RETIREMENT SPEECH

A very good evening to each and everyone here,

Who were my team players in my journey as a surgeon.

U all made my work as a surgeon n leader to be effortless, focused, and work as a team.

 U all will be close to my heart and years to come a sweet memories.

Let me tell u all a little story that will give u insight into my work culture and ' Tiada Esok Untuk Mu' character.

How many from this audience, who in the teen age around 15th to 18th years old need to take a very ill parents to hospital?

PAUSE

I am sure hardly any!

 I had to sit with my stroke mom in the government clinic to see a dr for hrs n the dr spent hardly a minute to see my mom, though we spent half a day in the hospital.

At that time, I made my decision if I became a doctor.

 I would come early to the clinic and spend more time with patients that they would go smiling and satisfied with my encounter.

I DID THAT TILL MY LAST DAY OF MY WORK.

I decided to be a surgeon during my childhood. When I used to assist my adopted brother to deliver tiffin Carry Meal to the 1st Malaysian state surgeon, Mr. Peter Vanasingham during his operation days.

The surgeon will come in his blood-stained OT gown to receive it with a few obedient Jr drs.

On that day, I decided that if I took up medicine, I would be a surgeon as I saw the aura and authority that radiated from him.

THIS PRINCIPLE OF A SURGEON ,I CARRIED TILL MY LAST DAY OF BEING A SURGEON.

In the late 70's n 80's there are only government medical colleges in Malaysia.As such, the best of best students in HSC results will get into medical colleges.

I was not one of them.I needed to finance my medical studies.

The zeal of becoming a Dr was burning in my heart, seeing my hemiplegic mom and recently died of MI father.

I decided to travel to India to pursue my studies.It was a herculean task with financial strain as my brothers financed my studies in a foreign land.

I STARTED MEDICAL STUDIES IN THE MIND SET THAT IS THE ONLY WAY TO BECOME A SURGEON.

On completion of medical studies.I was posted as house officer at Kota Bharu Hospital, Kelantan, under Mr.Kanda.

The surgeon ,who dedicated his life to surgery.I learned from him the dress code and punctuality as a surgeon, though I was rebellious as any jr drs now.

Later, I got a chance in my lifetime to work with late Mr. Ismail at Pggh as a surgical officer.He has personally trained very few surgeons in his lifetime.

I am one of them.I am proud to be trained by Mr Ismail.I will treasure that dearly in my lifetime.

My surgical skill is basically his.

His way of teaching is 1st one I do u assist.

2nd u do ,I assist.

3rd u do, I will be around.

4th u do if need call me.

That gave me confidence in my skills and performance in surgery.

THE SAME PRINCIPLE IN MY TRAINING, I PRACTISED.

Later, I joined masters program.However, due to overconfidence and headweight, I thought I was too smart for the program as any young blood doctors at that time 

I resigned from the master's program. It was a blunder in my life in order to pursue FRCS.

FRCS became like finding a needle in the haystack. When I found the needle after many attempts. I decided to be a government surgeon. As the sky is the limit if one wants to excel in surgical skills.

I had to struggle in balancing family ,work, finance, and studies during this phase of postgraduate life.

Those Struggle Taught Me To Be Humble And Grounded.

On completion of FRCS, I was posted as a surgeon to SJH. 

My gazettement was in 1998, which was 18 months for the FRCS surgeon, which means I am a MO doing surgeons work with no one to supervise me.

The strain of being a single surgeon and doing GS from house officer. I decided to subspecialise in one of the fields between the two, which I was interested in, either cardiothoracic or paediatric surgery.

I chosed Paediatric Surgery because I had a wonderful teacher and a mentor, Mr.Ansari, 1st Paediatric Surgeon in Pggh.As such, I need to move to kl, which I most hated but my passion lightened my difficulties.

I moved with the whole family and stayed very near GHKl to avoid getting caught in the traffic jam.

Unfortunately, I was unable to complete paediatric surgery due to reasons beyond my control with two growing children.

As such, I decided to give up subspecialty to focus on GS n family.

The Lesson I Learned Here Was If One Door Closes, Another Door Will Open.

Back again to Sjh as a GS and solo surgeon in 2000.

It was a scary process ,as to long away from GS.However, like the saying, once u learned to cycle, forever, u can cycle.

True enough, my skills n confidence picked up very fast, being a single surgeon doing 365 days of calls and surgical work, though my wife was not happy, as i was not at home most of the time of the year.

During this time, whenever I met Dato Naidu.He would never fail to motivate and encourage me of my work in Sjh, though he was a chief surgeon in Alor Setar Hospital.

Till today, he will keep in touch with me by WhatsApp.

He Is The Surgeon, I Learned How To Help My Junior Colleagues To Excel Better Than Me.

After few years Mr.Imran came and join SJH as a Sr surgeon.I was so happy to escape from the administrative part of my work and me fully focusing in what I love most that is Cutting and Following up my patients.

We worked very well as a team like Big Brother and Small Brother.

He taught me how to be calm and get work down in administration part of surgery by asking me to learn to control my temper.

His favourite proverb to me ' A Pot Of Milk Is Ruined By A Drop Of Poison.'

U R D Pot Of Milk N Ur Temper Is The Poison.-Naga

I try to mellow my temper from then.

But u, my working colleagues, can only be assessors of it!

They are my mentors ,who moulded me to be who I am now.

But my biggest teachers ,idols, and my dreams are each and everyone here and who are unable to come today.

 Who is going to take surgical service to better heights than me.

Are my academic children's and the supporting staff.

By me learning to show the right path to the academic children's.

 

I Learned How To Be Rightous,honest, firm, and most importantly, humble and caring towards my working colleagues and my patients.

All good things must come to an end.

I have come to my station of journey as a surgeon.

It's time for me to alight from the train of Surgical Service.

It is ur time to continue and enjoy the journey in the Surgical Service Train.

My dear friend's in work. 

I value time. 

As I got to complete my childhood dreams. 

As I have accomplished one big task of being a doctor n a surgeon. 

Now, I have to venture a new career passion, which is to be a traveller and adventurer with the time in hand.

Till we meet again for a coffee if any of u have time to spare.

I came,I accomplished, and I left.

Thank u for making my work easy by being a team player in my journey as a surgeon and a leader🙇🏼‍♂️