With these hands we reach out

I'd like to share an article written by Daphne Ling, the same girl who raised funds for the little girl with Fraser Symptom whom I wrote about some months ago.

"Today I want to tell you all the story of 2 ladies my mum and I met while in the hospital…

About 4 years back, at about noon, my late grandfather (he was alive then) had difficulty breathing…My parents and I rushed him to the hospital, and because of his age (he was about 87), the doctors admitted him into the red-tagged ‘Zon Kritikal’ (Critical Zone) to be assessed…

My mother went in with him, while I hovered outside the red-tagged doors…After a few minutes, my mum came out looking a little nauseated, and asked if I could sit with my grandpa instead… She said I could say no… The reason? On either side of my grandpa’s bed, were two other patients, who were seriously injured…On his left was an army officer who had been flung out of his truck and had sustained very severe head injuries…On his right, two beds away, was a baby who was screaming away, who had shrapnels of glass all over her body…(They sedated the baby shortly after)…

My mum cannot stand the smell and sight of the blood…

I went in, and the first thing I thought was ‘Oh God, the smell is terrible!’…And the sight I saw that night is something I will never forget.There was blood all over the floor, and various tubes of different sizes were everywhere, and I swear there was actually bursting from the patient…

When one smells a little bit of blood, it is ok, but to have blood everywhere, the smell is very nauseating and very hanyir (I don’t know how to translate this)…The hospital personnel were all robed up and had masks on, and my grandpa had on an oxygen mask, but I was left with nothing… I ended up breathing through my mouth instead, while looking the other way…They later drew the curtains, but I could still hear them!

After a while, my grandpa was sent for observation in the famous Observation Room…While they were doing some tests on him, my mom and I waited outside…

At one corner was a young Malay lady crying silently, her face ashen…At another corner was an old Malay lady, also crying silently… My mum and I guessed they were family of the 2 patients still in the Critical Zone of the ER…I went to talk to the old lady, while my mum approached the young lady…

I spoke to Opah, and she told me that her grand-daughter (the little baby) was inside the ER…She said that they came from Taiping, and while her son was cleaning the glass windows at home, he had accidentally smashed right through it, and that her grand-daughter had been lying on a little mattress directly underneath…The result was all the glass landing on the baby and cutting her…The old lady was sobbing away, because she was afraid of losing the little girl…

My mum later told me that the young lady was the young wife of the soldier in the ER…The truck he had been traveling in, on the way home from Penang, had met with an accident, and he and 2 other had been injured (he the worse for he was flung out)…The couple had recently got married less than a month ago, and had recently moved to the army camp in Ipoh…

They had no family here (Ipoh) as both of them hailed from the East Coast (I can’t remember exactly which state, but if I remembered correctly, it was Pahang)…So she was completely alone, with a dying husband, and no friends and no family, and completely lost…

My mum lend the young lady her handphone for her to make some phone calls home, and subsequently left her number…She told the young lady to call should she need anything during the night, since we lived nearby…My mum later told me that she was worried the soldier might die in the middle of the night, and the lady would be all alone…

After a while, we left to get my grandpa’s stuff and also to bring my grandma to the hospital to accompany my grandpa…

On the way back to the hospital, my parents stopped at 7-11, and my mum and me went down…I was a little surprised when I saw her pick up stuff like mineral water and biscuits and bread, and even more surprised when she got some nasi lemak bungkus (she said the 7-11 bags showed they were halal)…

When we reached the hospital, after seeing to my grandpa, my mum did some enquiring, and later, took me to the security guard station (this was about 11 pm)…

It turns out, she had bought all those food and water for the two ladies whom we had earlier met in the ER…She herself went to see the soldier’s wife in 1A (or it could have been 2A), while I was sent to find the baby in 5D…She was scheduled for surgery in the morning, but thankfully, the injuries were not permanent…

Mum’s reason? They would be too worried to think about food, but she was sure that somewhere in the night, they would be hungry, and there would be no food…

We then nipped back down to bring my grandpa in to be admitted…

The next morning, on our way to see my grandpa, my mum told me that at about 7 am, the young lady had called to say that her husband had just passed away…She also told my mum that all their relatives (as in, both sides) had arrived in the middle of the night, and all got to say goodbye…

I asked my mum if we should go see them, but she said that we should not intrude on the family’s grief, and moreover they would be too busy seeing to the funeral arrangements…The most important thing was, said mum, the young lady had her family with her, and she wasn’t alone…Mum said that if she was still alone, then we should go…

I honestly can’t believe I actually remember the events of that night, but remember them I do…I guess there are some things you don’t forget…

But a 17 year-old learned one thing that night…And that is: Just because you don’t know a person doesn’t mean you can’t reach out and help them...