Bootcamp In Taiping Hospital

The Hell🤣

I didnt get to share with you my struggles my humbling experience doing internship back home in 2010. I was sick, had to be rushed to St James Hospital the night before my final med exam.

As a result,I missed the exam but was allowed to sit for exam at the later date and thankfully passed and graduated with the rest of the class.

I somehow missed the internship application for that year , so I returned home.

I dreaded going home because I knew the internship is a lots harder but serving the country was justifiable considering that I was granted government scholarship to study medicine abroad.

How can I not write something about Taiping Hospital which I served all my might more than a year.

Taiping Hospital was truly one of a kind training ground.

If you survived the internship here I bet you can shine anywhere.

The hospital was my top preference for internship mainly because of its location.

Roughly a short 30mins drive away from my hometown.

I was born here too.

Taiping itself is a beautiful historical mining city , known for its picturesque Lake Garden, the first museum in Malaysia and my all time favourite the Taiping Zoo, which I visited many times with my family.

It’s also a foodie heaven, great food and still fairly cheap.

The Hospital itself is big and as expected very busy very demanding.

After quick registration, I quickly checked into the hostel room which was a humbling basic single room with not so decent shared bathrooms.

Not surprisingly, the new modern accommodation blocks were full.

Anyway, at least I still got the in hospital accommodation otherwise I would be dead trying to find a last minute place to stay.

My first internship rotation in Taiping was medical- Deemed the hardest according to the admin lady that I just met.

She was absolutely right!

I was so lost on my 1st day and still lost for the many weeks and even months.

Very confused.

The system was completely different and so as the medical management.

There were many things that I didn't know and time was never on my side.

At the beginning of each rotations , we did the compulsory intensive 13 hours tagging period for 2 weeks to help us settling in.

It was really self learning, the seniors and the ward were usually very busy to facilitate proper teaching.

We were divided into different medical wards, male and female .

Male wards were usually a lot busier and messy compared to the female wards.

The number of interns allocated to each ward varies depending on our weekly rota and you better pray that there be enough people on the floor.

Like many of us, I had to learn on the job and pretty often from mistakes.

I never got scolded but the rotation was hard and I was not ashamed to be extended.

The ward itself was very busy, a lots of sickies that will mostly managed in HDU/ICU here.

I still remember when I had the honour to ambu bag intubated patient alone at night for hours because there was no ventilator available.

Our day started early around 0630 in the morning and will only finished around 1800 if we were lucky.

Despite our very best efforts ,usually there still plenty of jobs left due to the heavy workloads. Admission after admission from the casualty and plenty of the 4 hourly bloods for the closely monitored dengue,leptospirosis, malaria and DKA patients to keep us running around like headless chicken.

Patients "collapsed" was not uncommon in the ward.

The collapse actually means cardiac arrest instead of the syncopal episode we are familiar with here. Arrest simply attended by ward staff( doctors, nurses, health care assistant), whoever available.

There was no dedicated arrest team in place and the resuscitation can be messy.

Nevertheless, I have huge respect for all the doctors who are doing or have completed their internship back home. It’s very hard and soul crushing where seniority is the pride and ' yelling /scolding’ are the norm.

Most of the poor interns didn't even have time for break.

We worked over long hours most days and the salary will just go untouched.

Then, come the monstrous on call where you working through your day shift , the night call and then the day job post call.

Nightmare.

The training was indeed brutal but for those survived, they are usually brilliant doctors at least from skill point of view who then be minding the smaller under staffed busy district hospitals.

Interns were expected to be competent in procedures such as inserting short and long line, intubation, starting inotropes, chest drain and lumbar puncture.

All advanced skills which will never be expected from the junior doctors here who are usually assigned to easier jobs such as discharging patients and writing prescriptions.

I remember the disaster when I admitted a new patient to the ward from the casualty.

Typical GORD symptoms with working diagnosis gastritis as per ED admission.

Very nice middle aged Indian man with a loving children.

Later to my horror I was told that he passed away suddenly in the ward.

'Missed MI or heart attack'

And the blame was of course on me.

Not a single person comforted me or addressed the situation properly.

In our oath we sworn ‘To do no harm’ and now am being blamed for causing a death when that was never ever crossed my mind.

I didn’t do medicine to kill people.

Very lucky me , I was oncall that night too.

Night went on very slow, I wasn't mentally able to do the call but I did it anyway.

I prayed that the night will be kind.

I prayed the call wont be very busy.

I did the call to the best I can, slow but steady so I wouldn't missed anything major.

Night eventually over , it was probably the longest and worst call ever in my life.

Then with zero energy left brain fried, I dragged myself to continue with the day jobs,

By noon , I shutdown.

The endless joy of being doctor which many can relate to.

Its beyond heartbreaking knowing cases where junior doctors committed suicide or crashed in accident because of overworked or exhaustion.

We are all guilty.

Don’t do medicine because you think it's cool, because you did well in exam or because of your parents.

This is no Greys anatomy no House series.

Find your passion and do what you love and find meaning the most.

One lucky day , I hit the lottery as I was accepted for internship back in Ireland.

That was the last time they saw me in Taiping.

That was when I ran faster than the legendary Usain Bolt.

Next time when you see a doctor,

Please be kind .

A little smile and thank you is enough to brighten up our day.

Forget the temptations to complaint.

To my ex colleagues in Taiping- Thank You for everything!

To those struggling , keep pushing to the very end !