Materia Medica Malaysiana

Bringing solace to the very ill

KUALA LUMPUR: Clinical specialist Dr Richard Lim, who treats and cares for terminally-ill cancer patients daily, is thankful for life and lives it one day at a time.

“It is a gift that I am able to breathe and live to do the things I like to do everyday. It is a blessing even having dinner with my wife. When you care for cancer patients, you realise that in dying, there is so much denial.

“After working here, it has taught me not to take life for granted and to live it to the fullest with my wife and week-old baby boy. I appreciate what I am doing,” the 33-year-old said in an interview on Saturday.

Dr Lim, who is with Selayang Hospital's palliative care unit, has worked there since it opened on Dec 17, 2002.

Consultant anaesthetist Dr Mary Cardoza heads it with a staff of two medical officers and 12 nurses.

Palliative care mainly provides relief to a terminally-ill patient through symptom and pain management.

This includes relieving the suffering and improving the patient's quality of life through a holistic approach and providing support not only to patients but their families.

Dr Lim is among several Malaysian doctors who have decided to pursue this field, saying that he realised that life was precious.

“When I look at a very sick patient, it is very saddening and if I was in that situation, I would hope that I have enough support.

“People who face difficult situations need support and that is why I hope that palliative medicine will be more developed soon,” he said.

Dr Lim added that palliative care was synonymous with hospice care, which provides care at home.

“The (palliative care) unit tries to stabilise patients with severe symptoms of advanced cancer.

“After stabilising the symptoms, we try to teach family, relatives or carers how to cope or empower and treat the ill at home because inevitably, most would rather pass away at home,” he said.

As palliative care was a relatively new concept in Malaysia, Dr Lim said that the Selayang Hospital unit hoped to provide more support to patients with advanced cancer.

“We hope to develop a centre with fulltime staff and doctors who treat palliative care as a career and not part-time.

“The patients are dying but they are not dead yet. There is still a lot of living to do,” he noted.

The unit has eight beds and hopes to restart its day-care area where patients can have light exercises like stretching and games such as “Win, Lose or Draw,” which encourages interaction among patients.

Staff nurse Balbeer Kaur, 49, said that working for the unit involved a lot of interaction with patients as they had many needs.

“Sometimes, when you are talking to them, you can tell that deep down they have problems. You can find out what is bothering them. Sometimes, it could be their family who is worrying them.

“Then you realise that if you have a problem, it is very small compared with what they are going through,” she added.

She also said that she loved talking and listening to the patients as she learned a lot from them.

“It is a pleasure and I do not feel tired. You learn empathy and one has to be strong (when a patient dies). You also help their families.

“Sometimes when you see pictures of them before they had cancer, it makes you realise that you do not know what is in store. So, I learnt to make the best of every day,” she added.