Parenting

Kids are waging a reign of terror against their teachers and their parents.

We have seen an alarming amount of cases in the news recently of kids who assault their teachers with the rest of the class chanting in support.

I'm working in a paediatric trauma unit at present. Not a day goes by that I'm not shocked and saddened by the type of cases I see. Apparently the community is breeding a type of youngster who is entirely wild and ungovernable.

Tween boys rape little girls and threaten to murder them if they tell. An eleven year old is stoned by his nine year old brother while their parents look on. School boys gang up and bludgeon a vulnerable mate till he lapses into unconsciousness from a brain bleed.

The adult example offered to the children is of neighbours from opposing gangs shooting at each other across their front yards. A toddler who happens to be playing outside in his front garden gets caught in the gun fire. His little body takes a shot and he collapses.

Parents leave their four year old to play next to the high way, his only supervision being that of a couple of five year olds. He then, predictably, runs out in front of a passing vehicle and gets run over. 

The parents live out their time oblivious to the value of life, so they don't respect the value of their children's lives and they don't teach them to respect life as a gift from God. 

A two year old is left in the care of a seven year old while the single parent has to go bail out the elder son from prison. While unsupervised, the seven hear old attempts to bath the two year old. He proceeds to overturn boiling water from the kettle onto himself. Not knowing what to do, he goes to his room where his parent finds him hours later, crying from the second degree burn wounds he sustained.

I don't see discipline. It seems that parents have as little control over their toddlers as they have over themselves. I hear parents promising their offspring a wide variety of treats: chips, sweets, fast food and toys to placate them into sitting still and cooperating with the doctor or nurse trying to help them. That never works. They don't respect their parents because the parents do not fulfill a worthy parenting role in their offsprings' lives. 

It breaks my heart to hear a small kid ask to stay in hospital longer when we are ready to discharge him, because "it is nicer in hospital than at home".

My opinion is that this nation's children are lost. They yearn for guidance and protection. Lacking that, they do what comes naturally to youngsters in any of the animal kingdoms: they copy the examples they see in adult society and for the rest, act out. Kids seek attention and leadership in any way they can.

Schools are blaming parents and parents are blaming teachers. The media blames society. We need to realize that we are society. All of us put together is society and none of us can exclude ourselves from the effect our actions have on our world. Our children are the most honest reflection of ourselves. No child picks up a stone or yells out a swear word all of his own accord. They live by example.

Viva Madiba!

May the memory of his kindness continue bringing peace and reconciliation.

Damn the torpedoes!

Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead! - Admiral David J. Farragut

Flies have infiltrated the squeaky clean fortress that is theater. You'd be in the middle of a laparotomy, when, in your peripheral vision, you'd notice their slow, calculated circling. Every turn brings them closer to their ultimate goal: touch down in your open surgical field. The nurses zap them with lignocaine spray. This technique basically anaesthetises them in mid-flight and they spiral to the floor. We can't use Doom because of the potential toxic risk to the patients' tissue.

Theater is a supremely clean place. These filthy critters are, however, attracted to the smell of dead tissue which is unavoidable in a theater where wounds are debrided. If they can find a way in they will penetrate the ranks. We think they're entering through the air-conditioning system.

There has been ongoing lamentation in theater about how unhygienic and completely unacceptable it is to have flies in a theater. If any of our patients should develop a maggot-infested wound post elective surgery, it would naturally be as a result of the resident flies.

The other day, theater staff were once again complaining about how nothing is being done about the flies. One of the senior members of the theater complement was saying that someone needs to inform the hospital's top management. He would not be that person though because bonus time was coming up and if he were to report the fly problem he'd be seen as a trouble maker and would not be considered for a bonus.

The first and most blaring question is why hospital management would consider recognising the obvious truth, that there are flies in theater, and the reporting of it to the authorities, who can bring in people to clean out the aircon vents and solve the problem, as making trouble. Ignoring the problem does not make it disappear. Saving the hospital from potential law suits once patients do develop wound sepsis by the pre-emptive management of the problem is surely the only correct procedure to follow.

Whether the particular doctor had an accurate view of the hazards he would face if reporting the situation, I cannot say. It only makes sense to assume that he spoke from previous experience of dealing with "the system".

Everything about being a doctor tests our commitment to putting our patient' needs above our own. Working 30 hour shifts without sleep because there are patients who need our help is an obvious example. If we are not prepared to be advocates for our patients, who will be? The system may support ducking our heads and smoothing over the creases but being a darling of the system doesn't make you sleep at night. 

Thank you to the man who has stuck his neck out for that which he believes to be right. Thank you to every person who has fought for a society that advocates freedom: freedom to health care, freedom from persecution, freedom of expression.

Advice to surgeons

"Whenever you encounter massive bleeding, the first thing to remember is: it is not your blood!"
- Raphael Adar

L-O-V-E

Live!

I learned today that a colleague had passed on. He was 36 years old. Gone. Just like that. Heaven's gain is definitely humanity's loss.

The suddenness of his passing jolted me a bit. I shall aim to draw joy from the bounty of life more often; to live abundantly without constraint and to find something to love every day.