FOM Chronicles DV Issue 2021

Suicide: A Stigmatized Notion

Firdous Bee

According to CDC (Centres for Disease Control and Prevention), ―Suicide is a serious public health problem
that can have lasting harmful effects on individuals, families, and communities.‖ Suicide can be an outrageous
thought for some while for others, it turns out to be the light at the end of a dark tunnel. Surprisingly enough,
Malaysia criminalizes attempted suicide under section 309 of the penal code. Hence, whatever statistics we
come across is probably just the tip of the iceberg. Besides that, even though Malaysia has a strong standing
outlook for mental health and suicide prevention, it does not rule out the fact of shortage of mental health
professionals they are facing currently.
In Malaysia, from January to August 2021, Befrienders KL received 30,238 help notifications compared to
32,710 during the whole of the previous year. The rise in suicide rates has become a pressing concern in
Malaysia, particularly during ‗the pandemic era‘. Prolong lockdown, exhaustion of savings, the uncertainty of
the future, domestic violence, cancellation of plans, confinement or isolation, grieving due to death have stirred
up the feelings of depression, loneliness, hopelessness, helplessness, and self-loathing fourfold.
Very often attempts of suicide knock on your door and it is crucial to respond to them. Educating the general
population on warning signs or the indicators of suicide is essential. Warning signs include talking, behavior,
and mood. The tendency of talking about self-harm, hopelessness, suffocation, dying, goodbyes, and as a matter
of fact, suicide can be powerful indicators. Behaviors such as self-isolation, run-down appearance, changes in
sleeping and eating habits, actively researching on means to end their life, consuming excessive drugs and
alcohol, as well are red signals. Additionally, the mood of the person speaks for itself. A cheerful and social
butterfly dulling to a wallflower or a calm and well-behaved individual turning defiant and volatile should raise
red flags. Recognizing these indicators does not require high-end observation skills, it‘s just a matter of
educating oneself. Like the saying, what the mind doesn‘t know, the eyes don‘t see.
Answering the plight for help requires attention. Mnemonic WAIT can be helpful to have an organized
approach in supporting the individuals vulnerable to suicide.
W: Watch out for the warning signs of suicide and assess them. The ones that are standing at the edge of a cliff
usually have a detailed PLAN set with TIME and MEANS with which they will carry out their INTENTION. If
they have all four elements, making a prompt decision to inform the emergency service number (999) should be
your next step.
A: Ask them questions. ‗Are you stressed?‘, ‗Are you having suicidal thoughts?‘, ‗Are you having a difficult
time?‘, ‗When did you begin feeling like this?‘. These question at times may seem like would not procure any
answers but to a person grasping thin strands, it could mean a lot.
I: It will pass. Mostly reassuring and offering them a shoulder to lean on can always subside negative thoughts.
Their emotions can be painful but one can sit with them and eventually, they shall pass.
T: Talk to others. Be it your family, friends, or health professionals. It will help to FaceTime or chat with one
another and keep track of each other. Sometimes, a single text can lift the debilitating thoughts and flush them
out.
Keep in mind to never belittle their thoughts. Lend them your ears and empathize with them. Never guilt trip
them or judge them for not being strong. Encourage them to seek professional help and practice activities that
bring them peace of mind like yoga, meditation, and exercise. Open their eyes to the promising and reasonable
tomorrow. Uncertainties during the pandemic do not guarantee a safe landing but the faith of rising stronger
than your fears and thoughts is a step towards the brighter end.

If anyone seeking help, Talian Kasih (15999) and Befrienders KL (03-76272929) are 24-hour helpline contacts
available. One can always head to Malaysian Mental Health Association for the elaborate directory.
Impact Of COVID-19 Pandemic On Students, Workers And Public
Tan Chin Seng
Covid-19 has been a new and tough challenge for every individual ever since March 2020. It had affected our
daily lives in every aspect and had lead us to undergo changes in order to deal with the pandemic. Despite

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having us to adapt, improvise and overcome the current pandemic situation, mental health of students and staffs
during this Covid-19 had been drastically affected in order to get used to the pandemic.
Being a student myself, I have seen a lot of friends facing different kinds of problems in their academic and
daily life during this Covid-19 times. Due to the pandemic we are now only capable of having online classes
instead of the usual face to face classes that we feel is more effective than the current online classes but what
can we do in these desperate times we can just get used to it. We do know that this is a new norm that we are
supposed to get used to it, but this should be balanced in between students that require clinical or hands on
practice students and students that do not require these practices. For medical students like us we urge to be able
to have the opportunity to have our chances to go back to the hospital to have our clinical training as we would
not like to be some incapable or incompetent doctors in the future. While on the other hand there had been news
about government universities such as University Malaya had all their clinical students vaccinated and have
their clinical rounds ongoing back just like the non Covid days while we are still sitting in the same spot since
the end of our 3rd year final exams. While in dealing with this situation we had been shutted down by the
authorities stating that we already have our final year students all vaccinated and should be ―proud‖ of it and we
are supposed to sit down and wait like some sitting ducks for our turn to be vaccinated as we already had our
turn approved but we have no idea when is our turn. This indirectly had given us unwanted mental stress as we
are constantly reminded about how less clinical approach and hands on we are given and are facing a serious
delay in our academic calendar which we are aware of.
Besides the starting to lose interest in their course and studies is another main issue for students. This is usually
caused by the lack of motivation for the students in pursuing their degree or course already as it looks like that
there is no end for what they are dealing with already as their academic calendar is being dragged on and on
and on which is mentally depressing for the students. The worst part is students will start to feel demotivated
and lose the will to continue pursue what they wished to do in the beginning and feel that they are lost in their
life already. On non pandemic days students are capable of expressing their mental thoughts and feelings to
their friends which allow them to have somebody to consult and express their thoughts. While now during MCO
period they are unable to meet up and socialize which make students feel that they have a lot of stuff in mind
leading to depression among students.
Workers are also another group of individuals that are affected due to the pandemic. As during these periods a
lot of sectors are unable to operate normally due to the current SOP which should be followed by everyone in
Malaysia or some sectors are forced to reduce their man power during these times which will cause a lot of
workers to face the risk of losing their job. In these workers most of them are the sole breadwinner of the family
so if they lose their job their family will be facing financial issues which is a tough situation to handle in these
tough times. But there are some workers that are capable of transitioning from their current job to their new
career which we do see a lot recently. Especially with the advancement of technology they are able to sell their
products online and maintain their monthly expenses which is a good sign for them.
The awareness of individual hygiene status is raised to another new level during this pandemic which is a good
impact to the public. Even though this pandemic has brought a lot of troubles to our lives but there is always a
brighter side for everything. Just think back about the days before Covid-19 we didn‘t really take care of our
own hygiene as much as we do for now. After implementing the mandatory of wearing a face mask when we
are in the public has significantly reduced the exposure of everyone to all sorts of virus and bacteria which
causes diseases to us. Look around yourselves had u seen anybody get a flu or any common cold recently or for
the past few months? Are any of your family members falling sick recently? This is due to the awareness of
public towards personal hygiene is raised. Therefore we should continue practice maintaining personal hygiene
even after the pandemic.

In a nut shell, this pandemic had brought a lot of changes towards our lives in both good and bad ways.
Therefore everybody should play their part in fighting against this pandemic to allow us to get back to our pre-
pandemic days. As we already survived a lot of pandemics why cant we do it again? As long as everyone stay
strong and do their part it is possible for us to defeat this pandemic together.

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Challenge Faced By Health Care Worker & Medical Students During Covid-19 Pandemic

Wong Wei Quan

It is not uncommon to get the news about front liners getting infected with COVID-19 nowadays, humans are
vulnerable to this small virus. To make things worse, all the front liners have to deal with the virus all the time,
making them susceptible of getting infected with the virus, without them, no one is going to handle this danger-
ous job. With the confirmed cases of delta-variant virus in Malaysia, this makes the job even more dangerous.

With the spike of cases of COVID-19 in Malaysia, it has causes more problems to the health care work-
ers. Doctors and nurses have to take care of the increase number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 patients,
working for almost 24 hours per day. Most of the beds in hospitals have been used up indicating the number of
patients have succeeded as what the hospital supposedly to be provided, this means doctors and nurses have to
be dealing with more patients in the hospital. Wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) all the time is not
easy, to protect themselves from getting the virus, they have to wear this tight and hot equipment all the time
when dealing with COVID positive patients. In long term, the doctors will have long term skin problems such
as acne, itch or rash.

With all the stress built up on healthcare workers, this will affect their performance during working. As
a result, they tend to make mistake. But making mistake can cause a lot of problem to them. Example of mis-
take is wearing PPE wrongly and loosely which make them getting the COVID-19 themselves. With the great
tasks to bear, they can be easily getting blamed by the community especially how easily information can be
shared on social network nowadays, any mistakes went viral may ruin their jobs or the quality of the hospital
they working in or even losing their jobs because of that.

In term of medical students, their quality will be doubted once they graduated from the MBBS program,
being quote as online-doctors doesn‘t make any better to the name of the new doctors either. Some hospitals
have choose to not let medical students to enter the hospital for the sake of the patients because it can be dan-
gerous for students to enter the hospital even it‘s a must for a medical students to expose themselves to the hos-
pital environment before graduating or completing the program they study. Losing the ability of facing a real
patients during the practical practice has make students not able to face the real patient as doctors are facing real
patients in real life, thus making students not able to train or practice the real history taking or physical exami-
nation on the real patient.

For the studies, since medical students are now in their own house, this will make students lack of the
real motivation as compare to them in the campus or hostel. Students will make the most comfort out of them in
their house since they can do whatever they want in their home, causing them to loss the focus during the clas-
ses that is conducted through online. Skipping classes have gone easier now, with all sorts of methods that stu-
dent can be used, this has cause the quality of medical students to drop significantly. The lack of face-to-face
teaching has cause the lack of effectiveness in teachings as the lecturers are not able to convey a lot of infor-
mation properly during the online classes.

With the advancement of technology is concern, online classes have becoming a norm for all the teach-
ings. But not all lecturers are IT-savvy, it can cause a lot of problem during an online classes, which can take
forever to get a solution to the problem. Those problem can sometimes take a longer time to get a solution to be
fixed, which prolonged the unnecessary time in class, any prolonged time in online classes will in term cause
the students to loss the motivation because students have to sit in front of their laptop or computer all the time
during the class, which might cause some pain in their neck if their sitting in a bad posture. Not all online clas-
ses can be ran smoothly, with frequent internet interruption, this has causes the messages not able to pass clearly
to the students unlike in face-to-face classes where students and lecturers are in a same room and messages can
be passed clearly.

No one knows when the pandemic will end, from the statistics, looks like it is not going to end real soon,
what all the medical students and healthcare workers need to know it feel optimistic all the time. Do not let the
small virus trample us down, we need to face every crisis positively and with the help of every parties, we can
soon, hopefully make this pandemic a history and not prolonging it.

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Blind Folded

Premnath Balakrishnan

It‘s going to be nearly 2 years since the pandemic started. This pandemic affected most sectors of our economy,
welfare, and particularly our education one way or another. Before I begin, I would like to introduce myself, I
am a fourth-year private medical student who is currently staying at home for the past year. I am just an average
student just like most of my friends and batchmates. Before the pandemic, we used to go to the hospitals for our
clinical postings as it was part of the curriculum.

Everything was fine as the doctors and professors were trying their very best to educate us, students. However,
the clinical exposure we get is currently abysmal and practical knowledge such as ―history taking‖ has been
lackluster due to the nature of the current model of teaching.

When they first introduced us to emergency remote teaching, it was fine and comfortable as we get to wear any
clothes and eat during a lecture class. It was easy to pander and lose focus for most of the lectures.
Unfortunately, I could not comprehend these new methods, which gave us a better reason to play truant.

I cannot speak for the rest of my peers, but I can‘t comprehend much of what they were teaching and didn‘t
bring it up with a belief that the pandemic would end soon. As days go by, our Faculty of Medicine tried their
best to bring us back to campus. Online classes have covered most of our clinical postings.

Meanwhile, students from other universities, especially government universities got their vaccinations, even
there was a case where the medical student refused to vaccinate. At this point, I got panicked, we didn‘t get to
go to the hospital even though our Faculty tried hard to bring us back

I can‘t comprehend online classes compare to face to face classes. Professors normally will notice our facial
expressions, whether the students can understand the topics that are being thought or exhausted due to too long
class hours. Online ruined that, long class hour, even during the dusk we have classes.

As online classes emerge, student's cognition towards the topics was excluded as the timetable and teaching
schedule prevailed surpassed everything to finish our classes in time.

―You are a 4th-year medical student, you should know this‖ these comments are daunting as we didn't go to the
hospital for more than one year. I am not a smart student, but with correct guidance, I can understand the topics,
and most importantly, if I have any doubts I will clarify it immediately.

A non -conducive environment to study, as I stay in a hostel, my focus would be primarily on studies. But at
home, I barely focus because of the distraction and technical difficulties.

Finally, addressing our batch as Year 4 medical students is absurd. We barely went to the hospital, I believe that
clinical teaching surpasses classroom teaching. I can't enunciate for my entire batchmates, but I am anxious and
worried. I don't have the same exposure as my seniors before the pandemic. I also believe that there is a
significant amount of procrastination that we should acknowledge when it comes to private universities
compared to government universities.

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A Scribbling

With a strained eye from the online classes, Remya Vallathol
my daughter came and sat on my lap
Her hands around my neck and head on my shoulders Microbiology
She asked me
―Amma, do you remember we talked about the five senses
Will Covid affect our senses?‖
I thought deeply of how Covid affected my senses,
I took a deep breath and told her

―I miss the sight of students in lecture theatre
I miss the sight of golden clouds and evening horizon from the flight window
I miss the sight of my family waiting at the ―Arrival‖

I miss the sound of people laughing at the movies
I miss the sound of waves crashing on the rock
I miss the sound of crazy family gatherings

I miss the smell of ―Rotiboy‖ at the bus terminal
I miss the smell of evening snacks my mom makes
I miss the smell of burning oil and agarbathi at our temple

I miss the taste of summer fruits at my village
I miss the taste of ―sadya‖
I miss the taste of ―nei dosai‖

I miss the general coach train journey in India
I miss the long road trips with friends
I long to hug my niece and nephew whom sadly yet I have seen only through video chat‖

She asked me, ―Are you alright?
You miss so many things,
so, are you alright?‖

I said, ―Yes, I am
Coz you are with me
And what I miss is nothing
There are others who miss much more
who miss their home
who miss their meal
who miss their family
Covid took some
Bombs and bullets took some
And the system which include you and me took some‖

I know that was too much for her to understand,
She was lost
And I too was lost
In a world between normal and the new norm.

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Red Junglefowl Gallus gallus

Dr. Neoh Chin Boon
Surgery, AIMST University

Have you ever seen a chicken fly? The Red Junglefowl does not just ―cross the road‖, it can fly. At night, they
will fly up to roost on tall branches of trees to hide from nocturnal predators. This is the original endemic spe-
cies of wild chicken. Through domestication and in-breeding the Red Junglefowl has become the modern-day
domestic chicken, bred for eggs, meat and sport. Now it is so difficult to tell if it still the original wild species, if
one should see it in the tropical jungles of West Malaysia, less commonly in East Malaysia.
As expected, the cockerel is magnificently adorned with long colourful tassels of feathers, mainly for display as
it is polygamous with many hens in its flock. Feathers are made of keratin and the main pigment is melanin.
But through the art and science of Nature, bright sunlight passing through the specially structured, microscopic
lattice-work of feathers, light is refracted and reflected that it becomes multihued, like a rainbow. Something to
crow about. However, the hen may not possess such finery but it actually has a superb, intricate pattern of
feathers, designed for camouflage, helpful during the incubation of its eggs.
The title of ―fighting cock‖ belongs to the cockerel which has a long sharp spur on each leg which can inflict
serious injury on its rival male or predator. The original range of this resident fowl is very wide, across South
Asia and South-East Asia, mostly in the tropical and sub-tropical jungles. They may carry the original genetic
material of wild chicken, capable of resisting the bird flu and other diseases that can wipe out the genetically-
inferior domestic chicken. Through the ages, man has introduced this bird to many countries in it is domesticat-
ed variety.

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Lovely and Lively AIMST

Snr. Prof. Dr. K.R. Sethuraman

Dean FOM, AIMST University

Misty Morning
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Bird at Dusk

Colorful Bird Blends in the Milieu
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Perfectly Balanced Pigeon

Can You See Two Birds?
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Two Camouflaged Birds Zoomed in

Kingfisher Pair on a Tree
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Morning Visitor: Dusky Leaf Monkey
Morning Visitor: Dusky Leaf Monkey

Dusky Leaf Monkey for a Meal of Tamarind
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Amazing AIMST

Dr. Usha Singh
Pediatrics

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Reflections in AIMST Campus

Dr. Mariette D’souza

Dermatology

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AIMST Bus Stand

Dr. Namani Satyanarayana

Anatomy

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