Full day in KT

I arrived in Kuala Terengganu as scheduled last night. There was no delay and the weather was fine even though it was raining very heavily in Kuala Lumpur when I was heading to KLIA. I am here in Kuala Terengganu as a facilitator and trainer for doctors, nurses, paramedics and health educators on the issue of organ donation.

Truth be told, while officially I am here to be part of this training of trainers (TOT) programme, I have managed to also squeeze in a number of informal, yet fruitful, discussions with doctors and health officers here. I hope to be able to follow up on these matters when I return to Kuala Lumpur.

The TOT programme for today began with my session. Originally, there were supposed to be three of us handling this session. The other two are from IKIM - both of whom were my colleagues when I was there. Unfortunately, one of them was hospitalised yesterday due to haemorrhoid. He has lost a lot of blood and fainted at Pantai Batu Burok. As a result, for the morning's session, there were only two of us left. But nonetheless, the session went very well.

After lunch, I went to Hospital Sultanah Nur Zahirah with the head of the National Transplant Resource Centre, Datin Dr Lela Yasmin Mansor, and Dr Hirman from the Ministry of Health to visit my former colleague who was hospitalised. He had just undergone treatment for the haemorrhoid when we arrived, and seemed to be somewhat dazed as a result of the anaesthesia. [He was discharged later in the afternoon, and is now resting at his hotel room].

Later at the hospital, I was fortunate to be able to tour the new ICU wing that is being built. And after that, the three of us went to the new Masjid Kristal at Pulau Wan Man. I had the opportunity to perform the Zuhur and Asar prayers at this mosque. Then from the masjid, I followed Datin Dr Lela and Dr Hirman to survey a possible venue for an upcoming conference located at Pulau Duyong. By the time we arrived back at the hotel, it was already six o'clock.

After dinner, I had planned to rest after a tiring day. Instead, I found myself having a lengthy discussion with Dr Hirman ranging from organ donation to stem cell research to genetic modification to cord blood banks. It was a very productive discussion, and I totally forgot that I was tired.

In any case, tomorrow is the last day of this TOT programme. I'll be flying back to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow afternoon. And I'll be driving back to Kedah on Saturday morning. I think I had better get enough rest for the journey this weekend.