ORD memory post

The jellyfish is back! I wanted to write this post before I ORD, but I guessed I have disturbing too many people until I dragged too much time, so yea, here it is. J

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2 years have passed really quickly, perhaps even faster than PJ and definitely faster than BP~ The mentality is the same for most guys, ‘Serve and Fuck off, we’re wasting 2 precious years here’. Well, I won’t deny this to be true if what you do every day is just shooting your guns off, doing PT for no damn reason and sleep/play with your phone in camp. =P However, being a front liner (esp. as a station medic), is a totally different experience. You get to interact with the public, you get to understand many people’s background life, and you gain priceless knowledge/skills which you can apply to future medical/trauma related emergency situations. J

There was this once where after night duty, I was resting / walking around /chatting outside the alpha, and talking to my juniors, and Encik Rahul joined in the conversation. When being asked questions about my school life, random call experiences, practices and other random stuff, there is no hesitation / thought needed to answer, until Encik Rahul asked: “So Jeff, what are you going to take back after you ORD?”

O_O

Sometimes, I really have no idea about the fear of blood. Why is a person scared of blood? It’s color? It’s odour? The fear of contaminated blood? Or is it the unspoken fear of seeing a body losing an essential substance? As a frontline person, there’s only 1 thing to do when you see blood, bandage! Yeah! That would definitely be the most primary skill I would have taken with me after I ORD, for life, if my memory isn’t that bad! Imagine if you are walking along a road one day, then suddenly a person falls down and suffered some minor head bleeding. Naturally, a lot of people will be shouting: “OMG blood blood!” The next thing, you ask someone to take the first aid kit for you, do some simple bandaging, and feel like a boss. XD

Not just limited to trauma injuries, basic medical knowledge can also help someone significantly. The most common would be Basic Cardiac Life Support (BCLS). Knowing the CPR and AED procedures/protocols would greatly increase the chance of survival of a person if CPR is done on him within his first few mins of collapse. Being able to differentiate asthma and hyperventilation could save and ambulance crew and a family of some time when all you can do to a hypervent patient is to tell him to slow down on his breathing and try to move his fingers/legs. So many useful things, it definitely beats knowing how to use your rifle and shoot people for no damn of reason. XD

As Encik Fazly always says, “you must always talk to your patient and don’t leave him alone.” Communicating with patients can pose a challenge to shy people (like me? >.<), and doubles the challenge if there is a language barrier. Yishun seems to be a residential area for a lot of old folks (there’s even an elderly-friendly building in Chong Pang), and this poses a rather large disadvantage for me as I am not fluent in any dialect. Hokkien isn’t my dialect, but somehow I seem to understand somewhat, and only know how to say a bit of it.

I still remember there is a case, where the whole crew is Malay except me. Even though I’m the only Chinese, I couldn’t speak well to the patient as the patient was an old man who could only understand hokkien. After much pointing, guessing and explaining, we sort of understood a bit of what each other said, and he ended up apologizing to me that he didn’t study well in the past and thus is not good in his Chinese/Mandarin. That’s a very sad thing, language barrier, generation gap, haix.

But ok la, better than Encik Amrun shouting: “Zup diam bua, jia kopi!” [10.30, have coffee], at 4pm in the afternoon. =P 

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One of the reasons why I didn’t join SC course, is because of my lack of leadership potential? A good leader naturally gains respect from his/her subordinates, and a healthy working environment would be ensured without much effort needed. In station, some paramedics / SC are always the popular ones to attract the others to gladly work with him/her, whereas some are simply the deadly ones which everybody tries to avoid (machiam insurance agents).

There is this once which I remember a lot of paramedics were quarrelling about a random issue, how they should do it, who to do, why this was not good, and all the nonsense. After everybody was tired from the arguments, Encik Rahul stopped his work and suggested an efficient way of solving and it was immediately accepted. XD

His statement of being Xiao-on would make people dislike him is simply awesome, I will never forget that!

Haix, looking back at this awesome shift, I just wonder how life would be different if I had stayed in camp to screw the recruits’ timetable. Would I gain any different valuable experience? Would it be that worthwhile compared to being a station medic? Or if I had really joined SC, would I have survived even for the 1^st 2 weeks? =/

*Some questions which people have asked me before~*

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Suggestion: “Eh Jeff, sign CDAU la. =P” – Zaidi?

A: Nah! Must IPPT anyway.

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Q: “You have an A lvl cert right? Why don’t you sign on to be a paramedic?” – [Countless ppl]

A: Can’t study medical stuff! My bio sucks luh. Need to pass IPPT anyway. =/

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Q: “Have you gotten angry at anyone before in station?” – Medic Hafiz

A: Yea, but only a few times. One of the victims who I scolded should be Luqman. There’s once which Hidayat put the drugs in the freezer, and thus the morning crew didn’t bring any drugs out to call. Luqman trusted Amira to check the drugs (she didn’t check) and asked me where were the drugs after he said that he was satisfied with the handover. That was a time which I have scolded the most jialat but yet knew that he’s the most innocent. Sorry Luqman!!

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Q: “Your work is ok and you rarely give trouble to anyone, don’t you feel unhappy that you were only given LCP due to the sole factor-IPPT?” – MSO Lai

A: Bo bian. Even if I were not happy, there’s nothing I can do. Yea, it’s kind of screwed up if your junior is of a higher rank than you. As Encik Saiful said: “everything happens for a reason, and a higher rank NSF simply means the NSF has a higher standard,” so perhaps that is a reason why I ORD-ed as a LCP. =/

I heard people did recommend me for promotion though, should be thankful to them. ^^

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Q: “After you ORD, are you going to miss station life, and all the exciting calls?” – [I forgot who asked this]

A: Lol I'm not going to miss the patients/public who keeps on abusing the emergency ambulance, but rather, I will miss the station personnel who made my NS life interesting, the heartwarming lepaks/talks, and meaningful memories to be taken home permanently. ^^

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To my awesome 119 medics (Kane, Amin, Hafiz), ORD lo! Somebody should give them prizes for being such kilat medics even though their 118^th medics (Me, post out Yasir) are super anyhow~

To Hidayat (if you can even come across this post), as long as you are willing to learn, I guarantee that people will definitely teach you to their best possible knowledge. J

To the awesome R1/R4 paramedics, thank you for taking care / guiding / teaching when I was still new. Esp. to PM Rahul and PM Fazly, who chose to take me for calls when nobody else wanted to and patiently taught me skills. :)

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No more saving lives, looking at people abusing the ambulance. There goes the good shift, the heartwarming moments, and the times when halal is going to be a factor in choosing food. Is life really going to be better after leaving NS? Alas, an unknown journey awaits. A new chapter of life begins after walking through the division gates with my IC in the wallet.

Bringing back awesome memories, following the rhythm of the falling rain to the outer world, here's goodbye to my station, my 2nd home.

Ah, I couldn't think of anything else to write... ORD lo. :)