Is there a doctor in the house?

Last Monday afternoon, while shopping at our local supermarket inside Barrio Kapitolyo, I chanced upon a group of people milling over a stall keeper who was slumped on the floor, awake but not moving, one hand curled but limp, and the lady was sort of smiling and puzzled.

It did not take long for the small crowd to surmise that the stall keeper displayed all the classic signs of a stroke and her fellow workers started to apply all sorts of massages, on her arms, hand and ears while giving her water. Feeling so helpless, I decided to pray over her while telling the supermarket staff to use the public address system to ask if there was a doctor in the house and call the barangay to send their emergency response ambulance.

All that took 15 to 20 minutes, and the patient was soon attended to, placed on a stretcher in the ambulance and was still there about half an hour later. In the meantime, all that made me wonder just how invested locations like supermarkets, hotels, malls, schools, churches and gyms are in terms of responding to and managing such medical emergencies where 10-to-15-minute delays could make the difference between being paralyzed for life or dying on the spot.

Last I heard, any company that has 50 full-time employees is supposed to have a full-time nurse on site if not an actual doctor. Unfortunately, all those DOLE requirements are either being ignored, or businesses are finding ways to get around them. I believe it’s about time for the Department of Labor and Employment to revisit the problem.

At the very least, there should be recurrent training programs conducted by the Philippine Red Cross to spot such situations and conditions. There should be designated employees and teams that can assemble immediately if an employee or customer has a stroke, a heart attack, a bad fall or a diabetic shock, and they should have equipment and medicines for emergency response.

I know that aside from the PRC, LIFELINE, the ambulance and emergency response company regularly conducts trainings for such needs. It was actually their boss Michael Deakin who told me about a portable cardiac resuscitation machine that is affordable enough to keep at home or in the office, especially for persons with heart disease.

Just as important is for the DepEd and the CHED to make EMT or first aid training mandatory in all schools and colleges. This should be the immediate priority of a country that is constantly labeled as a high-risk nation in terms of calamities. While I took a CPR course as part of our open water scuba diving course, that was way back in the late 80’s and dang if I can still save a life based on memory.

Yes! Time for a refresher course!

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It’s interesting to note how humans are very much like animals when left unrestrained or left to their own devices. Whenever I go to our rest house in Lipa, Batangas, we are immediately welcomed by our dogs who are half Great Dane/half Belgian Malinois. The last accidental breeding has produced more of the Belgian mix and less Great Dane, but they are still big dogs by any standard.

Whenever they chase some rodent that wanders into the property, they definitely move like a pack, corner their target and whoever is in the clear gets to pounce and bite. They don’t fight or squabble over the prey as if in obedience to some unwritten code of cooperation.

No one tries to dominate or grab the prey from whoever caught or killed it. Then they take turns sniffing the remains and casually walk off, leaving us to clean up the mess they made chasing their prey.

In contrast, the same pack will break the code when it comes to their daily food, fresh treats or when a “bitch” or female dog is in heat. They will fight, bite, bark and threaten each other to be the first to eat or mate. Most of the time, shouting at them does the trick but every now and then a stick or a bucket of cold water is needed to get them to toe the line.

I can’t help but make a comparison with how politicians all went after Alice Guo et al. in unison, with cooperation and courtesy. The same thing happened as they formed the quad committee and worked with no major feuds or conflict.

But as each of them started to get more media coverage and social media exposure, they have started to snipe at each other, using suggestive terms as “estafa,” “inter-parliamentary courtesy.” A couple of congressional dudes even approach and strut in front of a fellow congressman, like fighting cocks sizing up each other.

In the past few days, I have seen congressman versus congressman, senator versus congressman, congresswoman versus congresswoman, all displaying their fighting form and choice of words meant to trigger their target as well as keep themselves in the limelight.

Now that they are about to review the proposed budget, they are fighting over the juicy amounts and allocations everybody wants. They are defending or protecting their partymates and their turf, and they are all strutting their fighting form in front of the cameras.

Like dogs barking and growling at each other, cats throwing hissy fits, it’s all on display, courtesy of the people’s representatives. But it’s not just about the money or political parties, it’s also about the upcoming mid-term elections. It is the season for showmanship indeed!