How Fragile Life Can Really Be!

Recently I visited a coma patient for the first time in my life. She was at Lam Wah Ee Hospital in Penang, Malaysia. A total stranger to me, I was led to pay her a visit in her state. She was on her seventeenth day in that state.

Whenever she was awake, she was totally helpless, even more so than a baby? A baby at least can move. But she could not even move her limbs or body. "How did this 31-year-old get into this position?" you ask.

Well, I was told that she was beaten by an ant and that caused her heart to virtually stop beating for a while. Reason? Unknown.

Perhaps the shock or fear or even the toxins had caused it. No one could be certain.

Anyway, the result was her brain was starved of oxygen, causing her whole head to turn black. The severe lack of vital air sent her into a comatose state. She was then taken to the intensive care unit (ICU). Thanks to the doctors, she got out of that unit so I was able to visit her. Her face, thankfully, had regained normality but she was still in a coma; her parents thought she could hear what was being spoken but could not talk.

No sooner had I gone from the hospital ward, did I hear that she was transferred back into ICU, and that was the last I heard about her.

How fragile life can be?

Could it have been prevented? Probably.

Perhaps, she could have taken that ant-bite a little bit more to her favour, had she been in a fitter or more prepared state of mind and/or body. I don't know.

It reminds me of a man who lives on the verge of a jungle in India. Well, he had reportedly been bitten many times by poisonous snakes in the past, yet lived to tell the story. (Notice the difference in reactions to a similar situation except that being beaten by snakes is obviously more risk-prone.)

What caused this man to survive numerous venomous "injections"?

I think I know why but I won't venture to say it here. Perhaps I will share it some other time.