angel!!!” I just heard Raymer asking what is it…he then
saw the baby. To my panic, I just lifted her up and was not able to remove her
shirt at once to avoid more clinging – Ray told me to do so. Maybe for about
twenty minutes, I heard my baby crying and screaming. It is unbearable and hurting seeing her cannot
stand the pain that she almost bend her body while standing. Her skin below her right jaw, neck, right
shoulder and armpit was red but worse on
her chest nearly hitting her nipple. It
dripped on the stomach but there, it is not that bad. The wounds turned watery.
I could not stop seeing my little child that way. Raymer
asked me to stop, a bit irritated. I
understand him, the situation requires for our presence of mind and calmness. We prepare to go to the hospital, which is
nine kilometers (9kms.) away. We did not
forget to ask for God’s assistance to
give us strength and make everything alright.
On the ride out from Daine, Indang Cavite (we just asked a tricycle to
bring us on the main road where jeepneys pass. Angel seemed to be placated staring
on the road while travelling. Looks like
captured by the views outside. It really
helped me a lot to calm-down
too. Five, ten, fifteen minutes passed
and we are on the main road. Another
long wait for a ride and another setback, it drizzled…as soon as we reached the
town (Indang) we have to take another ride going to Trece Martirez where the hospitals are. It took us maybe two hours to get to the
hospital…
The Korean-Philippine
Friendship Hospital, the private entity is in front while the government
facility is at the back (Aguinaldo Memorial Hospital). They happened to share one emergency room
that time – attending to the patients are the doctors, nurses and students on
OJT (on-the-job training). The nurses
have given her some first aid. The baby
shows strength even the doctors and the nurses said she is coping unlike any
other victims of the same case. One
moment and we are alone with just a nurse.
As parents, we need to know what is it that she is injecting – we almost
freaked-out when she replied rudely as if we do not have the right doing
so. My husband is the one who asked
(courteously!) – everybody knew him as a soft-spoken person. I did not think in any way we have offended
the attending nurse. It is the second injection that is why we are
curious; we assumed that the first might be tetanus
toxoid though we did not really asked.
There are more other patients who came before us and it so
happened that it is not a pediatrician who will handle her case but a surgeon.
Burn, I know now is a minor surgery case. The surgeon o-duty is still in the operating
room. After an hour waiting, he finally
arrived, he then asked the nurse to cover the wound. He also referred us to another surgeon which
he then called on his phone. We were
told that Angel needed to be admitted for thorough debris-ding (cleaning the
wounds as well as removing the excess burned skin). We are also informed that
it is a 2nd degree burn. It was scheduled eight in the morning the next
day. After gauzing, she was put on
dextrose. The whole thing is terrible because they find it hard to look for a
vein, being young and chubby.
We preferred to be at the government hospital for financial
reasons unfortunately, the surgery room is filled with patients. We proceeded to the Korean Hospital. I nearly burst when we reached the nurses’
station on that upper floor and still there is no vacant bed in the Surgery Ward but in Pedia Ward there is. We just
go back from where we came from (the emergency room at the back of the
hospital) and told the doctor we are not yet admitted. He called them up and requested to find us a
bed for Angel. Hours gone by, that staff, physicians and the nurses had taken
turns on their shifts, we are still standing there.
It is around 8pm. The
resident pediatrician (at the Korean Hosp.) did not allow us to just stay even
temporarily (while there is no other incoming patient yet to occupy the vacant
bed) in their Pedia Ward and was asserting it is not a ‘Pedia’ case. They kept on
negotiating – the Pedia and Surgery staffs.
The pediatrician even let us hear her saying they could not afford to add the baby on their nurses’ and staffs’
duties. We are left standing for hours until we are accommodated…not till
around 10pm whew…I suggested to let us stay in the Pedia’s bed and just let the
surgery department’s nurses check on my baby’s needs because we badly needed to
lay the baby down. She is so tired. It
was only then they gave in. But imagine
the agony of waiting they put us into…tsk
The ‘Minor-Surgery Operation’ Day
It is Ray who had stayed with her in the operating room –one
of the parents is needed to hold the child while debris-ding, she was sedated during the sessionThe pain
would be unbearable for the child if not as the surgeon said. I just saw Angel
after that minor operation needing to go home to fetch some stuff. It is just
the three of us – me, my husband and Angel.
As soon as Sister Feliza Aterrado and her daughter Romeliza learned the
accident, they volunteered to come with me and look for Angel when I needed to
do some errands (getting medicines in the hospital pharmacy, going to the
billing section for immediate check-out), they took care of her.
I could not help but cry when she feels pain especially at
times she moves her feet and the dextrose is detached and they have to put it
back. Some of the nurses are running-out
of patience when that happens –seemed that they hated being called in the
nurses’ station (being far from the Surgery Department’s area, remember we are
in the Pediatric Ward) while they are sitting or doing their things. They even
frowned and murmured. Another unforgettable, tactless MALE nurse is the one who
scolded us that we should have taken care of our child blah blah blah…he kept
talking for minutes not knowing us personally, how we take care of our child. As if wanting to eradicate the word
‘accident’ from the dictionary and encyclopedia! He did not know what he putting us into and
what had really happened! Those
disparagements are NOT RELIEVING but making us an eye for scrutiny
and maybe had created a bad impression of us to other people in the ward which
is consists of six beds, all occupied with patients and their love ones
around. I wanted to melt down as if we
are verbally and emotionally tortured for a crime…surely all of them heard this
nurse scolding us! My husband admonished
me to ignore him as not to worsen the atmosphere that nurse has created in the
room and it would be illiterate for us to do so. Is that what we called work
ethics? They are not PAID to be rude on
the patients and their families neither sit on the nurses’ station and wait for
their time-out nor meddle with the patients’ personal affairs. This
does not necessarily reflects the hospital as a whole but some of
their workers that time…BUT it may sooner or later affect the institution
especially at the advent of more hospitals in the area – they could not compete
if patients and families are not treated accordingly. Referrals are good source
of clients – such incidents for sure, may not have positive outcome for …
Perhaps hospital employees needed to go through attitude
seminars like Transactional Analysis etc..I divulge these discourtesies not for
personal reason of revenge but to call the attention of hospital
administrators. Possibly, a lot of these things happen under the tip of their
noses. Especially in private hospitals,
the patients have the right because they PAY for it. BUT I
really do not think that we should pay for fair treatment - that is
humanity.
I know hospital staff and nurses are stressed of their job –
but those who we have encountered is forgetting we are suffering
MORE than they do because it
is not ‘work’ we have came there for
but our love ones who are brought for treatment. We are stressed of their
pains, the medicines to buy and the hospital bill and the physical and
emotional burdens.
One should be reminded that – short-tempered/hotheaded
persons should not pursue a career involving direct contact with people because
they could not grow professionally and may later on build a throng of haters
for that kind of attitude as the ‘meddler’ in my non-fiction
story. The hospital staff should not let
the patients hanging for hours, they must take decisions as soon as they can
and must keep in mind that they duty is to serve...
Please feel free to share on your favorite social sites if you want the hospital industry to evolve - the staff be reminded how they should be...
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