WHEN I first saw little Ainul Mardhiah at a specialist hospital in Shah Alam, I only saw her tiny legs wriggling frantically as several medical personnel hovered over her tiny body while an anaesthetist prepared her for the flight that was to change her life.
Ainul, 9 months old, who was suffering from a rare form of cancer known as Germ Cell Tumour, with a growth bigger than a golf ball inside her mouth, had been making headlines. Her plight and that of her parents had garnered support; emotionally and financially, from Malaysians everywhere.
The consultant anaesthetist preparing her for the flight was Colonel (Rtd) Dato Dr Jaseemuddeen Abu Baker. He had just finished his work at the hospital and within a few hours, he was accompanying baby Ainul and her parents, Ahmad Safiuddin Ahmad Razak and Nurul Erwani Zaidi, both 24, on a flight to London.
With him was another consultant anaesthetist, Dr Gunalan Arumugam from Subang Jaya Medical Centre. A day earlier, together with Steven Penafort, a paramedic and one of the directors of First Ambulance Malaysia, they had gathered for the last-minute preparation of medical equipment to bring on the flight for their little patient. The trio are medical volunteers from the Society of Aeromedicine Malaysia (SAMM), who had been repatriating patients for treatment or after treatment.
Dr Jaseemuddeen had been doing medical evacuation since 1996 and Dr Gunalan since 2000.
Eight thousand miles away in the United Kingdom, three other Malaysian doctors were busy making last-minute preparations for the arrival of baby Ainul; Dr Fahja Ismail, Dr Najmiah Khaiessa Ahmad, both anaesthetists from hospitals in and around London, as well as Dr Sharifah Faridah Syed Alwi, a lecturer at a London university.
These formidable ladies are known as the power puff girls.
These are the people who had been working tirelessly and quietly behind the scenes to ensure smooth repatriations of patients; the last two were stroke patients Mohamad Sahar Mhd Noor and Sahrom Ahmad from London to Malaysia.
This third time the same group of volunteers got together was to bring this little patient from Malaysia to London for a life-changing operation that will give her hope of leading a normal life. And this time they were joined by trainee surgeon, Dr Nur Amalina Che Bakri.
All these volunteers offer their services during their own free time, beyond their call of duty and without much fuss. After their own shifts and frantic swapping of rotas, they juggle home life, cope with sleep deprivation and fit in voluntary work when the need arises.
For the volunteers from Malaysia, they fly in with the patients and after a brief handover and a nap, they are off again taking the same flight home; happy and satisfied to hand over their patient to the safe and capable hands of this group of volunteers in London.
The volunteers in London offer their assistance in a rota, each looking after accommodation, briefing and assisting them with medical jargon and most important of all being there as friends.
It was almost surreal how this loosely formed group of volunteers came together.
“I was approached by one of my students who wanted a bed to fly her father home. Her father had suffered a stroke as soon as he arrived in London to attend the graduation of his daughter. When she said she needed a bed for the flight home, I knew that they needed help. I contacted my friends, Fahja and Najmiah, as they are in the medical field, and together we managed to assist them,” explained Faridah about the beginnings of the volunteer group.
Faridah’s husband Jailani provided the much needed transport for the volunteers.
“When Faridah contacted me, I was in Malaysia on holiday,” said Fahja, continuing the story.
“I was told that Datuk Dr Jaseem from SAMM could probably help and I was also put in touch with Dr Gunalan. SAMM had been involved in repatriating Malaysians from overseas as well as foreign patients back to their home countries. So when I contacted them, the answer I got was, “Yes, we can help you”.
For Najmiah, she knew well the hardships of stroke patients and their families as it had happened in her family.
“When I heard about Sahar’s case, I gave myself this task to help ease their burden and find ways to bring Sahar back to Malaysia,” said Najmiah in earnest.
That seemed to be the beginning of a beautiful and amazing working relationship for these volunteers. Their meticulous planning from dates of flights, transfers from airports to accommodations, the filling of necessary forms and bank transfers, among other things, were all well documented and discussed in their group chats. Emotional support and shoulders to cry on were forever there without even the need to ask. Being in a foreign country without any support can be a nightmare. And they understand this.
Their involvement in Sahar’s case was apparently a trial run for the second case involving Sahrom — the cases were uncannily identical but for both teams in Malaysia and in London; this proved to be a lot easier as they had the previous experience to draw on. Fahja was given the chance to accompany Sahrom back, an experience she described as nothing a textbook could offer.
Ainul and her parents were the latest recipients of this wonderful charitable act.
“I asked one of the doctors accompanying us on the flight about his fees, but he told me not to worry as he would be repaid in the afterlife,” said Safiuddin, touched by their kindness and generosity. It is something that they readily do to give back to society.
Of course, all these would not have been possible without the generosity of Malaysia Airlines to help people in need. In fact, instrumental from the MAS medical team was Brigadier General Dato Dr Razin Kamarulzaman (Rtd) from the MEDA office, whose vast experience in aeromedicine had helped missions like this.
The Malaysia Airlines office in London, as well as the Malaysian High Commission in London, had always been ready to offer their assistance to facilitate the smooth repatriation of these patients.
Both Sahar and Sahrom are making good progress after their stroke; their families are still in touch with the volunteers who have touched their lives in their darkest moments. Similarly, for Ainul’s young parents, their plight had been made a bit more bearable with the presence of these angels of mercy in their lives in otherwise a place full of strangers.