Mga Bungang Isip ni Christopher Zoloan

In the hospital....

In the hospital....
(January 12, 2011)

    When I was rushed to the hospital one fine Tuesday afternoon because of severe, recurring stomach pain (debilitating really), I had the chance of being placed beside terminally ill patients. I was in this Emergency Room of a public hospital where patients are being admitted on either life-and-death or less severe cases; after the nurses administered injections (for I was gripping in pain) and two large dextrose bottles, I was placed in a descripit hospital bed, for observation.

    The bed was in the middle of the room and to my right was (surprisingly) Jack, a familiar colleague during the college days and also a Teacher like I, who was rushed there because of an unknown (to me, at least) illness. But what caught my attention was the patient on my left-- a girl of 16, very feeble in health, and much exasperated she didn't seem to have the will to live anymore. She was attended by her mother, who told me her worries about her daughter's hospital bill. I learned through conversations that the child had been there for over 10 hours, and that was above the hospital's observation period for patients. The attending doctor, as well as her mother, persuaded the girl to eat or drink, but she didn't want to take anything. In effect, the hospital personnels was said to have administered her another bottle of dextrose, which was her only sustenance because of her condition.

    The mother of the girl told me of how feeble her daughter's health was, that she suffered ever since her elementary school years. She was really feeble, and all the signs of desire to live, I could not see in her eyes.  She kept on vomiting whatever she eats...

    The doctor kept persuading her to eat but she didn't, and the doctor asked the mother if the girl has a boyfriend and if so they will perform a pregnancy test, something which made Jack and I laugh because of its being preposterous. The mom of course replied that it couldn't be, because the child's being feeble and sickly....

    When Jack left, escorted by her mother and brother, and I too was dismissed, we learned that they have confined the girl. I never had the chance of knowing the girl's name, but I pray for her to live, and to realize that life is worth living if only she could be well in the future.
    It made me realize that there are more people in this world with worse health than mine and that it makes them desire death more than life... I only pray that this life would afford them that, though it's hard to live, life is good and worth living after all...