Zorzini Roslan

"An average of 195,000 people in the USA died due to potentially preventable, in-hospital medical errors in each of the years 2000, 2001 and 2002, according to a new study of 37 million patient records that was released today by HealthGrades, the healthcare quality company."(Obtained from this link)

My eldest daughter Zorzini passed away on 24th March 2011, which was 5 months after her 32nd birthday. At that age, you would agree with me that she died at an early age. The last time that I spent time with her was on her last birthday itself, where we had lunch at an Indonesian Restaurant in Kota Damansara.

Due to our respective heavy work commitments, we found it very hard to meet each other as often as we wanted to. The same can also be said about her siblings who are working. Zorzini worked with Shell as a senior manager and her work demanded her to travel outstation very often. So, we only managed to keep in touch with each other over the phones and by sms (short message services).

I remember on that day when we met for lunch, she looked very thin and slightly sick. I didn't mention about it to her then because I thought that she was on some kind of diet to lose weight. It's only later on after her death that I learnt she was suffering from athritis for some years. Not many knew about it except her mum and hubby. I can understand it, because she's the type who would rather keep her problems to herself rather than sharing it or worrying her younger sisters and those closed to her.

After she fell down on the way to the bathroom, unknowingly she contracted the Septic Athritis. The Wikipedia defines Septic Athritis as "the purulent invasion of a joint by an infectious agent which produces arthritis. People with artificial joints are more at risk than the general population but have slightly different symptoms, are infected with different organisms and require different treatment. Septic arthritis is considered a medical emergency. If untreated, it may destroy the joint in a period of days. The infection may also spread to other parts of the body."

How true. The infection from her knee spread to her heart and brain and subsequently caused her to lose her life.

When I first heard the news that she was hospitalised and in a state of coma at the University Hospital, I couldn't believe it. Who could believe that a healthy young girl like her could land in hospital and treated on a life-support system? I didn't hesitate to take a bus from Terengganu to Kuala Lumpur after I heard the news. Salmiah and I went to see her at the hospital on the same night that I arrived. She was in a state of coma for about a week, I was told. By the time I met her, she had already come out of her coma for a few days. She was kind of surprise to see me there and we chatted pleasantly for awhile. It looked like she had recovered from her illness. It never occured to me that she recovered just to be able to see and chat with her loved ones for the last time. Zorlinda, her younger sister also came down from Dubhai and managed to talk to her a few days before, saying "I love you" to each other before Linda left for Dubai.

From the brief explanantion given by Irman, her hubby, I was only vaguely aware that she was suffering from some kind of heart problem caused by bacterial infection. I knew it later as "endocarditis", which has something to do with the inflamation of the interior of the heart and also badly affected the function of the heart's valves. The doctor told Irman that her heart was weak and not to expose her to any kind of stress.

Irman and I had teh tarek after the chat with Zorzini and I went home that night feeling that she's going to be okay.

The next morning Irman called me to inform that her heart had stopped beating but the doctor managed to get it to beat again after 20 minutes. She had to be put on a life support system again. I rushed to the hospital to see her. I met Sureen Nita, her younger sister at the hospital too. A few of her friends were also there. Zorzini was lying on the bed motionless with only the sound of the breathing apparatus and the hearbeat equipment to be heard. I knew she was struggling to stay alive. Her heart stopped beating forever 5 days later. Innalilla hiwainna ilahirajiun...(from Allah we come to this world and to Allah we return)

Irman told me that it all started when she fell in the toilet and hurt her left knee sometime in November 2010, a month after I met her for her birthday lunch. She went to the Subang Jaya Medical Center for medical treatment. Her knee was x-rayed and they couldn't find any broken bones. So she was given some "standard" medicines like Panadol and told to go home. She went home alright, but that's how the septic athritis started. Her knee didn't get better. She couldn't walk properly and experienced severe pain whenever she tried to move her knee.

After numerous visits to the doctor, she was always given the same opinion and medication, which never improve her condition. In fact, her condition worsened. She finally insisted that the doctor checked her knee thoroughly again. Therefore they did some kind of scan on her knee and discovered a minute piece of broken bone from a fracture, which an x-ray couldn't detect. By this time her health had deteriorated and condition getting worst. The same doctor decided to introduce a strong medicine (I forgot the name), which I found out later, that it reduces or weakens the body's immune system. My daughter's immune system was already struggling hard to fight the bacterial infection and here we had a doctor giving something to weaken her immune system. Her condition got worst after taking the medication. She was beginning to talk "funny" suggesting that her brain was also affected by the bacterial infection. Her mother decided that "enough is enough" for the treatment by the SJMC doctor and decided to bring her to University Hospital.

Upon admittance, she was quickly diagnosed as being in critical condition and was put in the emergency room on the life support system straighaway.

I'm not going to write something here that will bring tears to your eyes for I am sure you know how it feels like to lose someone in the family whom you love so much. My only most regret is that I didn't spend as much time with Zorzini as I should. I shall always cherish the precious moments that we had together, from the time she was a baby until the time when she graduated and secured herself a job with Shell.

I can still remember how pretty excited she was back in 2003 when she got the job with Shell and was posted to Butterworth near to where I was living.

She was assigned to look after all the Shell stations in the north. I was at that time supervising the construction of a dam in Kedah (Beris Dam). We would always meet up for lunch whenever she had to travel and pass near the place where I worked. She would entertain me with her jokes in her usual cheering manner and smile. I can never forget her smile. In fact, I miss her smile now.

Her death came not only as a shock to me, but also to all her loved ones and close friends.

When it's time to return to Allah SWT to leave this world for good, the circumstances leading to death just happens the way it is "written" to happen.

Well Zorzini, stay put there. Papa's turn will also come one day, sooner or later, for death is only to wake up and live again in the next world., this time in a permanent world, where we don't have to be separated again and where papa can see your loving smile again...insyaAllah.