My First Time…
Chen tagged me this time with another new meme, which she created herself. So, first things first as in any exam: read the task properly. Haha. Sorry for the delay. I had written it earlier but the PC hung (or should it be hanged?) and I was a bit busy to restart until now. It’s a holiday in Kedah today: the Sultan’s birthday.
“I would like to tag these few people to come out with their memorable First Times…
…. Anything will do, as long as it was meaningful and memorable to you.”
So here are some “First times”:
1. Taking the cue from Chen, I shall tell the story of my first time at anatomy dissection class in the first year of medical school. We had recenly started classes after orientation and after lectures in the morning, we trooped off to the dissection hall. We were introduced to our cadavers. My group had a male cadaver named “Sam”, or rather we named him Sam. He was a stiff as he can be. The first thing that Sam greeted us with was the pungent smell of formalin in which he had been soaking in the basement since he arrived in KL. Sam was imported from somewhere… but I shan’t say from whence he came. After the initial formalities, and a sign of respect, we proceeded with gusto.
The funny part of this experience came after the class. I was the last one to wash up in the washing area. This was hidden from view of anyone standing at the door. After washing, I came out and found the hall deserted. I ran to the door and found it locked. Ok, relax… there must be another door I can open from inside. I mean, why would anyone make sure ALL doors of the ANATOMY DISSECTION HALL cannot be opened from inside, right?
Tried the doors in the middle and the back of the hall.. all locked. I went downstairs to the lower level. Ewww…. the formalin in the air was even stronger. There was a pool of formalin and half-dissected cadavers soaking in it. Allllrrrrrright… I hastily went back upstairs and found the department phone extension. Ring… ring… no answer. Everybody had left. Called the security desk… the pak guard didn’t have the key for THIS door and he would call Prof to come by and let me out… Arggghhh!
Fortunately for me, I found a swing window whose latch could be opened from the inside. They don’t make dissection hall windows at eye level, so I had to climb up to it and hoist myself out on to the outside ledge. Phewww…
…. Prof N arrived later and laughed his head off. So did I. Come to think of it, I don’t think I ever went back to check whether the window was ever re-latched. Hmmm…
2. One topic also so “cheong hei” liao…. ok gotta K.I.S.S. this time. 
The first time I flew was to Darwin, Australia to attend a Red Crescent Cross Society youth camp in Alice Springs. I was 16 and I met up with a fellow member, Benny from Kuching, in Darwin ‘cos he flew from Kuching directly. I remember taking the train from BM to KL and then the bus to Subang to catch the Malaysia Airlines flight to Changi. Taking off for the first time was exhilarating…and landing was even more “kan cheong”. In Changi, I got on to a Qantas flight to Darwin. I arrived that night to great Australian Red Cross hospitality.
Little did I realise that my work later would involve flying….
3. Right after housemanship, I was posted to Sarawak for my Medical Officer job. No appeals, no delays. Within a week of receiving the letter, I was on my way to Kuching. Upon arrival at the airport, the immigration department stamped a “work permit” on my passport. Imagine that, “West Malaysians” need a passport to enter Sarawak and a work permit to be employed there. After checking in to Borneo Hotel, I went to the Health Department to see the “Dragon-lady”.
I thought that, being fresh from housemanship, she would keep me in Kuching fo awhile. No such luck. “Bintulu” she said, ” you’ll like it there.” What? Where’s Bintulu? She showed me where it was on the map and gave me a ticket to fly the next day. Wah… no time to even “cuci mata” in Kuching.
The next day, I had the first experience of a Fokker 50. As the name suggests, it’s a propeller aircraft that seats 50 passengers. OK.. they tell me it’s got the best reputation for safety if it crashes in the sea. Right… how comforting. Anyway that’s beside the point… Landing in Bintulu was the scary part, for the first-timer to Bintulu. It airport was right in town. As I stepped out, the first thing i noticed was the fragrant aroma of the sea…. just like Butterworth. It was something I had missed in KL.
Working in Bintulu was great. The colleages were great, the staff were good, the people were friendly and the work was challenging…
… what had my work got to do with flying? Well, it’s because of where I worked: in Bintulu that made me have to fly whenever I wanted to go to Kuching or KL or Penang… plus from Bintulu, sometimes we had to transport patients by flight to Kuching….
… plus…
4. It was the first time I got on a helicopter. It was a Bell 206 5 seater. Captain Mat D was the pilot. I was excited about it… here’s a chance to do something different (for us “sua koo” West Malaysians). After clearing with the tower, we took off. Capt was gentle on the Bell. He had already some time flying commercial aircraft after retiring from TUDM. Still… it was quite a first experience for me. After that, I was to fly quite frequently and had the oppurtunity to experience various “pilot styles”.
The view was great from heli’s. Probably the most memorable sight was a flock of great hornbills in flight over the tree-tops. Majestic indeed.
Bells were the workhorses of the health department in Sarawak whenever we needed an airlift. They fly at about 1000 feet at an airspeed of about 130 km/hour. It gets us to Sibu or Miri in an hour and for only RMxK. Hmm… is this classified information?
Anyway, we had 4 days a month for flying service to outlying “rumah panjai” in the less accessible areas of Bintulu division. Besides the flying service, we used the Bell for transfer of very ill patients to Sibu or Miri (that is if the one and only long-distance ambulance is already utilised to send another patient).
5. Finally, I performed my first appendicectomy in Bintulu. I was on first call (that means take care of all the patients in this 130-bed hospital). The second call MO (every single MO was senior to me at that time) had gone to accompany an ill patient out of town, so I was alone. I did orthopaedics for my surgical posting and not general surgery during housemanship, and medical students always go to theatre to watch the “canggih” cases, not the humble appendicectomy. So I’d never even seen one done before. Of course I had done other operations before, including Caesarean sections in housemanship.
But this one had to be done. So I went to the hospital library and found “WHO’s Manual of Surgery for District Hospitals”. It was a really good book for me during those years in Bintulu. I read the chapter on appendicectomy and went to OT. SN Sim and JM Rigen (scrub nurses and OT assistant) were a great help that night. They gave me the right instrument and suture every time.
I sent the patient home 3 days after the operation. He was so bored in the ward. Nowadays, we keep patients for a day only but, at that time, I wasn’t taking any chances.
The surgical experience in Bintulu changed my career path. I was interested in every discipline in medicine until my housemanship. After my housemanship I wanted to do orthopaedics. Working in Bintulu made me choose surgery.
So, there you have it. I guess you can’t talk about “first times” without being a bit “cheong hei”.
Who shall I tag? Let’s get the Negeri gang to start talking…. let’s put owns hands together for Jimbo, Ah Pek and Jonzz….
I ve been on a Fokker 50 before.WHen u hit the cloud it will tremble.. kinda scary.
N nt to forget, the Bintulu Airport look alike like the airport in Lahad Datu.. if u din mention the name Bintulu, I may had thought that u were in Lahad Datu , Sabah
Ewwww…. Hahaha, you do this purposely everytime I am drinking a hot cuppa tea, and you plonk those cadaver and bits of appendis around? LOL!! But thank god for the other parts.. You just reminded me of my own first helicopter flight! Big time tourist in NYC bopping around the Statue of Liberty in one!
Lucky u didnt tag me here….. :), I heard a story of a lady who was on call,she was called back from a party, she went to see a corpse..police were waiting something like that..she opened the sheet and saw a head sitting on the belly..she almost lost her nerve.
Raychin, see the buildings behind the aircraft? Those are school buildings. Now there’s a new airport in Bintulu. A Boeing 747 could land there now.
LB, either it’s a coincidence.. or you’re drinking tea 24/7… haha. Anyway… i thought these are quite mild pictures.
Wowwwww…. NYC! Must have been a great ride.
My rides are free. Except that PA insurance doesn’t cover these flights.
Bengbeng, aiyoo.. we’ve all had our share of sights of horrible deaths.
Chen’s got a story of an autopsy on the post she tagged me with.
Watch out… don’t be so smug. I’ll just might tag you the next time around.
Bernard, haha. How come no one told me about you being locked inside?
That day, I remember I left very soon. I really can’t stand the smell.
yenjai, you didn’t ask… perhaps I was a “quiet” fella then ???
were you like totally grossed out with your first encouter with a cadaver, resulting in you scrubbing and scrubbing and scrubbing to make sure you don’t ter-ambil any cebis of his home sampaikan tak sedar you were locked in?
So, today wash hand liao boh? Remember to use sanitizer!
Bernard, two photos here not so good for my stomach but I tell you what, better than being in a Fokker 50.
Wah, your first story very ‘kan cheong’…made me want to poo in my pants. I think if I were you I would have dirtied my pants but then again, I am not you, ie why I am not a doctor lor. :))
Oh, yes, looking at the photo taken at Darwin, I wonder if when you were 16, would it be 1986 give or take a couple of years? I am trying to work out the year by the dressing. :))
jaytea, actually no… more of trying to wash off the smell of formalin. The smell sticks.
Queen, wash liao lah.
Judy, uahh.. that kan cheong ah? I was psyshe-ing myself to stay calm that time.
Wowww… just from the dressing? Are you something of a clothes critic or sumthing? Well… yes, you are quite right.
psssttt… what gave it away?
Wow…esp #5
and ur flying experiences…so nice. i wish to naik a helicopter as well. I thought of joining the ministry of defense before; banyak chance to naik heli and oso fly without wings ;-)….errr heli oso consider no wings,right. what i meant here is parachuting.
CSH, helis actually have wings. The rotors are rotating wings. Airplanes are called “fixed-wing” aircrafts.
hahaha!!! thanz!
cadavers.. I got to see them when my bio teecher in school wanted to influence more people into medicine. so off we went to the NUS med school.
but i must say cadavers are alot less dramatic than actual corpses… try doing forensic medicine!
No fair, Bernard. Double tag… hrmmph…
Negeri gang? Ah Pek is from Negeri?
eh ..yg mana engko?..kenot make out la..
Aiyeeerrrr~
*Vomit the sausage she ate just now*
Ah Pek, you’re welcome. Here’s Ah Pek’s story.
LM, if only we could dissect fresh ones for a year, it would be nice. We’ve had our share of autopsies too… fresh ones and decomposed ones.
Once I was brought by the police to a sea-front rumah panjai to perform an autopsy on a family who drowned after their boat overturned in a storm. They were found after 4 days in the sea.
jonzz, double tag ah? Good lah, write once and make two people happy
Ah Pek, you’re from Negeri right?
eve, aiyaaa… only one fellow looks like 16 years old in the photo mah.
titoki, vomit liao ah? nvm, can eat another one.
See…Bintulu is a great place with interesting people although the town itself is a bit bored…hehe…eh…didn’t know you’re into becoming orthopaedic before…hehehehehe…=P
Bernard, very kan cheong for me lah. Perhaps you know how to hype a story for your readers.
I told you already, the dressing lah. Is that you in those short pair of white shorts? Then hor, the loose tee-shirts and the trousers that goes narrow at the ankle….wah, the bermuda shorts also shows it all lah. So what year exactly? Pray tell please?
Hehehe.. I can imagine your expression when u were locked up inside the dissection hall
Wah.. the pungent formalin smell…
The senior nurses in the district hospital indeed offers great help. I have several friends who were posted to district hospitals in Sarawak and learned appendicectomy & caesarean section from the experienced scrub nurses.
my first encounter with bodies is not a sight i really wanna remember. it was a city morgue. so most of the bodies brought in are either homeless ppl or criminals. and these bodies are treated with no respect, brought in chucked n the hall, piled up against other body and dunno la… just simply gross.
Chelsea, are you getting bored in Bintulu?
Judy, nope, that’s Benny. I’m the skinny fellow next to him. Just from the clothes… wow you’re a fashion historian. It was 1988.
Chen, aiyoo the eyes smart and tear. And the MAs too.. they give gas there in the district.
Kat, bad encounter for a first timer. Sorry to hear that. I guess V has it’s share of unclaimed bodies too, as any other city.
Better keep quiet *_* afturds kena tag like last time. Pssst you said lulian tree sudah flower liao how long must wait for fruit to come huh?
Please lah, don’t call me fashion historian. I’m old I know but not that old.
Just call me Fashion guru (did you not know I used to be fashion designer? 
FireHorse, aiyooo… kena tag is good mah. See now I know Judy liao. I think the lulian will be ready to drop in June or July. I’ll keep you up-to-date on that as the latest news come in.
Judy, haha… ok fashion guru. I didn’t know you used to design clothes. That must be a lot of fun! As LB must be having too.
Thank you, thank you, He He I cambing home June/July :p
FireHorse, then you must come and wallop the Kedah durians when you’re back. Anyone else? ^-^
Yes…I’m getting bored in Bintulu if it doesn’t develope any soon…
Chelsea, I hope your cold gets better soon. Easy to say, eh? Hehe… Anyway, cheer up. Take your meds.
Haha..thanks…now can kill a cat if not a harimau…hahaha…but the meds is really bitter than bitter gourd!!!!