A Tale of Two Hospitalization
24 Mar 2019
It's a Sunday afternoon when Sis and family came to visit, with my nephew looking forward to play "pass the ball" with happy dementia grandma. However, grandma wasn't feeling well that day and came down with a fever in the morning. A dose of paracetamol did not do much to help to lower the temperature and we made the decision to send her straight to the hospital. While the family is going through the routine checklist to prepare grandma for hospitalization, I entertained the kids with Meeple Circus.
As I drove grandma to Changi hospital, I receive one after another call from my best mate, indicating that there is another emergency matter on his side too. After dropping off the family at the hospital accident and emergency department and parking the car, I called my best mate.
"Yo, mate, whazzup?"
"I am currently in the Changi hospital A&E. I have an open wound that is weeping water and I think I am running a fever. Can I check with you on the details of my insurance coverage?"
"Hey mate, I am just around the corner. Hang on and I will swing by to visit you in person."
"What?!?"
After making sure that Dad has registered grandma for treatment at the A&E department, I walked round the corner and found my best mate sitting there with a swollen eye, and a scratch wound the size of a 50cents coin, sitting there, shivering.
"What happened to you?" I asked.
"Well, I had a slight skin eczema, scratched it and for some reason, it started to fester and weep water non-stop. This morning, I woke up with a fever and my entire leg swollen. Went to visit a neighbourhood doctor and I was immediately referred to the hospital. I still have a Taiwan trip with my wifey this friday. Think will be fine?"
I took a look at his wound. it has two lines of water flowing down to his ankle and I can imagine the colony of germs happily breeding at the open wound.
"Your wound does look infected. However, if you are running a fever, than the germs must be quite aggressive. Let see what the doctor says."
After checking the type of insurance my best mate has, I had him check into a private room ward.
Meanwhile, over at my grandma side, it seems that the geriatric ward at hospital is full on a Sunday afternoon and grandma will need to be warded at the observation area until Monday when other patients are discharged, freeing up more beds. Good thing that grandma is running a high fever and is semi-conscious, pretty much oblivion to the noise and movement that goes in and out of the observation ward.
This highlights the acute shortage of beds for elderly patients in the face of an onslaught of an aging population. The Singapore government has been aggressively building hospital in the past 10 years, starting with Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (659 beds) in the north, Ng Teng Fong Hospital (700 beds) in the west and Sengkang Hospital (1000 beds) in the north-eastern part of Singapore.
On the following day, best mate undergo a surgical procedure to remove the infected flesh from his leg and the end result is not pretty. Turns out that the infection was worse than expected and a huge portion of the infected flesh has to be gorge out. The wound is so big such that it has to be secured with a vacuum pump in order to keep the wound air tight and water proof to prevent further infection.
Morale of the story - Do not treat any open wound lightly or things may turn out worse than what you expect.
And do not scratch unless you want a big hole on yourself!
Scroll to the end of the article to see the open wound
or if you are sensitive to blood and gore, CLICK HERE TO LEAVE THE PAGE!
It's a Sunday afternoon when Sis and family came to visit, with my nephew looking forward to play "pass the ball" with happy dementia grandma. However, grandma wasn't feeling well that day and came down with a fever in the morning. A dose of paracetamol did not do much to help to lower the temperature and we made the decision to send her straight to the hospital. While the family is going through the routine checklist to prepare grandma for hospitalization, I entertained the kids with Meeple Circus.
As I drove grandma to Changi hospital, I receive one after another call from my best mate, indicating that there is another emergency matter on his side too. After dropping off the family at the hospital accident and emergency department and parking the car, I called my best mate.
"Yo, mate, whazzup?"
"I am currently in the Changi hospital A&E. I have an open wound that is weeping water and I think I am running a fever. Can I check with you on the details of my insurance coverage?"
"Hey mate, I am just around the corner. Hang on and I will swing by to visit you in person."
"What?!?"
After making sure that Dad has registered grandma for treatment at the A&E department, I walked round the corner and found my best mate sitting there with a swollen eye, and a scratch wound the size of a 50cents coin, sitting there, shivering.
"What happened to you?" I asked.
"Well, I had a slight skin eczema, scratched it and for some reason, it started to fester and weep water non-stop. This morning, I woke up with a fever and my entire leg swollen. Went to visit a neighbourhood doctor and I was immediately referred to the hospital. I still have a Taiwan trip with my wifey this friday. Think will be fine?"
I took a look at his wound. it has two lines of water flowing down to his ankle and I can imagine the colony of germs happily breeding at the open wound.
"Your wound does look infected. However, if you are running a fever, than the germs must be quite aggressive. Let see what the doctor says."
After checking the type of insurance my best mate has, I had him check into a private room ward.
Meanwhile, over at my grandma side, it seems that the geriatric ward at hospital is full on a Sunday afternoon and grandma will need to be warded at the observation area until Monday when other patients are discharged, freeing up more beds. Good thing that grandma is running a high fever and is semi-conscious, pretty much oblivion to the noise and movement that goes in and out of the observation ward.
This highlights the acute shortage of beds for elderly patients in the face of an onslaught of an aging population. The Singapore government has been aggressively building hospital in the past 10 years, starting with Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (659 beds) in the north, Ng Teng Fong Hospital (700 beds) in the west and Sengkang Hospital (1000 beds) in the north-eastern part of Singapore.
On the following day, best mate undergo a surgical procedure to remove the infected flesh from his leg and the end result is not pretty. Turns out that the infection was worse than expected and a huge portion of the infected flesh has to be gorge out. The wound is so big such that it has to be secured with a vacuum pump in order to keep the wound air tight and water proof to prevent further infection.
Morale of the story - Do not treat any open wound lightly or things may turn out worse than what you expect.
And do not scratch unless you want a big hole on yourself!
Scroll to the end of the article to see the open wound
or if you are sensitive to blood and gore, CLICK HERE TO LEAVE THE PAGE!
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