World Doctor

What an energetic talk by Prof Madya Mohtar

I still remember very clearly regarding a very interesting and meaningful topic presented by our supervisors during the trip to Yogyakarta.

Even though our body and mind still pro-occupied with tiredness after spending a day at Posyandu, we still managed to have a gathering together with medical students from Universitas Gadjah Mada at 8.15 pm for a sharing session with him.

The session was held at Auditorium II, Fakultas Kedoktoren UGM and attended by 30 medical students, mainly from PKPIM. It was an honor for us as the president of the club also attending the program even though busying preparing for his medical examination. The topic given for Prof Madya Mohtar is ‘World doctor’

Prof Mohtar began his talk humbly by mentioning that even though he is a doctor, but still he is a student. And he is a learner for life. He is very passionate in teaching as he was inspired by a Chinese proverb which saying;

“To teach is to learn twice”

That’s why he was so eager in sharing his journey of learning through humanitarian mission as it contains thousands of knowledge and experiences.

A point should be buried firmly in our minds- health care has no color and everybody should have an access to it.

From my understanding, what he means by world doctor is that “a doctor who able to serve humanity regardless of race, religion, skin color and location with full of wisdom and knowledge and with available resources and yet still manage to save lives.”

In order to become a great doctor and be able to serve mankind, a doctor must keep on learning and updating themselves with medical knowledge in keeping them to be a safe doctor and be able to make a diagnosis. One of his saying keep on playing in my minds;

“Patient doesn’t come to you with diagnosis on their heads. You have to digs it up.”

Through his sharing, he mentioned about his team having difficulties during a mission to a North Korea for a Cataract surgery where their logistic was held by custom at Beijing. This had causing their schedule changed drastically as they were planning to do the surgery for one week duration. But at the end, they manage to perform it for only half of a day but yet be able to finish more than 80 surgeries. The worked without rest and this bring into amaze towards the Korean. As a result, it strengthens the relationship between North Korea and Malaysia and they keep on joining program held at Malaysia.

By this experience, he told us not to give up hope as we were facing the same situation as our medical equipments and drugs for mobile clinic was held by Yogyakarta customs. This story indeed motivates us not to stop hoping and working to free our stuff no matter what happens.

Besides North Korea, his experienced in Sudan really make our tears drop seeing how suffered their people after their country engaged in war. I still remember one of the pictures of the cataract surgery which held with a lack of equipment and guided by torch light. This again reminds us about the definition of ‘world doctor’ whereby a doctor be able to save lives with available resources.

Before ending his talk, he again reminds us that health has no color. So we must treat our patient with empathy and full of heart. The most important thing is to be sincere in whatever we did as sincerity breaks all barriers. Being a doctor is to help others because by helping others, we actually helping ourselves.

Thanks again to Prof Madya Mohtar for his sharing. It truly inspires us to continue joining humanitarian mission and we hopes that later on, we will be joining NGO in order to become a world doctor. I end this writings by sharing words by Prof Madya Mohtar which sounds;

“Doctor never retire, they just die”

Thank you.