Death and Dengue
My sister greeted me last Friday with the cheerful news that one of my cousins is dead. Not that I knew him very well, but it's still unnerving to know that one will never see somebody else again. Not during this earthly life at least.
He was a hunchback, and apparently he went to Taiwan for a straightening procedure. I hope he read the medical documents and contracts properly, because if he did then maybe there's a way to get compensation out of the doctors. At least his family deserves a refund of the operation costs. However, it's just another strong reminder that if one's body works, there's no real reason to go and alter it just for cosmetic reasons. I mean, he was just fine as he was. He may have been a tad short, but his weight was normal, he could probably lift weights with one finger that I couldn't with both arms, and (as far as I know) nobody ridiculed him about the curvature of his spine.
Unfortunately, he went for the surgery all the same, and now he's stretched out six feet under. What a way to go. I can just imagine the coroner's report: Dead from desire to look good.
On the other hand, Cheeky is in hospital with dengue fever. He's been suspecting it since last Thursday, apparently, because that's the day he took an MC and stayed home with high fever (39 C). He got better enough on Saturday to go to the bank, where I met him and he showed me red spots on his arms.
I didn't think it was dangerous at the time--he's never had chicken pox, so I thought it might be that or measles--and, I admit, I thought he was a wee bit paranoid. Well, it turns out he was right, and now Serene tells me he's in a very expensive hospital receiving treatment for dengue. I always said he was rich.
It's a good thing this only happened after he took care of his AS stuff, or he could be in some real trouble with the school office. As it is, he can at least relax and heal properly. It's already proven that stressed people respond badly to medicine. And anyway, dengue fever treatment is simple, as far as I know: proper hydration, cooling the body, stuff like that. It's still a fever after all: feed a fever, starve a cold.
I wonder if I should send him a get-well card or something. Or maybe an SMS. Or cheaper yet, an e-card; but he doesn't have Internet access from the hospital room (and even if they had WiFi, he doesn't have a laptop) so he'd only see it after he recovered, which is far too late.
He isn't the first one in my class to get dengue, though; Nick OS also got it, last year, and developed a strong phobia of mosquitoes after it. (He firmly believes that if you recover from dengue and somehow contract it again, the second infection is fatal.) Maybe it just proves that rich people are more susceptible to dengue than others.
But then, if that were true, wouldn't the Pig be perenially down with dengue?
He was a hunchback, and apparently he went to Taiwan for a straightening procedure. I hope he read the medical documents and contracts properly, because if he did then maybe there's a way to get compensation out of the doctors. At least his family deserves a refund of the operation costs. However, it's just another strong reminder that if one's body works, there's no real reason to go and alter it just for cosmetic reasons. I mean, he was just fine as he was. He may have been a tad short, but his weight was normal, he could probably lift weights with one finger that I couldn't with both arms, and (as far as I know) nobody ridiculed him about the curvature of his spine.
Unfortunately, he went for the surgery all the same, and now he's stretched out six feet under. What a way to go. I can just imagine the coroner's report: Dead from desire to look good.
On the other hand, Cheeky is in hospital with dengue fever. He's been suspecting it since last Thursday, apparently, because that's the day he took an MC and stayed home with high fever (39 C). He got better enough on Saturday to go to the bank, where I met him and he showed me red spots on his arms.
I didn't think it was dangerous at the time--he's never had chicken pox, so I thought it might be that or measles--and, I admit, I thought he was a wee bit paranoid. Well, it turns out he was right, and now Serene tells me he's in a very expensive hospital receiving treatment for dengue. I always said he was rich.
It's a good thing this only happened after he took care of his AS stuff, or he could be in some real trouble with the school office. As it is, he can at least relax and heal properly. It's already proven that stressed people respond badly to medicine. And anyway, dengue fever treatment is simple, as far as I know: proper hydration, cooling the body, stuff like that. It's still a fever after all: feed a fever, starve a cold.
I wonder if I should send him a get-well card or something. Or maybe an SMS. Or cheaper yet, an e-card; but he doesn't have Internet access from the hospital room (and even if they had WiFi, he doesn't have a laptop) so he'd only see it after he recovered, which is far too late.
He isn't the first one in my class to get dengue, though; Nick OS also got it, last year, and developed a strong phobia of mosquitoes after it. (He firmly believes that if you recover from dengue and somehow contract it again, the second infection is fatal.) Maybe it just proves that rich people are more susceptible to dengue than others.
But then, if that were true, wouldn't the Pig be perenially down with dengue?
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