Thursday, April 17, 2014

TaKiNg ReSpOnSiBiLiTy 04-17-2014

It was the afternoon of April 17, 2014 in my room in Hndan Residential Area Villa 3B. I was preparing for my afternoon duty. When suddenly my phone rang... It was a common occurance whenever we have a lack of staff in our unit. 

I just thought that it was an ordinary call. But was the call that changed my LIFE... Okay, okay.. exageration much! I just though I was asked to take the day off or something since I have duty that day so it was logical to think that I would not bec alled to help out for duty. 

Our Modir suddenly tells me that I will shift a patient of my in the Special Care for Baby Unit to Muscat which is thousand miles from where I am. My mind went blank. The fisrt thing I asked was WHO? They told me that baby in High Dependaency that has Nec or Necrotizing Enterocolitis (just google it please). My second questiom was who is the doctor coming with me. And here is what it gets intresting... She said NO DOCTOR will come with me.. I was flabbergasted.. I wanted say No way.. But she specifically said, "Baby is stable. Don't take tension." I mean what the hell! It was my first ever transfer to nother hospital and it was an hour and a half away via airplane. I didn't know what came over me but I said OKAY. At that time the implication was not yet setting in. I just had said yes to what?! I still came for afternoon duty. When I arrived they told me not to come for worka nd just to prepare my self. Well that was a perfect advice. PREPARE. Well I did prited out the papers and all. But I didn't have the time to check the chart. They said the flight was 11pm to 1am. This people! Really?!? This early? So I went home and told them I'll come at 8:30pm with our bus for the night shift. At home I still ponder on what I'll be doing there. So many scenarios are playing in my mind. Some good and some bad. So I said I'll prepare for anything that could happen and did what I can do at that moment. I PRAYED. 

When bus came in the evening we casually went inside and still I have a bit tension in me. We got to the hospital and I went to buy calling card for my phone for the calling that I would do once I'm there. When I came into the unit, I casually enter and asked my collegue about how to go about the tranfer. When they are calling her and telling them that I didn't come for the transfer. When they saw me they were mum and just continued on telling me that they kept calling me but I wasn't answering. It turned out the parents were there and that they were waiting for me. So much for my preparation. My collegue and I prepared the things needed fast. While we are arraging she's telling me what to do. At that time I really just hope my memory can handle it. Packing stuff and double cheking papers in a hurried way, I was now really nervous. It hightened when they were a bit panicking and doing things fast and making me do it fast. It was just 9 pm and the flight was at 11pm. Sheesh! After everything was done we left for the ambulance. My collegue went with me and still telling me this and that. I finally calmed down when we were in the ambulance and was heading to the airport. I was reviewing calmly in my mind what was I going to do and how I should say things. It was a fast ride. We arrived at the airport at 9:45pm and I gave the driver the child's papers telling them it was okay to travel and my Pataka (its out ID here in Oman that states our citizenship and our work permit). Then we waited and waited until 11:20pm. It was a very long and silent waiting. Because I can't communicate much with the mother and grandmother well in Arabic. 

After that we were escorted to the plane via the ambulance and were the first one to enter the plane. I first went to the stewardess.

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