Indexing Title:  RJPeralta Medical Anecdotal Report

MAR Title: Time

Date of Observation: May 2008

Narration:

     When I was younger my mother always remind me that there is time for everything.  A time for our daily activities like watching TV, studying, eating, sleeping, there is also a time for celebration, a time for mourning, a time for death.

     As I was going home, a mother of a 19-year-old male patient diagnosed as nasopharyngeal carcinoma approached me and asked me, doctora, di ko na po alam gagawin ko? Nararamdaman ko kinukuha na cya sa akin?

     As a doctor, this question is as common as acute appendicitis but also like it may come as a surprise or as a different thing when encountered anew.  Imagine, try consoling a 50 year-old mother who have only one son.  I tried to answer her as honestly as i can.  I told her that if it is his time, let it be done.   Just be thankful to God that He has allowed you to spend time and take care of him.      

     In other scenario, there was a 26-year-old male who sustained multiple physical injuries with a probable closed head injury secondary to vehicular accident who was rushed to the emergency room with no signs of life.  After trying to resuscitate, we pronounced the patient.  After a few hours, his relatives arrived, shocked and hysterical with the bad news.

Insight: (Physical, Ethical, Psychosocial)                      
(Discovery, Reinforcement, Stimulus)

     Death is always a part of everyones’ lives.  We are born to encounter, experience, enjoy or suffer its stages but we always will end up to death.  The only difference is the way we die.  Some die naturally, some die slowly, some die in an instant.  We cannot escape it.  But the only thing we could do is to prepare for it.  Live life to the fullest, enjoy and savor every moments of it because we can never tell when it is our time.