“Bound by some restrictions, I am forced to express my feelings about one recent incident here in this form.”
I have never been a pen-it-down kind of person. Neither I write a personal diary, nor I practiced this form of expression for my views ever before. The main reason which I feel behind this is that I have always been able to express myself and let every person associated understand what I want them to. I always took stand for what is right and did all that I could.
Bound by some restrictions, I am forced to express my feelings about one recent incident here in this form.
A few days ago, the brother of a friend of mine was coming from Abbotsford to Prince George with his friends. Their car met with an accident near Quesnel. By God’s grace, there were no major injuries to any one of them and just a small injury on one of them’s shoulder. We thanked God that they all were safe.
But later in the evening, after having a shower my friend’s brother complained about pain in the upper right side of the stomach. It was mild in the beginning but soon it got so severe that it became unbearable and he started shouting in pain. We took him to the UNBC hospital as it is the only available option for emergencies at night.
And what happened at the hospital is the reason I am writing today.
At the hospital, we went to the emergency reception and told them how severe was the pain and requested for immediate attention. Being a medical professional myself too, I always had a feeling that doctors and nurses become the most sympathetic persons with their study and dealing with so many people in pain every day. They understand the intensity of pain just as the patient. Today, I realize that this is not true, being sympathetic and human is only applicable to personalities who understand the importance of these values. Your study and experience have nothing to do with it. This claim may seem baseless to some but it is certainly personal owing to a complete personal incident. So, at the UNBC hospital, when we told about our condition, all we got to hear was you will have to wait for your turn. We went to every doctor and nurse in our vicinity to help us, but all in vain. Everyone had the same thing to say, without any sorry. Ironically, “sorry and thank you” are claimed to be the most used words in the country but I felt their absence in the most needed place.
I know doctors are used to such situations where patients come and cry in pain every day in front of them, but I don’t believe that this can lead to loss of empathy.
Just imagine the condition of a sister, who is far away from homeland and family, has to see her brother in so much pain, he cannot sit or lay down and just crying for help. He kept asking, when are they going to call us and all we could say to him was to be strong, they will soon call us. This had to continue for almost 2 hours. During this time, he was crying in pain, her sister was giving massage to his area of pain. He even threw up and started feeling cold but nobody in the hospital cared for his situation. We could just request them but Got nothing in return. I was feeling so bad but I could not say or do anything. I had never felt this helpless in my life ever before.
In between, a girl standing 2 metres away from my friend said “Don’t worry, you are going to get through this. I can see you are trying all that you could. Is he your brother?” She could just nod her head and tears came down through her eyes. All the pain, She was getting by seeing her brother in pain flowed through her. What I expected from doctors and nurses, came from a stranger who was under no liability for that.
No doubt, I have lost respect for a hospital who could be a lifesaver for many and this may just be another bad review from another patient’s family and they could easily avoid it but still, I want to make an effort to request them to have a close look at their displayed poster right in front of their emergency waiting. It says, “The emergency does not operate on a first come first serve basis. If more seriously ill patients arrive after you do, you may spend more time in the waiting room while the sickest are treated first. Priority is given to the most urgent or life-threatening needs.” Are they practicing this or its just another poster to earn? I understand that hospital may have many justifiable reasons for this policy or kind of behaviour but I do not think so that this can ever justify seeing a loved one in so much pain! They should treat patients according to their condition and not just a number in a logbook!
One thing more which I bring attention to is that most of these doctors and nurses, I pleaded to were whites, and the same was that one girl with kind words. So, what I gathered is that humanity is not dependent on community guidelines, profession education or practice, but just the kind of person you are or you want to be in life. A life, a human is valuable to every other human who knows humanity as his personality trait.
So, maybe we do not need to hold banners of certain lives important or have discussions in our living room regarding the political condition of our places but have an eye inside ourselves and see what kind of person we are. How we treat others and how we make others feel around us. This is not attributable to our community, education or profession, but just to us as humans. Every human making sure, just about themselves is going to be a milestone in this direction!
