Thursday, November 11, 2010

Blessing in disguise….

One morning, I just completed my night call and on my way to our CME room. We were having our weekly departmental CME and naturally the emergency physician would chair the session. I called one of the senior resident who worked with me that night and asked him to attend.

During the lecture, I noticed that he didn’t show up. So I sent him a text message…

“Sometime I wonder kenapa kau tak suka dtg CME. Dtg la. Belajar aje.” (Sometimes I wonder why you don’t like to attend our CME. Please come for the sake of learning).

For those who don’t understand Malay, it is consider a slap on the face if a student got this kind of message from a teacher/consultant.

I made a big mistake. Actually I did not notice that I mistakenly sent this message to my senior consultant.

He replied:”Tq for reminding…sya d Putrajaya” (Thanks for reminding, I’m in Putrajaya).

This text message when from a very junior emergency physician to a respectable senior consultant. The content should be considered as something rude.
The way he replied my message showed his maturity and why he is the “respectable senior consultant”.

I regretted I sent him the message, but I’m glad it happens. Without that incident I would have not learn a valuable lesson from him… To be humble.

It is a real blessing in disguise…