Follow Up of Eye Treatment at Tun Hussein Onn National Eye Hospital

Remember how Juan Or hit the back-scratcher stick onto Mommy's right eye? Well, the eye did not get any better one day after the visit to the general practitioner (GP). The eye still had an irritating sensation whenever Mommy blinked the eye. And both eyes can hardly keep open even in normal lighting.

So on Friday late afternoon (29th May 2009), Father-in-law drove Mommy to see the same GP again to get a referral letter to go see an eye specialist in Hospital Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (HUKM). However, upon reaching there, the clinic assistant told Mommy that the doctor went out to eat and will be back by 4 pm. So, ok, Mommy thought, might as well go by Pediasure for Juan Or first before heading back to the clinic. So after buying, Mommy reached the clinic again at 4.15 pm and still the GP was not in. So Mommy decided to go back home and perhaps try again tonight.

However, upon reaching home, Sister-in-law mentioned that specialist clinics in HUKM are closed from 5 pm and during weekends, thus leaving Mommy with no choice but to go for a private hospital - and that is Tun Hussein Onn National Eye Hospital at Lorong Utara B, Petaling Jaya (PJ). So Father-in-law offered to tke Mommy there on the motorbike, if Mommy is brave enough to pillion ride, considering that the PJ should be jammed since it was near 5 pm already. Immediately, Mommy took the offer and hopped on the motorbike and reached the hospital in just 15-20 minutes' time - pretty fast since we were travelling mostly on the motorbike lane.

At the clinic, there was not many people, so Mommy's turn came quite quickly after registration. First a nurse took Mommy into an eyesight-checking room. The nurse put a piece of lens in front of the hurt right eye and pointed to alphabets in different rows and Mommy had to read them out. Then she shifted the lens to the left eye (the good eye) and did the same thing. After that Mommy was directed to go into the consultation room where a young Indian eye doctor attended to Mommy. Using some eye-checking machine, he found that apparently Mommy's cornea was scratched, but luckily the scratch was at the outermost layer. Had the scratch been on the third layer, then that would be problematic. He said that scratch on the outermost layer of the cornea will heal by itself. He even taught Mommy how to see the scratch: the scratch will appear as a dark green lump on the cornea. After that, the young eye doctor referred Mommy to a more senior eye doctor - one Dr. George Thomas - an elderly Indian doctor. So Mommy went into Dr. George's room and using the same machine, he checked Mommy's eyes again - probably to confirm the diagnosis done by the young doctor. Dr. George prescribed an eye drop for Mommy to put once in every 4 hours and arranged for a follow-up appointment on 1st June 2009 (Monday). The bill came up to RM79 which consisted of RM10 for registration, RM50 for consultation, RM14 for medicine and RM5 for services. Mommy considers this RM79 bill as 'not bad' because Mommy has a colleague who went to this same hospital for scratched cornea (as a result of contact lenses) with a bill of RM129! And hers was attended only by a young doctor and no referral was made to see a more senior eye doctor!

On Saturday, Mommy's right eye felt better in which there was no irritating sensation when blinking the eye. However, the eyes still cannot stand normal lighting intensity. By Sunday, Mommy's right eye felt a lot better, can stand normal lighting already and the swelling has decreased tremendously.

Today, Mommy went for the follow-up apointment and saw Dr. George Thomas again. After checking Mommy's eye with the eye machine, he said that Mommy's cornea has healed but it is not stable yet. So Mommy asked what he meant by 'not stable'. Dr. George explained that the outermost layer of the cornea is 5 cell-layers thick. So Mommy's cornea wound now is maybe 2 cell-layers thick. Then Dr. George prescribed Mommy to continue applying the eye drop prescribed that day and also to apply artificial tear drops once in every 3 hours. So Mommy left the hospital with a bill of RM86 which consisted of RM5 for registration, RM40 for consultation, RM36 for medicine and RM5 for services.

(The eye drop, Tobrex, on the left which was prescribed on Friday, and on the right is the artificial tears' vials which actually came in a much bigger packaging. Mommy took out a few vials at a time for the convenience of carrying them around.)

How is the service like in Tun Hussein Onn Eye Hospital? Well, Mommy would say it's very good - the nurses were very helpful, the administrative staff was also very helpful (one admin lady even helped Mommy to find Mommy's water bottle which Mommy left in one of the consultation rooms!). The parking is free (Yes, it had better be free because Mommy is paying RM5 for the services!) except for one elderly Chinese man manning the main pharmacy counter - he looked and sounded grumpy! Even Mommy's colleague did not have good experience with that Chinese man at the pharmacy counter!

By the way, Mommy decided to claim the hospital fee (RM79 + RM86) from Mommy's insurance (Prudential) considering that Mommy's employer impose a RM100 limit per month for medical expenses on a use-or-lose basis (but subjected to approval if you seek treatment from specialist). And Mommy's insurance agent has already confirmed that such minor accident is fully claimable! As for the GP's fee (RM35), Mommy will claim from the employer because it doesn't require any prior approval.