An eventful day at the Emergency Department. We (Luqman & I) went there hunting for procedures, and Allah granted our wish. An 80-year old Chinese uncle went into asystole (no electrical activity of the heart) and we had to perform CPR. Three episodes of successful resuscitation followed by PEA (pulseless electrical activity) for a total of one hour before the patient was declared dead – no pulse, no pupil response, no spontaneous breathing. The MO broke bad news to the patient’s family and the family broke down. Inna lillah wa inna ilaihi raji’un. The lesson we learn today? Never wish for events in the ED! Boleh masuk senarai tempat-tempat doa dimakbulkan… longgar segala sendi tangan doing CPR for one hour. ---------- Learnt a lot today. However, there remains a slight paradoxical feeling of inquiry and guilt; we medical students hoped for events to happen or procedures to be available in order to fill in our log books, but the reality is, for a procedure to be available, somebody must first suffer from an accident or illness, or worse, followed by death. I have to continuously remind myself of the concept of predestination (qada & qadar) to move myself forward, if I am to continue to do medicine. As Allah reminds us in His book, INNA LILLAH WA INNA ILAIHI RAJI’UN. Qadarallah, wa ma yasha yakun. Allah has predestined, and what He wills, will happen.
Posted on: Tue, 09 Sep 2014 13:37:00 +0000