The surgeon speaks

The very first time I met Dr Kim K Tan, he was rushing to surgery.

"Ahhh... This is Chia Yew..." he said to his nurses, in his superb accent.

"I am rushing to surgery"

and so both of us got caught in the lift. I had to rush to lessons in IMU and he had to rush for surgery.

The first noticeable generic surgeon behaviour I saw was in that lift. Two nurses were entering the lift at a lower floor on our way down. One went in and kept the doors open while another hesitated to enter ( she must have wanted to do something else)

"Cepat!.... Cepat!...." said Dr Kim exasperatedly to the nurse gesturing towards his watch. Surgeons are walking alarm clocks. Their time is the most expensive of all. It was a few seconds hesitation but he wouldhave none of it.

"I will see you tomorrow Dr Kim Tan"

"Yes and I will give you a call when I get there"

Shift scene to Wednesday.

After a horribly dry lecture on Paediatrics, (i had no control of this as it was IMU- organised. They wanted to put the paediatrician-alumni talk before the surgeon's talk),

A call came.

Private Number.

"Chia Yew, I am at the lobby and the guard here is threatening to not let me in!"

"Ok sorry, Dr Kim I will be right there"

I bring Dr Kim to the venue. And he took the room just like that. His voice grabbed everyone's attention and his slides also were designed to not only touch the brain but the heart.

He was excellent, articulate and charismatic.

His hands are in a default semi-flexed bilateral supinated manner, another generic surgeon behaviour. Pants elevated, and shirt all shifted backwards/dorsally. Posture slanted but strong. And the characteristic air about surgeons when they talk. Everyone shuts up. Everyone fixes both eyes and mind at him.

And he brought up something very strong. the concept of cleft lip and palate not bwing cosmetic, about how the psychosocial issues and problem with speech and hearing come in. Self esteem.

When promoting the event, I and Shahd faced a lot of problems about the lopsided views that plague plastic surgery. They think its all about breasts augmentation and smoothing those wrinkles. I was no less guilty of that view as well. And I expressed this to Dr Kim Tan. These perception of the surgical specialty. I told him that I have now renewed faith and respect in this specialty.

I realised and shared with him how the reconstructive part of plastic surgery never does get the limelight. These surgeons repair faces and self esteem, they treat crushed faces, burnt skin. The word plastic is indeed a misnomer in the sense that what these surgeons practise are always far from plastic.

The way Dr Kim Tan animated his slides with the children who were once defaced by cleft lip and palate grew to e beautiful people, no more bearing the mark of a genetic error. These people do not only gain aesthetics but they regain life.

What drew you to surgery?

Dr Kim Tan said practically the same thing all surgeons have said, He revels in the fact that it is one of the most logical in the broad area of medicine. You see something wrong, you cut it, its solved. You don't have to be like a physician who has to diagnose and think of an action plan. then you prescrie medicine and then asks the person to come back. Are you really capable of doing something as a physician. We have the skills of hour hands, our dexterity. These hands do something. I don't want to be a physician who waits for grass to grow. There and then after my surgery, smething has been done and corrected. Let the smart ones do medicine. We are the mechanics.

On his epiphany.

He had it in his Medical Officer years. he realised that he could change lives with his hand skills. he noticed he could do things with his hands and he then realised I can reattach a finger back rather than throw it away.

On Women in Surgery

Most of them are unmarried. Because you will need to seek your priorities. Career or family. Surgeons spend a lot of time training. If you want family, better go for a 9-5 job.

On Cosmetics

You think that it is not beneficial and necessary since its not medically useful. But you will come and see me at 60.

On Perfection

Perfection is the Surgeon's Enemy. We can never be perfect. Only Him is perfect. Points up. We can strive to be almost perfect.

On 100%

In surgery it must be 100% successful. If it less than it is a failure to the patient. It is not alright to lose focus in surgery

On how good you need to be in surgery

good surgeons are those that can tie their shoe laces with 1 hand. If you cant tie shoe laces with two hands, then dont do surgery.

This was a surgeon that caught our imagination and lit a flame of passion. We were seriously high after that. There were my batchmates who went up to him personally and thanked him from the heart for such a good talk. He was in fact I think much more charismatic than Mahathir.

And of course you know how good he really was when the attendees all came up to me asking Where I found him and thanked me for bringing him to speak.

That really makes my day, knowing that I had helped changed perception.

Thank you Dr Kim K Tan

The disgusting face of war politics exposed!

The Swimming Instructor

I seriously needed rest so I thought I would go for a theatre play, something I have not gone too for ages. I have been working too hard for too long

My emo-ness has all but atrophied to the size of an atom. I was in serious need of therapy.

Undergraduate Medicine is an erratic field . It proposes to produce caring doctors but what I see are all people sitting in libraries looking at dirty words and dirty diagrams, and chanting and whispering incoherently for hours till end. Hearts naturally atrophy. They turn from a Vaso Animi (vessel of feelings) to mechanical muscles.

I will not stand and condone such zombie-fication. What are you people going to think 20 years from now? What have I done these few years...

So I picked The Swimming Instructor which received a lot of press attention.

I picked it because it had eye candy. It was set in the swimming pool and therefore notorious for being promoted as one where the costumes department was almost non-existant (this of course not being true, since all manners of tight hot spandex was worn..:P.)

Guys and girls alike will not leave disappointed... seriously. This is Malaysian theatre at its boldest and naughtiest... *grin*

And at first eye candy in the form of bust and buttock thrusting was the main attention grabber, but soon a very emo story unfolded.

It was a tale of how this swimming instructor was caught in a dilemma.

To follow convention and love a person to make a perfect picture, or to go boldly and follow your heart.

The swimming instructor is a floater. He releases all the air in his lungs in the water, letting himself glide downwards slowly.

Till he reaches the bottom, slowly watching the bubbles emerging from his mouth rushing to the surface.

There is a darker and yet ironically more poetic and beautiful reason to why he actually does this, which ties a knot to a very emotionally fulfilling story.

The swimming instructor of course is an instructor in many levels. He leaves one poignant message at the end.

Accept when love happens. Any decisions, no matter how small, changes life.

The drowning metaphorises and points us rudely to how trapped homosexuals really feel. They make bold the discrimination and institutionalised hatred towards them.

I have used this metaphor of drowning before in my SPM English essay, starting this way: Have you ever felt like you were drowning?

The play, with all the naughty butt smacking, thrusting and spandex bulges here and there, and kissing and sexual tension lures you in like a small boy, excited to enter a theme park for the first time.

But then you enter the theme park, and the person bringing you shows a whole different side to things. The merry-go-rounds and tea cups fade to show the children who want to enjoy but have no means to do so, those forgotten children.

This was the style of the swimming instructor. You can have fun by all means, but here's the thing, I am going to give you point blank,

We are all drowning.

What matters is whether we choose to float up or sink down.

Either way, happiness can exist, for what is happiness but a state of mind.

Somthing that lures you through carnal desires and then turns you emotional and thinking slowly but surely in 1 and a half hours.

Now that's good theatre :)

Testing Chiayewnian Patience

I am well known for being very cool and non-temperamental. Many have never seen me angry to date. I always make an effort to stay cool, calm and collected.

I have lived up to it even after what happened today.

I was lazy. I did not want to drive to Carrefour Endah Parade, Bukit Jalil from IMU to post laju a letter to Dr Kim K Tan, from hereon called the Surgeon. It was an official thing saying that his lecture is postponed by 2 days. He has in fact been informed a week ago and agreed to it already.

But what troubles laziness and formality brings you.

So I drove to Pantai Medical Centre.

It's located in Ampang...

Or so I thought till I was rudely slapped with the fact that it was not.

It hit me after spending 2 and a half VERY NAUSEATING HOURS in the Jalan Tun Razak jam. It would have taken me 20 MINUTES in normal conditions.

When I arrived at where I thought Pantai was, guess what greeted me..

Hospital Ampang Putri.

You see I got the Surgeon's contact from a friend, Ken Lek, who happened to stay in Ampang and I visualosed the Surgeon to be there.

So I made a U-Turn, still slightly nauseous...

and took another 30 minutes to reach Pantai in Bangsar. If i had known where Pantai was, it would have taken me 10 minutes.

Plans to go 1-Utama to buy a Clinical Anatomy text by an Indian Anatomist smashed, I went into lobby.

" Where can I pass this letter to?"

Guy in receptionist uniform. " Sorry but there is no one here"

Wow....

"Can I give it to anyone then?"

"No one is here to receive it..."

I am not one to argue even though I've been stuck in a nauseating jam that has no apparent cause for genesis (the most irritating thng about KL jams), so I asked


"OK, Can I just leave it at the offices then?"

"The offices are all closed. Come back tomorrow."

Haih..

Then I circumambulated the lobby once trying to restrategise.

When I came back to ask what time I can come back tomorrow (letter needed to be in The Surgeon's hands by tomorrow morning...), he was gone.

"Please Go To Emergencies" the sign said

Indeed this was quite an emergency.

Thank God the nurses were nice.

"the Offices opened at nine. You can see the doctor then"


So I have to skip my lectures tomorrow to send this important letter. And hopefully meet my Surgeon for the first time.

I am now in a mild mood. Cool Calm Collected.

I am not angry at anyone because this is still and soluble issue and it is partly my fault for not going to the post office. I was in fact discussing theology and politics and was so engrossed I did not want to leave the IMU discussion room.

Which reminds me of what Dr Selva from the Jabatan Hal Ehwal Orang Asli Medicine shared with in the Forum on Malaysia's Doctor of Tomorrow in IMU.

She claimed that doctors no longer make the impossible possible.

She then related of a tale in which she was still a housemen.

The two housemen had looked at a lung X-ray and could not confirm TB.

So they had to consult the higher Doctor.

This higher doctor was to be consulted on a certain morning as he was leaving Malaysia that morning's evening.

So the other HO or MO was asking Dr Selva to ask the Higher Doctor before he leaves.

But due to the workload she completely forgot till late afternoon when the Higher Doctor was in the airport.

Dr SElva panicked aand did a most extraordinary thing. She rushed to the airport. The gates were closed but she begged to be let in to see the Higher Doctor in the plane and consult him.

She succeeded.

It is stories like this that drive me to continue even though a pile of shit is thrown on me.

My First IMU Brainchild

This event above was the e-backdrop of the auditorium which was my first as Organising Chairperson. Previously, I had been Co-Organising Chairperson and External Affairs Liaison in the Breast Cancer Week. Thank God and The Buddha of Anatomy it went smoothly and well acclaimed.

My Prof, Dr Nilesh Kumar had first declined my idea of a lecture linking surgery to anatomy. So I had a good brainstorm before realising that MOCK OSPEs did not exist while MOCK OSCEs do. So I started working and got Dr Nilesh's approval. What followed was a lot of management and working.

Ever since being elected into power as Academic Officer of Asian Medical Student's Association IMU, I have set my own KPIs and KRAs. One of them is creating advocating students. Maybe when I am more senior in AMSA, I will come up with a full strategic plan that IMU must take to produce good medical students. I have just attended a forum (later post) where I gathered input. Going for continuous self development is one key result area to fulfil my key performance index.

I have a lot of events in store and await a time to implement it including a full fledged partnership with MERCY Malaysia.

On the Biro Tata Negara

For time immemorial, I have had a very distinct dislike that borders on disgust for the Biro Tata Negara sessions. While my memory fails me on when I first heard of the infamous BTN lectures, I do remember the very first time I was made aware of the BTN's existence. I was in the backseat while travelling through Port Dickson ( I think) when I first saw that ominous building with a big sign saying BIRO TATANEGARA MALAYSIA.



The first thing that came to mind naturally was What did they do? Clearly at that time, I was not yet acquainted with the horrors that went on in that building.



Now the issue has flared up again, thank God. The Biro Tatanegara is given to all civil servants entering the Government service, all scholarship students leaving Malaysia to their respective foreign universities and other public university students?



There's an interesting article in Malaysian Insider which really blew me off. I have heard of propagandal nonsense such as how the ruling government had sacrificed and thus won a God goven right to rule Malaysia, no matter how poorly it does it and how the Government must always be defended no matter what nonsense it does and blasphemous its views may be.



This is still ok. In fact I can imagine myself sniggering while they propagandise us like that.



But the humor ends abruptly.



the Malaysian Insider article here clearly is not at all funny.

Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani speaks of how they said among other things

• THe Chinese are Jews of Asia and are conspiring to rob the Malays of political power once the Malays are divided and weak. The irony is of course that Muslims view spreading false claims or fitnah as a greater sin than murder.
• "All Muslims are Malay regardless of whether they are Chinese or Indian." on being asked whether we should treat Muslims of different races with respect. My God, shouldn't Muslims treat all people: God's creations with respect?

Intellectuals giving lectures it seems.

When hate, prejudice and mistrust is instilled into certain ethnic groups concerning another, thats when there can be real potential for pandemonium.

and then there's the thing about having so many 'force patriotism down thy throats' actvities.. What's up with that la dey...

There is also a difference in what views are expressed based on the demographics of the audience. If there are no non bumiputras in the audience, then all hell is set loose and such disgusting propaganda is propelled.

MUhyiddin should not have defended something he did not attend. This will put him in the dsirespect category of many people. Shahrizat is also guilty of such things.

This will be one of Najib's greatest tests for 1Malaysia. He stands in good stead of becoming the best Prime Minister of Malaysia if he stops all this racist nonsense once and for all in Malaysia.

He has claimed a need for revamp of the BTN but only time will tell if he is just letting the steam cool down before he continues doing nothing or he will use his powers to see that the ugly devil of racism is fully exorcised from this land, doomed to never return.

Berfata morgana di hari khamis

Akan dikuatkuasakan sesuatu dasar bahawasanya,

Hari Khamis setiap minggu, Kong Chia Yew akan bertutur dalam Bahasa Malaysia,

supaya pada masa depan apabila balik ke Malaysia berkhidmat,

dapatlah dia merawat pesakit-pesakitnya tanpa sebarang masalah.

Dapatlah dia berempati sepenuhnya denagn pesakitnya dan

maka, dapatlah dia merawat pesakitnya denagn penuh teliti dan sempurna.

I am a Doctor- Mahathir Mohammad

I missed Part 1 of Mahathir on History Channel last week but I managed to catch Part 2 today. A line that caught me was


" The lawyers are always fussing about what is legal and what is not. They always focus on the legal aspect, whereas we doctors want to heal. When we see something bad, we want to improve it. When I saw the country was not progressing as fast as I would like it to, I needed to do something"

I also caught the part on how Mahathir claims he has failed in uplifting the Malays, which will form part of my argument in reply to fellow political commentator Lek Ken Vin who is absolutely perplexed how I could love such a hate-able man.

Forbidden Fruit: Retelling of A tale most queer

Last sunday an experience most queer happened right in front of me, a love story so unexpectedly dropped upon me that for a few moments I did not know what actually was happening.

I was at a secluded vegetarian restaurant in Section 14 PJ, eating vegetarian food with my dad. There was only one other table occupied in that restaurant.

The occupiers were a man and a woman. Man 50 over years old. I could not identify the woman's features as she was faced away from me.

Nothing to shout about. This kind of things are like fungi. They are everywhere regardless of wether u notice them or not.

However as our meal was about to end, things started spicing up.

The man was speaking in Bahasa.

Unless his wife was Nyonya, the women then would surely not be a chinese.

A series of Interesting events was about to unfold.

I started tuning my ear to eavesdrop.

The following were taken from the best of my memory. Whetehr it did follow the order I am going to unveil is uncertain even to me.

Apek: " Saya sangat Cinta mu"

what the girl said was inaudible.

Girl: Saya sangat takut. (orsomething to that effect)

Apek: Kamu tak payah takut. Kamu hanya perlu takut pada saya.

Apek: Saya sangat sukak kamu. Kamu sangat comel.

Then something about claypot mutton curry.

I could not resist.

I went to the toilet, a route that would get me to peer closely at the lucky gal.

She was from Indonesia, confirming my suspicions that an employer-employee love story was unfoliding before my very eyes.

Two things could have been happening at that time:

He could have been having an affair- his wife being ignorant. He picked the vege restaurant for good measure. It wans't a "Chinese people eat vegetarian day" so he knew a crowd of potential naysayers or overzealous joykillers wouldnt make an appearance.

He could have been a widower who wanted love.

The ketakutan showed by the female i think is more telling of the 1st story.

But this was agood story. being the sour boring academic I am, I will look at the metaphysics of such an experience, seeing such an unconventional scene.

It came at a weird time, when Malaysian Indonesian relations were at a peak. This scene was in many ways forbidden fruit. Indons were carrying sharpened bamboo sticks while Malaysians were abusing maids ( although both sides would argue this happens all the time and and has been happening all the time).

Then comes the ultimate irony. This affair they were having, if it was an affair, was done in a vegetarian shop. A place which is of course associated with purity and cleansing.

The female's fear is very nicely fitting as well. She is very much Indonesia, having fear and worry. ( It was the nation of Indonesia which first felt insecure about themselves, insecurity being a trait quite similar to fear)

But maybe it was a reminder of how the Malaysian Indon scene needed love and cleansing.

That apek and that maid becmae large metaphors, metaphors that are symbolic of how bigger things should be done.

For it is when people start sweeping you, that you must embrace them.

a statement much in line with Yasmin Ahamd's Gubra tagline,

Why do we hurt the most, the ones we love the most?