HOW MY PATIENT’S DEATH CHANGED MY LIFE

HOW MY PATIENT’S DEATH CHANGED MY LIFE

By Suleiman Ndoro Jnr (Dr Audi)

“I’m sorry to tell you that the patient has passed away.” I was accompanying the medical officer intern at lunch break hours when he was breaking the news to the relatives of the deceased patient.

The women that had visited their patient started screaming and crying with loud voices. They couldn’t believe that their patient had passed away. In the midst of the wails, one woman said something that made me really ponder a lot.

She said while crying, “I had planned to visit her tomorrow, why didn’t I just visit her yesterday when I had the time? Look at me now.” The woman said that statement with a lot of guilt and disappointment.

That woman wished she had visited her relative the day before when she was still alive. She wished she had not postponed it. But it was already too late. There is nothing she could do other than regretting. That woman’s example was another lesson I learnt during my clinical rotations as a medical student. That scenario taught me to always do what I wanted that particular moment instead of postponing it.

Do whatever you want to do now. Don’t postpone it. Start writing that book now. Start doing the exercises you want to do now. Start working on that talent now. Start that business you’ve always wanted to start now. Give that gift to your spouse now. Just do it now.

Why don’t you just do it now instead of saying that you will start it tomorrow, next week or next month? How even sure are you that you will be there tomorrow or the situation will be the same tomorrow as it is at the present moment? 

You just start it now and when tomorrow or next month arrives, you will be already steps ahead. You will have already learnt a few lessons and achieved a portion of what you wanted to have tomorrow.

 Postponing things is a habit of losers. People who are denial and filled with fear are the ones that postpone and make things delay. That’s not what successful people do. Successful people make things happen instead of postponing them. It is either now or never.

“Postponing just means that you do not want it. Because if you really wanted it, you would have done it there and then. Do not postpone it because moments later you will wish that you would have started it earlier enough.”