On one 31-hour night shift, my head spun.
Doctor, patient has fever. Doctor, please come, I called you 10 min ago.
At 2am, I shuddered at the thought of catheterizing an elderly male patient. It’s a delicate procedure- and can be a junior doctor’s nightmare.
On my second try, as the elderly man flinched, as my phone rang off the hook unanswered and as the nurse stood by me, saying, “You can do it!”, the voices in my head grew loud- “You’re so incompetent. Poor patient’s so unlucky to have you on-call.”
Finally, on my fourth try, success! Tears filled my eyes as I saw the liquid gold flow out into the urine bag, hailing sighs of relief.
I’ll never forget that grandfather-he looked into my eyes and said, “I knew you could do it- thank you so much.”
On my last day in that ward, I walked through it to say goodbye. He had left. It’d been a hard month of 90-hour work weeks.
But a card on the wall caught my eye, “Thank you to Dr Wai Jia.” It was him. Since I wasn’t his attending doctor, he’d taken pains to ask the nurse who this random doctor-on-call was.
It’s been 10 years, and I still remember that.
Today, if you know someone suffering from burnout, and the unspoken pain of carrying a difficult job alone, one that gives to others relentlessly, unceasingly, would you send him/her a note of encouragement?
I look at this photo, taken when I was a cycling marshall for hand cyclist competitors who’d suffered debilitating injuries, and I think of the many allied health professionals, social workers etc who’ve given their lives to help others live better.
As this book “Beneath the Rug” has encouraged many via stories of Singaporean heroes in the social sector- wld you send this to a friend working for the good of the community with a note of encouragement? They cld be a teacher for kids with special needs, a non-profit worker or allied health professional etc. and if it’s you, feel free to share!
*Our giveaway with @solvenplus.one has ended but if you’d like to purchase the book, you can do so by clicking on this link.