Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 119 views

    East Avenue Medical Center's Burn Unit Is A Haven For Burn Patients

    Uploaded by

    Danilo Siquig Jr.
    The document summarizes the author's experience as a burn patient at East Avenue Medical Center. After suffering second degree burns from a cooking accident, the author was initially treated at a private clinic and Tala Hospital before deciding to go to East Avenue Medical Center for further treatment. At EAMC, the author was admitted to the burn unit where they received oxygen therapy, catheterization, and other treatments over the next 8 days to address complications from the chemical burns and help their recovery. The author expresses gratitude for the attention and care received at EAMC, which helped them understand why the doctor at Tala Hospital said they could be discharged when they in fact needed further hospitalization.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    East Avenue Medical Center's Burn Unit Is A Haven For Burn Patients

    Uploaded by

    Danilo Siquig Jr.
    119 views2 pages
    The document summarizes the author's experience as a burn patient at East Avenue Medical Center. After suffering second degree burns from a cooking accident, the author was initially treated at a private clinic and Tala Hospital before deciding to go to East Avenue Medical Center for further treatment. At EAMC, the author was admitted to the burn unit where they received oxygen therapy, catheterization, and other treatments over the next 8 days to address complications from the chemical burns and help their recovery. The author expresses gratitude for the attention and care received at EAMC, which helped them understand why the doctor at Tala Hospital said they could be discharged when they in fact needed further hospitalization.

    Original Title

    EAMC is haven

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    The document summarizes the author's experience as a burn patient at East Avenue Medical Center. After suffering second degree burns from a cooking accident, the author was initially treated at a private clinic and Tala Hospital before deciding to go to East Avenue Medical Center for further treatment. At EAMC, the author was admitted to the burn unit where they received oxygen therapy, catheterization, and other treatments over the next 8 days to address complications from the chemical burns and help their recovery. The author expresses gratitude for the attention and care received at EAMC, which helped them understand why the doctor at Tala Hospital said they could be discharged when they in fact needed further hospitalization.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    119 views2 pages

    East Avenue Medical Center's Burn Unit Is A Haven For Burn Patients

    Uploaded by

    Danilo Siquig Jr.
    The document summarizes the author's experience as a burn patient at East Avenue Medical Center. After suffering second degree burns from a cooking accident, the author was initially treated at a private clinic and Tala Hospital before deciding to go to East Avenue Medical Center for further treatment. At EAMC, the author was admitted to the burn unit where they received oxygen therapy, catheterization, and other treatments over the next 8 days to address complications from the chemical burns and help their recovery. The author expresses gratitude for the attention and care received at EAMC, which helped them understand why the doctor at Tala Hospital said they could be discharged when they in fact needed further hospitalization.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 2

    East Avenue Medical Center’s Burn Unit is a haven for burn patients

    When Filipinos talk about government hospitals, one could expect to hear stories of sad if not
    horrible stories. It’s commonplace to rate their services

    Two weeks ago, I met an accident. The alcohol for an improvised stove I was using to cook my kid’s
    breakfast exploded, it burned me, literally. The accident happened swiftly; I had no time to think
    what to do better. Seeing myself in flames, I run to the toilet to douse myself with water. My sister
    saw what happened but she panicked and can only cry for help.

    My instinct luckily allowed me to think what to do next. I asked my sister to take me to the nearby
    private clinic for first aid then to a bigger hospital to get my wounds dressed. Afterwards, I upon
    hearing from the doctor that my swollen right eye needs to be checked by an ophthalmologist,
    asked to be sent to East Avenue Medical Center - a farther, much bigger but better equipped
    hospital.

    The left half of my face including my left ear, down to my left shoulder and arm, my lower abdomen
    and my front thighs suffered second degree burns.

    Cautious that I am, that accident was the least of things I thought could ever happen to me. Yet, on
    the way to the hospital and feeling the pain in my burnt skin, my fatalistic mind seemed to have
    been activated. I became so preoccupied of the morbid thought of possibly dying.

    Throughout that trip I was thinking of my little children, my wife and my mother.

    I prayed to God to help me make it to the hospital and that my wounds would not be fatal, or my
    eyes be spared from any damage. I remembered praying Psalm 23, but only the first lines. I
    remembered asking the intercession of the Blessed Mother (Our Lady of Fatima) and of Venerable
    Father Al Schwartz.

    After receiving first aid treatment from the not-so-dependable Tala Hospital, we decided to head
    straight to East Avenue Medical Center (a more reliable government facility) to have my sore left
    eye checked for possible damage due to the explosion. A neighbor agreed to transport me to the
    hospital using his own car. After which he kindly refused our offer to at least pay for the fuel he
    used.

    We reached the emergency entrance at around 12:00 noon. Since it’s a government hospital, we had
    to wait in line until a medical staff is available to attend to us (it’s an emergency room, yes!). A
    medical intern first approached us asking about what happened to establish patient information.
    I’m becoming a little impatient and uncomfortable sitting on a wheelchair, naked, feeling the pain
    all over my burnt body and having to recount what happened each time a nurse or doctor would
    ask. I told my wife to just let me be examined by an ophthalmologist considering what I have been
    previously told by a doctor in Tala Hospital.

    Flashback: The doctor who attended to me at Tala Hospital advised that we can go home after
    having a nurse clean and apply a cream on my burns. It’s just that my eyes need to be seen by an
    ophthalmologist because of the swelling. So that when I got to East Avenue Medical Center that was
    exactly what I had in mind.
    Back to the EAMC emergency room: I heard the resident doctor who seemed to be the trainer of the
    interns said that I needed to be admitted because I am a burn patient after all. My eyes will be
    checked but I will also be confined for days.

    We were asked by the intern to purchase IV fluid and tubes and a catheter. I cringed at the thought
    of having to use a catheter so I first declined. Then I overheard the doctor a little annoyed told my
    wife that my refusal to wear the thing is a waiver of the necessary treatment which will leave him
    with no other choice but to send me home. The doctor approached me a little later explaining that
    as a burn patient he needed to monitor my water level thus a catheter.

    And so the catheter was inserted, I could still feel the bearable pain and discomfort of the tubes in
    my penis. The dextrose was attached a bit earlier. A few moments later, I underwent a chest x-ray.
    At the ophthalmology section, my eyes were examined while wearing the catheter and the dextrose.
    The ophthalmologist didn’t see any damage to my eyes save for a little ‘scratch’. The doc prescribed
    three eye drops: one to keep my eyes from drying, the other an antibiotic, the third I could no
    longer recall what for. That was after they cleaned both my eyes by flushing with 2 liters of IV fluid
    for each.

    My younger brother arrived at around 4pm. I was still sitting on the same wheelchair, feeling a bit
    cold now because I was only wearing briefs then. A nursing attendant came bringing with him an
    oxygen tank which I thought for the patient lying on a hospital bed behind me. The attendant
    mentioned my name, I asked him in surprise, “Is that for me?” And it was, after all.

    About past five in the afternoon, I was moved into the Burn Unit. There I am to spend the most
    grueling yet uniquely memorable 8 days of my hospitalization.

    The doctor in the burn unit (Dr. Versoza) explained that a patient who got burned involving
    chemicals (alcohol in my case) risks his lungs getting infected so they had to give me oxygen, and
    nebulization twice a day. My body also needed to regain the vast amount of fluid I lost so the
    dextrose, and to monitor my hydration, they need to see how often I pee using the catheter. All
    those complications aside from the possibility of infecting my wounds were in consideration. I was
    so thankful for these attention and treatment, which makes me wonder up to this moment how
    could the doctor back in Tala Hospital tell me that I can go home?

    But spending my painful days in the hospital, I did not want to dwell too much into self-pity or to
    asking questions I could not answer. What I had in mind was to heal fast and recover soon, and go
    home as early as possible.

    You might also like