2 nights at Tawakal Hospital

As I have mentioned via my Twitter, my daughter was admitted into Takaful Hospital on Tuesday 12 Aug, suspicion of either allergy or viral infection. She had red patches all over her body and was having fever on and off the past three weeks. She was weak, had loss some weight and had not been going to school on many days during the period.

At first, I was reluctant to admit my daughter into the hospital as the doctor did not seem to be sure of the cause of the illness, but the doctor said it was abnormal for someone to be having on and off fever for three weeks and by admitting her, the hospital would be able to monitor her. I then relented.

Next day, Wednesday, I went to the office to attend a meeting. I then left for the hospital right after that and stayed there for the next two nights to accompany my daughter. My wife was unable to take leave of absence, as she had to attend to some important duties at her work place.

Something funny happened on Thursday as I had only a piece of sarong with me, I had to wear my wife's batik sarong for prayer as my sarong was soiled. My daughter was laughing the whole day, as she had never seen me wearing a batik sarong before.

Several blood tests came in that Thursday morning and they confirm that my daughter had viral infection. Her x-ray did not show anything though. There was a particular test that had to be sent to Australia for testing. This reminded me of Anwar Ibrahim's arsenic case back in 2000. Hope nothing as serious as that.

Thursday afternoon was uneventful though. The hospital administration clerk came to my daughter's room and asked me to sign an AIA insurance form. I was confused as I was not covered by the AIA insurance medical scheme as my company would bore all medical expenses. I had several exchanges with her in the room and her supervisor over the phone. However, the administrators were very adamant that I sign the form otherwise they will not accept my company Guarantee Letter. Well it was a threat all right and I had no alternative but to sign the form. It will be interesting how they would deal with the form when they found out that it was not necessary.

My family and I had several picnic like meals in the hospital room, my two boys would come in the evening after school with my wife and we will have dinner on the room floor. It reminded me of my upbringing at Sungai Penchala, we ate on the floor all the time. It was fun nonetheless.

My daughter was discharged from the hospital today afternoon and we had a proper dinner at Restoran Chiengrai, the famous restaurant where practically many Malay producers had filmed their movies or dramas there. Well my family is my celebrity.