On the Collapsed Girl

One day, we went into the P.ICU noting a new patient. Another life hanging on the brim of life and death. It's the hope of every caregiver that there won't be any new patients, that everyone would be healthy and be discharged a.s.a.p..

Apparently, she collapsed in the ward the night before. She came from another country for an international gathering here, and was admitted to the ward because of high fever and chest infection. But I overheard that she didn't tell anyone that she was in difficulty and decided to keep everything to herself until she was found unconscious in her bed. The doctors gave her oxygen bagging, in the hope to increase her oxygen circulation in her body. She was having breathing difficulty; so subsequently she was intubated. Once the tube was in, she let go. She was depending entirely on the ventilator for life. Literally.

The next day, her father flew in immediately. Upon arrival in the ward, he was brought aside by the doctor in-charged. Her lungs was severely infected. She was not breathing by herself. And she was in respiratory failure. Her father was very anxious, asking a LOT of questions. But the doctor tried his best to calm him down.

But after a while, when the doctors continued to review other patients, her father was seen walking around anxiously. And he caught our eye. The consultant said not to reveal everything to him, despite the poor progress of his child, he was miserable enough...

The next day, her mother arrived. Equally anxious, sitting next to her daughter, chanting to the bible of her religion...