The most successful lorry driver in Malaysia is not Tiong Nam [ i am here just assuming tiong nam, the transport giant starts as a driver, i think definitely i am awfully wrong ].
The most successful lorry driver in Malaysia in my humble estimation is my patient, Encik Eddy Warman of Shah Alam, aged 56.
He walked into my clinic some 10 years ago complaining of shortness of breath and easy fatiguability. His chest xray showed a heart as big as a football. His echocardiogram revealed a 'heart contraction' of only 25 %. In our linggo we termed it as LVEF [ left ventricular ejection fraction ] of 25 % ! You and me , normal mortals would be somewhere in the the region of between 55 to 80 %. He had dilated congestive cardiomyopathy, a disease affecting the heart muscle, reducing it's innate elasticity and contractility. I 'mentally' gave him a year, at the most 5 years, if god is especially kind to him.
25 % in real term should mean a chap should be even feeling breathless lying inclined on the bed. Eddy that time was still driving his 3-ton lorry, single-handedly.
"When is your medical student daughter coming back from Dublin, Eddy ? ", I asked.
"No Sir, she do not plan to come back yet, she will be a houseofficer there next year and plan to finish her MRCP before she comes back".
Wow ! how do I tell this simple chap that he may not have that 5 to 6 years for her to complete her exams !
Now 10 years on Eddy is still going strong, still plying his lorry trade and his daughter is already a specialist in training in one of the numerous medical school in KL and two other daughters have graduated as doctors from overseas.
He just saw me in my clinic yesterday.
Eddy , in my estimation , the most successful lorry driver in the world !
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I consider myself priveledged to be given a 'peep' by Allah into the life of simple people like Eddy, to be inextricably involved in some small ways...
That is the surprise 'elements' in my daily practice that continue to keep myself 'ticking' and 'trotting' along.
2 comments:
Doc,
It would be interesting to know too how a lorry driver like Eddy could afford to send his children for further studies in medicine. It would also be interesting to know what you had done to him medically that he could survive beyond the period of 1 to 5 years that you had predicted when he met you for the first time at your clinic.
Interestingly despite all the brickbats and 'abuse' I must admit educationwise in Malaysia it is still possible for 'anak Pak Mat Nyadap' from Padang pak Amat or Kuala Ketil to be able to do medicine or space physics if they made the grade. In other avenues and aspects our movers and shakers of soceity, politicians and administrators have lag behind, far behind.....and we as members are readily to forgetful and forgiving.
With respect to Eddy's treatment, I have done nothing outstanding or spectacular, just the usual conservative, standard regime.
His doa, and mine and the 'stars and the moon' happened to be in the 'right straight line' for him. It is Allah's will.
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