Surviving sepsis

Working on your own in ICU ( Intensive Care Unit ) can be a bummer at times. It does not help when you don't have a dedicated intensivist ( specialises in ICU care ) to guide you managing patients. It is very ashamed to say that in our centre ( which was suppose to be one of the main referral centres in Malaysia) do not have one !! What happened to them you may ask ? well , to make a long story short - they left because of frustration as well as good offers from other centres. And guess who are managing the very ill patients here now ? Substandard care ? hmmm... it depends on one's point of view...

I do appreciate the presence of my current Consultant in the ICU. Even she admitted that she is not qualified on paper to manage patients in ICU but i know that she is trying her best to sort out the rot which is so obvious seen in this department. I am very impressed with her as she took ICU as her responsibility when she knew it is not something that she is very learned on. At least now , we get the primary team in charge of the patient to do something about the patient rather than wait and let them die !! Few angry sparks had flew but I guess that is the way to go to reclaim the "lost" Anaesthetist power in UMMC !!!

Working under few different Intensivists in two different centres had given me just enough the experience to handle patients in my current centre. I can now really appreciate what Dr Tai and Shanti was trying to instill in us during my earlier stint in HKL. It was tough , rigorous but it was worth it. When I was in Selayang after that , Dr Suresh ( another cool-joe consultant) showed me that ICU can be fun as well !! Currently , i am not learning much in terms of what ICU is all about - but being a doctor and Masters student ; there is a lot to learn from every patient.

The only thing I hate about ICU is not about the micro patient care , invasive procedures on very ill patients or resuscitating the almost dead... but when doctors become reluctant to accept that death is the completion of life ; advocating pointless prolongation of death.