Insights into a Bimbo's Mind

Eyes on Malaysia?

This is a story of how Europeans, or specifically the Dutch in particular see (or more like don’t see) Malaysia. The story began one tragic Monday morning when my mother-in-law had an accident in my home, a few hours before they were bound to fly back to the Netherlands. She climbed onto an office chair with rollers in our study to fetch something from the top shelf. As expected from those devious chairs with rollers, it moved and she fell. It was a bad fall, her shoulders were dislocated and she was in desperate need of professional medical help because she was in pain. And now you and I know, when your shoulders are dislocated, most of the time, ‘being in pain’ is a real understatement. She was in excruciating PAIN!!

My father in law and Narrrling driving at 150kmh in a most dangerous manner, rushed her to the nearest hospital and checked her in at the emergency ward. At Pantai Hospital , my mother in law was hospitalized for half a day, where the doctors most kindly put her under full anesthesia to spare her the pain while they ‘fixed’ her shoulder. After that, they bandaged her up nicely in a soft cast, prescribed her with morphine patches and pain killers and sent her along the way, but not before giving her a letter to pronounce that, she is obviously NOT FIT TO TRAVEL.

So my mother in law came home, had no choice but to miss her flight back to Holland and recuperated for a few days before popping by Pantai again to get a follow up check on her shoulders and also by then, her swollen leg. Before she was pushed out of Pantai hospital in a wheelchair, this time the doctor gave her a letter that says, “FIT TO TRAVEL”.

Immediately, they booked a flight the next day back to Holland. I do understand the rush, since my mother in law has a condition called Muscular Dystrophy, and the doctor in Pantai admitted that this disease of muscular weakness is rare in this part of the world. The fall has somewhat aggraveted the side effects of the Distrophy problem. My mother in law’s joint and muscle problems and pain didn’t look like they were going away very soon.

On the next flight back to the Netherlands, my mother and father in law were on KLM’s business class seats, prepping themselves for the upcoming challenges to seek the proper professional medical help for my mother in law in the fastest speed. For those that are unfamiliar, the Netherlands operate their medical services very differently from Malaysia.

Whether you are rich or poor, young or old, very sick or just quite sick, you MUST go to the medical institution/hospital or clinic prescribed to you by the government, and most of the time, this medical institution is bounded to your residential locations. If you need a heart surgery and you’re filthy rich, you’ll still need to take a number, queue and wait for your turn for surgery and that could be months later. In summary, there is NO such thing as private medical institutions in the Netherlands. Ofcourse, the brighter side of this is that, medical help is always free, it’s for everyone, paid by your compulsory insurance and the government. Everyone is entitled to medical help, whether you live in a mansion or a manhole. There is no discrimination to wealth, race nor connections whatsoever.

So the first thing my parents in law did when they got home, was to drop all their luggage and called the hospital to make an appointment. What they were hoping for was to seek treatment for the dystrophy problems that has gone worse since the fall. My mother in law was in more pain everyday. Over the phone, my mother in law explained the situation, that she had an accident in Malaysia and was treated in a Malaysian hospital for her dislocated shoulder and now would like to get further scans to check on her dystrophy problems because it’s getting worse.

To her surprise, the hospital staff on the other side of the phone sounded shocked that my mother in law got herself treated in a Malaysian hospital and followed on to say that BECAUSE she was treated in a MALAYSIAN hospital (we’re talking about Pantai Hospital here, not just ANY Malaysian hospital in some ulu kampung), she is now NOT allowed to enter the Dutch hospitals anymore. The staff on the phone asked her to go to her prescribed clinic to get a range of tests completed, blood, mouth swab..etc.. and once these tests come back and she can prove that she’s not carrying any bizarre virus or bacteria from Malaysia, THEN she is entitled to make an appointment for the hospital again.

My mother in law tried to convince the hospital staff that the hospital she went to in Malaysia was a prestigious private hospital and to top it up, she was in pain and needed help but all these were in vain. She HAD to get the tests done before she can enter a hospital in the Netherlands.

I tell myself that the Netherland folks are just being extra cautious but I really can’t help but feel surprised when Narrrling told me this. What with the Skyscrapers and Twin towers, F1 circuits and some bizarre Eyes on Malaysia a.k.a London eye wannabe, it looks like we’re still pretty far from proving ourselves to be the civilized nation that we want the world to see us as. For all they know, we could still be living in trees. 50 years of independence is approaching, folks. Look how far we’ve gone.

posted by Miki-C @ 1:58 PM