Your Friendly Neighbourhood

I was going through my copy of 2010 ACLS guidelines. Something strikes me...

This is only happening to the Chinese patients. I never see it occur else where.

Whenever a person falls very ill (or collapse), we as a natural instinct will start our resuscitation effort. Secure airway, Bag-valve mask, Initiating chest compression. Orders will fired across the poor chap. Adrenaline, IV access, Oxygen...


Then a head will poke inside the curtain. "How is the condition of this patient?" He ask. Seriously, I am not joking! He is the familiar face around the hospital when you work long enough. And he is not even related to the patient or the relatives!

I will usually ignore him.

Resuscitative effort carried on, Nurses getting grumpy, junior doctors getting fatigue, and I am also exhausted. Finally I terminate the resuscitation. Break the bad news. Family cries. Some howling, Some fainted. But he will snake around to me and ask, "What is the time of death?"

The man is an undertaker. Its his business to care for the afterlife, and its a good business, where every 'customer' average from RM 3000 onwards. Beneath what we see, there are few companies doing this and  these people are fighting with each other to get more customer. There are eyes and ears in the hospital looking for potentials, and last time I heard, they are the attendants and the nurses. Tips can go up as high as RM 200 (more than an on call pay for a doctor).

What I hope is that they respect the person that we are resuscitating, as well as the family. The privacy of the patient should not be breached. One should never be a busy body around the resuscitation. You may be the obstacle for the process. On top of that, they are harassing the family members with the 'packages' and the promotions of the day. Often, critical periods like this are usually the last moment a family can spent with their loved ones and prepared mentally for the worst.

Its a good business, but please do it with some sense of responsibility.