"If you have to go, you have to," the young man said but his mum said, "This is not the order of life. Parents die before their children."
This young man, at around 21 years of life feel incredibly invincible. He ran the army marathon and got his award. He partied till the early hours of the morning though he was not seen intoxicated and drunk.
A few young men in Singapore had crashed the cars in the early hours of the morning and caused immense grief to their parents as they perished.
But this young man had a guardian angel. He escaped death in one car he drove at 4 a.m after driving friends home. The car did a somersault as it hit the central fencing separating two roads.
The car flew up, crossed the central fence, did a U-turn and landed upright on the only side of Thomson Road. A big hole in the roof and dented front door. The car was even facing the right direction. It did hit and dented the bumper of a taxi but the taxi driver was not hurt.
This young man did not have one wound. The police did not find him drunk. The car was a write-off. Nobody was killed. What an incredible tall tale, you would say. Yet it is true.
This young man ought to be dead. Crushed inside a burning exploding car. A young promising life snuffed out in a car accident involving young men who feel they are masters of the universe.
Yet he was much alive. If there was a guardian angel or God, he would be blessed with a new lease of life.
Now, he could not breathe well. Coughing non-stop for the past 2 days at least. The general practitioner had given him some tablets for his sore throat. Flu was suspected. Now, he could not sleep as he could not breathe.
Could he wait till the morning to see the doctor? It was 4 am and his mum was barely alert, being a night owl like him.
"Where's your inhaler," I asked him. The inhaler delivered drugs to open up his breathing airways. But he did not carry one with him although he was asthmatic and advised by me. After all, he did not suffer any ashtmatic attacks for some years. He won an award at the army marathon and he was invincible.
His mum fished out an inhaler kept for him. Mums are always a boy's best friend. He put the inhaler into his mouth and sucked in two puffs of the medicine. No effect.
"Well, the inhaler has expired in 2005," I said. I doubted that even a non-expired inhaler would be effective at this late stage of acute respiratory distress. It is best he gets to the Emergency Ward of the Hospital before he dies.
Can a young man die so easily? Yes, if his parents ignore his acute difficulty in breathing.
"It will be a very painful death as you can't breathe when all the airways have had shut down due to your asthmatic attack." I said to the young man. He ought to take personal responsibility of his health and carry the inhaler with him at all times. But he did not do it.
"I read in the newspapers that a qualified doctor had an asthmatic attack in an aircraft and died. All that was needed was the inhaler and she did not have it with her."
Mum would rather sleep. I beckoned to her to get up and get dressed. This young man was still standing and there would be some hope. It was fortunate that he was not in the cruise ship or airplane. What he needed was the emergency nebuliser with oxygen mixing the anti-asthmatic drugs and that was found in the hospital.
To make a long story short, this young man survived. This was his second lease of life. He has to be personally responsible for his own health and learn from this experience.
"When you have to go, you have to go," are brave words of masters of the universe. Try not to tempt fate, young man. Words don't come easy from your parents. This story is written for you. To ask you keep an updated inhaler by your side always and not cause intense grief to your mum when your life is cut short due to a lack of an inhaler and early use of it.
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