Are you a ferryboat Dr.Krisana????

Thursday, 01 April 2010

Our Pharmacist teacher …. Are you merely a ferryboat that transports passengers across the riverbank?

After so many years of studying, students are so excited to reach their graduation and turn a new page of their lives. Amidst the excitement and apprehension of entering a new and daunting world of adulthood, they may not pause to think of the teachers whom they are leaving behind and who wish them the success and the best of everything in life.   Time goes by and our memory of our teachers start to fade away like a ferryboat that transports us across the river and we now forget all about it.
After so many years of studying, students are so excited to reach their graduation and turn a new page of their lives. Amidst the excitement and apprehension of entering a new and daunting world of adulthood, they may not pause to think of the teachers whom they are leaving behind and who wish them the success and the best of everything in life.   Time goes by and our memory of our teachers start to fade away like a ferryboat that transports us across the river and we now forget all about it.

In the same analogy, pharmacists are not different from teachers and the ferryboat. Pharmacists spend time and put in tremendous efforts to research, formulate and produce the needed medicines for doctors to treat patients and to cure them of all the diseases. One patient after another gets better and moves on with his/her life. The patients feel gratitude towards the doctors who diagnosed and prescribed them medicines. How many of them would think of the pharmacists who made those medicines available?

That was my idea of “a pharmacist or a medicine maker”, until one incident proved me wrong and enlightened me of the love that patients have for one very special pharmacist.

I love to paint. For the New Year, I thought and decided to make water-colour cards to send my best wishes to all my friends and relatives including to Dr. Krisana Kraisintu, our most respected and the beloved pharmacist of Thai people. She is one of my fan clubs who regularly visits my blog at www.oknation.net/blog/thaithai to view my water-colour paintings.

As always, when Dr. Krisana Kraisintu received my card (request), she sent me an email (she is so electronically interactive!!!). Its content conveyed her appreciation for the New Year card and so much more………. “Thank you very much Khun Kibangkok for the lovely and artistic card. If you don’t mind, I would like to write some encouraging words and give it to the patients (HIV/AIDS) when I meet them in Pattaya for the New Year’s party in a few days. If you are free, please come and join me. There is nothing to be afraid of.   We go to meet and give them moral support”.

I was curious so I agreed to go with her, “ Yes, Ajarn (teacher in Thai language), I would like to go with you and I will make more water-colour cards for them”.

We arrived at the New Year’s party at the location in Pattaya around 9 pm. I was taken by surprise by the reception.   The organizers came to greet us but did not immediately invite us into the partying hall, instead we were led to stand in one dark corner next to the hall. While we were standing there waiting, I heard the screams and laughter of ladies. I also saw them walking pass us, greeting each other, dressed in the sexiest and most revealing party dresses, beautiful and frightening at the same time. I then realized that the ladies whom I was looking at are not real women. I was told strictly not to stare at them and especially not at their faces. It was scary for me and I asked myself, “What kind of party is Dr. Krisana bringing me to.?”

After standing in the corner for a little while, one beautiful lady with a distinct male voice approached us and led us inside the partying hall.

The party was in full swing, once the door was opened, music and loud applause erupted and kept going, accompanied by the cheering and excitement of everyone who saw Dr. Krisana Kraisintu. All of the people, more than 200 to my estimate, gasped, stood up, looking surprised and dazed to see our honorary pharmacist join them for the New Year’s celebration.

The celebration was the social event of Thai people who are infected with HIV/AIDS virus and who got connected via one social website. Many of the participants have never met before, though they have been talking, exchanging news and advice on how to look after themselves with the right approach. Many of them came to this event because of the friendship and caring sentiments they have fostered and shared through their communication with each other.   Many of them got better and felt emotionally stronger because the people whom they met via the website gave them the moral support and encouragement to carry on with their lives.   One of the patients decided to write an email to Dr. Krisana and invite her to the party…. Her affirmative response means the world to them.

I saw happiness radiating from all the countless faces inside that hall. Everyone was smiling, laughing and having a great time. There were also magnificent shows and performances on the stage. By looking and taking in the warm and happy atmosphere, anyone would think that it is like any other fun party or celebration.

But for me, this celebration took on a totally different meaning. It was not only full of smiles and laughters but also tears of joy of the participants.

After Dr. Krisana Kraisintu sat down on the sofa, every man and woman walked on their knees and came to greet her, many of whom showed their most profound respect by putting their hands and heads next to her feet. They wanted to say “Thank You” to the lady who has fought to make antiretroviral drugs at affordable price for AIDS patients and who has made it possible for everyone infected with HIV/AIDS virus to receive free treatment at public hospitals in Thailand. For them, she has ignited the light of hope in their hearts, her actions touched and made a difference to many lives both the patients themselves and their loved ones.

Hundreds of sentences that I heard that evening keep echoing in my head, words and voices of gratitude and heartfelt admiration. Some of those sentences just humbled me.

“ Ajarn, I was so sick and was about to die. I did not know what disease I got then until I went to have my blood tested. After being diagnosed with HIV/AIDS, I received your GPO-VIR cocktail drugs and it saved my life. I owe you my life and everything”

“ Ajarn, without you, I do not know what would have happened to me and my family.”

“Ajarn, I am stunned to meet you and do not know what to say. I never imagine that you would come to our celebration this evening.”

So many people approached and talked to Dr. Krisana. I felt that the chair that I was sitting on was in the way of the people. So I got up and gave way to them.

Afterward, while I was sitting in another chair and watching the performance on the stage, one man came to give me a hug, paid me a respect, held my hands tightly and said with a wavering voice that…”Doctor, please do not abandon us….. I hold my life on you… please don’t abandon me.”

Apparently, he mistakenly thought that I was a doctor or a pharmacist like Dr. Krisana Kraisintu. I did not correct him. His words made tears swell in my eyes. If I were a pharmacist, I would have cried with him. That evening’s celebration gave me so much happiness. I did witness the greatness and the value of moral support. It is such a great gift.

I was deeply touched by Dr. Krisana and the patients who exchanged words of encouragement and comfort. Now I truly understand the meaning of the sentence, “Everybody equally has the right to live in this world”, said repeatedly by Dr. Krisana Kraisintu. She has set a goal for herself to make it possible for them to live a healthy and dignified life.

That experience changed my idea of a ferryboat. The love and best wishes of the patients for Dr. Krisana are the testimony to that.

A pharmacist is not just any ferryboat, definitely not the pharmacist who formulated and manufactured antiretroviral drugs. She is indeed a lifeboat that the passengers depend on for love, care and moral support as long as forever.

Encouragement is the most important medicine to treat illness, to prolong the lives of patients and to help them recover.

Please don’t forget to look after your loved ones, the people closed to you and always give them encouragements.

*****************
Translated by a voluntary oversea fan club of Dr.Krisana

Original article is from: http://www.oknation.net/blog/thaithai/2010/02/20/entry-1

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