Dealing with kids

I think great doctors are great because of their patients. Had it not been their patients, the medical profession wouldn't even have existed.

I always feel very thankful to the patients I come across. Although some may be a little bit annoying, especially the well-educated ones who think they know a lot about diseases when in actual fact they know very little, I guess I'll still be tolerant enough in future to respond to their hostility with a placatory smile. After all, as the Declaration of Geneva puts it, I'm supposed to consecrate my life to the service of humanity and practise my profession with conscience and dignity. And all these include having a lot of patience. 

But, I've seen spiteful doctors lose their temper and say awful things to patients. Such a scenario is commonplace in government hospitals overcrowded with the sick and needy. I'm not surprised at all, considering the the amount of stress they work under. Nonetheless, I still find the remark very imbecile and inconsiderate. Such doctors propagate a very negative image of others in the noble profession. Well, Savante may say I'm just another typical medical student full of idealism which may have no place in the actual working environment. But, we'll see how it goes. Meh.

And paediatrics is one of my most favourite subjects, partly because I get to deal with children. I find children very adorable, lovable and intriguing, though I still feel intimidated whenever I have to approach an inconsolable kid who cries incessantly even after having exhausted all the tricks I usually use to make my nephew smile. 

But then, when I do succeed in pacifying and soothing a fretful child, no words can describe the sense of achievement and satisfaction that floods me. When you tickle him, he lets out a chuckle followed by a few mumbled sentences of indecipherable words. And as you look into his eyes still glistening with tears and the dazzling smile that slowly forms on his angelic face, you suddenly realize the fatherly instincts you were born with. Haha. I know this might sound absurd. But, at least it applies to me, for a fraction of a second when the eye contact is established. Thereafter, you have to regain your composure and examine the kid competently and present your findings to a consultant who's scrutinizing your examination techniques.

I can still remember the face of the boy with beta-thalassaemia major whom I examined a few days ago. He had a facial expression with loneliness and sadness mingled. How can a kid deprived of quality of life and who has to receive frequent blood transfusions and live with all the debilitating effects the disease be happy and jovial? He looked very innocent, incapable of meanness, hypocrisy and selfishness, unlike the adult patients. I could see a fragility in him that cut through my heart. How I wish I had the power to enliven his gloomy life and lessen his sufferings.

Just for your information, I have alpha-thalassaemic trait. No. I'm not anaemic and I don't need blood transfusion. If I ever get married to a female carrier, each child of ours will have a 25% chance of having thalassaemia major, 50 % chance of being a carrier and 25 % chance of being normal. However, this piece of information is hardly relevant to you gays. =)

And if you ask me if I want to father a child someday in future, the answer is yes, although I don't quite see the possibility of it happening in this life.