How My iPhone Survived Water Damage

It was just another normal night shift in the pediatric ward. Until I noticed that my iPhone wasn't in my pocket, just as I wanted to take a nap (somewhere around 1 am). Looked everywhere. Called the phone. Woke my wife up in the middle of the night to use Try My iPhone. Even tried to call up one of the patient's parent, who for some circumstances requested for discharge at midnight. No use. After close to 2 hours of searching, I gave up and went to bed.

Apparently what had happened was that the iPhone fell from my pants pocket in the bathroom and fell onto the floor without me noticing it. And when I opened the door, the phone was pushed to the bathroom wall, with a leaking shower head right above it. It was ledger just nice; every time I'd search the room it'd be between the door and wall.

So when I woke up and showered before clerking a new admission, imagine the horror when I saw the phone when the door was closed, the leaking shower right above with water dripping onto it. The screen was black, and I pressed the unlock button once with no response. Water was seeping out of the speaker holes at the bottom. At the instant I removed the case and wiped the phone clean. After I showered, I put the phone in my shirt pocket with a plan.

Water damage occurs from the electronics getting short-circuited. So there are 2 main steps to salvaging a wet electronics equipment: turn off the power, and remove the conductivity of the wet intruder.

1) Turning off the power - not easy when using an iPhone, which doesn't have a removable battery. And the phone was already unresponsive, so it wasn't something I could control.

2) Reducing conductivity - the most important factor is removing the free ions first. Ideally this means washing the salts that may have entered the phone with distilled water. This is more important if the phone got wet from seawater or pool water (and in some respects HKL water does apply) but it is a scary idea so I scrapped that. This is where the idea of disassembling a phone and cleaning the electronics with a soft brush and/or alcohol to remove salts for stuff with water damage comes from.

The next step is drying the phone. After I wiped the phone clean I kept it in my shirt pocket with hope that the body heat would evaporate some of the water while allowing an outlet for the evaporated water to come out. My plan for definitive drying was getting a calcium chloride based desiccant (ala Thirsty Hippo) to suck out the water inside.

I called my wife to send an airtight tub while coming to work and send Muiz to the creche, with the hope that the Hospimart in HKL sells such a desiccant product. Apparently it wasn't sold. So after 10 hours of discovering the phone I finally got a tub of calcium chloride from the nearby Guardian pharmacy. I put the desiccant container in an airtight tub and closed it with the iPhone inside.

44 hours later, I recharged the phone. 76% battery left, turned on as usual, and it was back to business as if nothing happened.

From searching the internet, there are other alternatives to calcium chloride (which in all respects pretty cost effective as it is):
1) silica gels - you'd need a shit ton, and who keeps these in their house anyway?
2) uncooked rice - you might want to keep it for 72 hours instead of the 2 days I used.
3) hot air - use with care as you might cook the electronics. And ventilation is more important than the heat itself with this method

So remember the steps:
1) don't allow your expensive phone to get wet.
2) dry your phone's insides ASAP, and don't turn the phone at all until it's already dry.
3) if you dare, clean the insides. You've probably voided your warranty already anyway, so it could be a reasonable step if you're desperate.

Most important resource (among others): Andy Ihnatko

Couple Random Thoughts - March 11 2012

1) Since the Share Sheet feature in future OS X Mountain Lion includes Vimeo and not Youtube, I'm considering returning there for my video hosting needs.

2) The takeaway note from the recent hospital lecture in conjunction with World Kidney Day: you can't expect to receive if you're not willing to give. The Malaysian organ donor rates are really appalling such that the majority of recipients get their surgeries in China/India. I agree that we need an opt out instead of the opt in system in place currently.

3) The worst thing about being in the strength sports (powerlifting/strongman/Oly lifting/bodybuiling)? Your thigh size determines your pant size, not your waist. The belt *is* mandatory.

4) It's cool to have passed the anaest/ICU posting assessment without studying at all (the exam came as a surprise). Maybe I should return here. After all, being an intensivist is one of my interests along with (paradoxically) sports medicine/rehab.

Strength Training... As a Houseman.

This post is obviously inspired by Fendi's worries of not being able to train as a houseman. After 1 year of housemanship, these are my thoughts:


1) Let's face it, the most important step to being able to train as a houseman is to be at the right hospital so that you can choose the right gym.

Rules of thumb:

• You need to be near a gym with good operating hours. For example, during weekdays I train at Celebrity Fitness, Lot 10 (closes at midnight during weekdays). This is a big point as it allows me to sleep first before going to the gym, should I choose to train in between EOD's (!).
• The gym must be good enough so that you don't have to wait too long to use the equipment you want.
• The hospital shouldn't have EOD's as the rule. Having a hospital with stable on call schedules is best. For example, I train better during medical with 10 calls spread evenly throughout the month than during O&G with the same 10 calls but with EOD's and greater breaks between calls. If you can coordinate your calls with your leader, do so. As you'll be able to adapt calls to your liking for training.
• Find out gyms near areas you'll be traveling on off weekends. A good session in a per entry gym is a good session.
• The point is: getting a hospital suitable for you to train after work is doable, and the onus is on you.

2) Another issue is timing of training. Unless if you are working in surgery HKL with 3 calls a month, you are not training 4 times a week; 3 might be possible if you are single. 

Since medical posting, I have maintained a fairly regular schedule of training on post-post-call days. I was very lucky in medical as I was able to negotiate a very good on call schedule; I did not have EOD's ever in medical except during the Chinese New Year (and that was a passive EOD call; oh wait I'm too Jonah).

In O&G however, I was stuck with EOD's. This requires more precise planning in advance. On some days I'd train in between the EOD's with sleep before sessions, especially if the break after the EOD was only 2 days. On some occasions I'd train post call (of the 2nd EOD) followed by an EOD session at the gym if there was a 3 day break. You need to know your schedule.

3) Seeing the 2 points above, there's a conclusion to be made: you need to choose the right program. 

If you were a seriously body-building type of strength athlete you'll have serious problems: Your optimal program is always 4-a-week, which is not attainable. And forget 6-a-week body part splits. You'll have to change to a 3-a-week with an upper-lower split with high intensity during the training. Hitting one body part twice a week on 1 week, then once a week on the next week is the idea. 

Another idea is to go straight to full-body routines. For a bodybuilding program, it should work well if you're still a beginner. I'm not familiar though with bodybuilding programs that aren't in the traditional body-part split model. But I think looking up Chad Waterbury/Alwyn Cosgrove for interesting full-body routines might give clues.

And if you're more into powerlifting like me, the solution is very simple: Jim Wendler's 5/3/1 is king; devised by a lifter who wants to do more in life. And you can modify it to a 2 a week schedule and make great progress. This is an example of my 2/week, 2 week per round, 6-week training cycle:

Day 1 week 1:

Deadlift - 5/3/1 week would be 154.4 kg x 5 (+4) (just deadlifted 138.6 x 8 few days ago)

Reverse lunges, front squat grip - 5 x 10 x 52 kg

Lat pulldown, supinated grip - 5 x 10 x 47 kg

Out in 1.5 hours; it's changing the plates on the deadlift that take a lot of time training alone.

Day 2 week 1:

Bench press - 5/3/1 week would be 85.9 kg x 5 (+4) (just benched 77 kg x 10 today)

Penlay rows - 1 x 8, 4 x 7 x 61 kg

Standing DB press - 1 x 10, 4 x 9 x 30 lb

Warm up till done in 1 hour.

Day 1 week 2:

Low bar back squat - 5/3/1 week would be 131.1 kg x 5 (+4) (last cycle ended with 129 kg x 6)

Romanian deadlifts - 5 x 10 x 63 kg

Face pulls - 5 x 10 x 7 lb each side (pitiful, I know)

Warm up till done in 1 hour 15 minutes.

Day 2 week 2:

Military press - 5/3/1 week would be 59.1 kg x 5 (+4) (last cycle ended with 59 kg x 6)

Pullups - 2 x 3, 5 x 2, 3 x 1 (not awesome, but I'm 94 kg with a 34 BMI)

Pushups - 3 x 10

All are done in superset fashion. Warm up till done in about 1 hour, depending on how crowed the pullup station is.

As I'm still a beginner, such a program is sufficient for me to get stronger, with getting bigger as an interesting bonus.

3) Exercise selection is extremely important.

This is why body part splits are not so smart; too little bang for your buck. What builds more muscle: lying leg curls vs deadlifts? Pullups vs (stupid) pullovers?

But you can't choose exercises that are too challenging for your soft tissue nor your brain. A previous problem I had was that my deadlift days are too CNS heavy: deadlifts followed by squats followed by good mornings. It was common that I'd skip good mornings, or end up vomiting on the way out of the gym, and feel like a piece of shit at work the next day.

Not that I did not include isolated core work in my routines. The sole reason is that I want to save time. Hence why I do no supported work other than the lat pulldowns; all exercises are to involve the core when possible. Maybe I'll add them one day on bench days; assuming that my free time increases as an MO/specialist (I doubt it).

4) How about supplements?

Frankly, the supplement you'll most need is caffeine! I do not use protein power, stopped creatine after noticing that it actually had some not-so-nice effect for men with hormones, and never tried anything else than fish oil (which I tend to forget to take, but you should take it regularly even if you don't train). Eat a shit ton of real food and save some cash. If you weigh 100 kg's with 10% body fat, or a powerlifter with lifts of say, 200 kg/150 kg/230 kg, pretend I'm not talking to you.

5) Recovery will be an issue.

You are a doctor. Recovery will always be an issue. Hence a few rules you need to accept:

1. Your training schedule is never optimal.
2. You might train post-call
3. You'll feel like shit even on good days of rest (but feeling shitty is relative)

This is why you need to accept that going to a gym for fat loss during HO days is probably not a good idea. Just focus on overall mass/performance and you might make yourself happy with small progress. I actually halve the progressions for my squat and press for subsequent cycles to deal with long term fatigue and slow strength progress.

Notice how I did not mention cardio yet. It's because of this: sleep is more important than cardio for fat loss as a medical professional. Lower your overall stress hormones by getting enough sleep, whatever that is for a medical professional with on calls. Train for the stimulus to increase mass/strength.

I might amend this further down the end. When HKL goes into shift work for HO's, a lot in this post might be irrelevant. But if you've questions, I'll answer and probably edit/add some points I've forgotten in the main post. 

In the meantime, here's some inspiration:

And what you can do as a houseman:

Heh. Some Random Thoughts.

1) WWDC starts in an hour. It's now 12.30 am. Damn it.

2) For good or bad, the fact that my wife and newly born kid are both in Melaka means that I'm able to train with a much higher frequency. I'm currently training every other day in between EOD calls. It might eventually be a stupid idea in retrospect but life is boring alone otherwise. And spending RM140 for training only at most 8 times per month (usually ends up at only 4 times per week there) is fucking expensive compared to when I was in Kuantan. Hell, if I trained at Bangi exclusively with the per entry rates it would be only RM80 per month!

3) 5/3/1 by Jim Wendler is probably the best training program ever for a general strength enthusiast. You can train 4 a week, 3 a week, and even 2 a week and still make progress. Let's just run the numbers:
Mid 2009 - My 1 rep maxes were:
Deadlift - 120 kg
Squat - never tested. 3RM front squat was 85-ish kg
Bench - 60 kg
Military press - 40 or 50 kg. I think. I didn't log my original 1RM.

Let's run the numbers now. Do note that I've not tested my 1RM's in more than a year. My best lifts are:
Deadlift - 145 kg for 6 reps
Bench - 75 kg for 10 reps. No spotters for racking/unracking.
Squat - 115 kg for 10 reps. No spotters for racking/unracking.
Military press - 57 kg for 6 reps.

And this progress is made even with on calls and real life stuff that make me lift only 2 times a week for the most part. Get the program here.

He doesn't even use the spotters in "just for fun" competition!

4) This is an extremely good read. From a man who's an accomplished powerlifter, head athletics coach, physical therapist, and a well of knowledge.

5) June 6 was the birthday of late Abah. Too bad he isn't around to see his grandson. Shit, not being able to see your father's last breath as you're stuck in your first on call as a junior doctor is a big blow. Sigh. No abuse from a consultant/specialist/medical officer can break my resolve in continuing as a doctor more than the circumstances and implications of Abah's death. Nothing can make you feel more like a failure. Al-Fatihah.

Things to Aim for in 2011

Training:
1) I want to reach that theoretical 100 kg bench. And since I already can and have deadlifted 140 kg for a single, I'm now aiming for at least 180 estimated 1RM. Since I'm not training to compete, I'll stick with the basic Jim Wendler 5/3/1 "2 a week" template without focusing on singles; as long as the estimated 1RM reaches the goals, I'm happy. I've already recovered from the temporary hiatus from training due to starting housemanship and training at full speed (considering the circumstances). Here's where I'm at now, with the estimated 1RM and previous best (right before starting housemanship):
Deadlift - 123 kg x 9 (159 kg, best 166)
Bench - 68 kg x 10 (90 kg, best 94)
Squat - 117 kg x 5 (136 kg, best 140)
Press - 52 kg x 6 (62 kg, best 63)

2) Keep the weight down, without the expense of losing strength. This is a bit difficult as I'm training 2/week. If I've more time, I'll do more resistance-type of cardio. Dietary restriction will only be secondary. As long as I'm not bloated up I'm happy. But...

3) Being heavy inhibits my pullups. I want to get stronger at pullups again. Currently I'm training my back in every lifting session. But that won't do much if my weight remains at 90. Last session, I could only 2 7 sets of 2. Pitiful. But hey, that's at a BMI of what, 34?

Career:
I want to further set my sights on the path that suits me. In general, this is how I am as a doctor:
1) I hate history taking
2) I don't hate examinations
3) I love difficult procedures, and am relatively good at them. I always get "referrals" from colleagues for difficult lines, difficult ABG's or blood taking. I'll do those over boring reviews. If you can memorize your cases, and monitor them well enough, writing everything down again and again with small changes is dead boring.
4) I love resuscitations, making sense of investigations results stat, and tense moments.

So far the 2 career paths I'm keen for are surgery and anesthesiology/critical care. Mr Zainal (HOD) has already said (via MO's I know) that I'd be welcome back once I finish my housemanship. Prof Faisal (UPM) has also said that I'd have his full support to enter UPM as a trainee lecturer in surgery. But I want to taste the anaesth posting first if I can.

Another issue is whether I want to stay in KL/return to IIUM Kuantan. My first choice would be Kuantan; but since my wife has a good career development path by staying in HKL, the obvious choice would be to stay within the Klang Valley.

Exams? I'm seriously considering to take the MRCS part 1 this year, and maybe even the MRCP part 1 even thought I hate medical; after all, a strong medical background is needed regardless of your clinical specialty later on.

Life:
Aim for a nice balance between training/work/family/personal stuff. Duh? I still want to read my comics, and I wonder if Rhye will produce a Rhye's and Fall of Civilization version for Civ V...

I know that resuming life as a Wesnoth online player is more or less impossible. But watching the developments as a silent_obs (hint to the MP community) is fun, especially as regards to the tremendous art development going on.

When my late father asked me to enter boarding school, I initially refused on the grounds that I don't want to become a robot living with a fixed schedule. As a doctor, I refuse to be limited by my long hours.

Valedictory Speech, Full Version

I've just finished my training session for the upcoming convocation with the IIUM Senate Committee. They said that it had good content and a good flow, but was far too long for the 10 minute limit. I'm posting it up, as I feel that the summarized version will never be as good. Note that I've not yet finished it, as the Arabicized stuff wasn't done yet, and the BM needs a lot of corrections. Done in like 2 hours before the training session, haha (!). We doctors do lack time you know (you know the typical doctor excuses).

Assalamualaikum and good afternoon to all.

It is a great pleasure and honor for me to speak in front of an accomplished audience. For today I am speaking not to an ordinary group of graduates; today I am speaking to a group whom can now be called professionals. I must take this opportunity to first thank my parents, my other family members and friends, my teachers of past and present, and as a doctor, my patients. Without all of them, I would not be as successful as I am today, nor selected to speak to address such a special group of graduates. For who I am today is a product of all those I mentioned above.

For you are a special kind of audience. You are an audience of whom standards are not just set by your teachers; the standards of your proficiency of practice is also set by your senior professionals, who have set high standards upon themselves. To graduate as a doctor, an allied health professional, or a lawyer means that there is no question regarding your qualification.

I still remember 7 years ago, when all of us were a group of students who had just finished the SPM examination, and were just about to begin a new phase as students in the Matriculation Center. At that moment many of the faces I saw were a mixture of excitement and anxiousness. We thought that SPM was hard. Would we survive the next 5-7 years of education? An education that is more specialized, yet harder. Nevertheless at the time there was always those moments of youthfulness. Late nights, last-minute studies, and of course the obligatory sleeping in class. This was the same regardless of the course undertaken by the students. Even Medicine.

Now fast forward to the moments right before the graduation. At that time you can also see the same mixture of excitement and anxiousness. But now it was for a different reason: We were preparing for the professional exams. An exam where you are judged not just by your regular teachers; but judged by professionals who are going to see you for the first time, and probably the last time. And this is what I mean to speak to a special group of graduates. You are graduates who are trusted not just by your own lecturers, but also by other professionals who have never met you before; who are convinced by your knowledge and skills the only time they saw you. You have achieved success, surely to be envied by others.

Kejayaan itu adalah sesuatu yang patut diraikan. Ini adalah kerana sesuatu kejayaan akan membawa kepada kejayaan yang seterusnya. Akan tetapi kejayaan kamu pada hari ini adalah hasil campuran pelbagai elemen. Ia bukan sahaja hasil daripada titik peluh usaha tuan-tuan dan puan-puan graduan. Kejayaan kamu pada hari ini juga adalah hasil daripada pengorbanan tenaga dan wang ibu bapa dan ahli keluarga kamu, daripada pengorbanan guru-guru, dorongan dan kerjasama rakan-rakan, sama ada rakan sepelajaran mahupun yang bukan, dan yang penting untuk diingati, para pesakit, pelanggan, dan sejarah atau pengalaman orang lain seperti kes-kes mahkamah yang terdahulu. Oleh itu, adalah penting buat diri saya bagi mengambil kesempatan ini bagi mengucapkan penghargaan terbesar bagi mendiang bapa saya sendiri di atas pentas ini, bagi Allahyharham Prof Madya Ayub bin Mohd Yatim yang meninggal ketika bulan Ramadhan al-Mubarak yang lepas.

It is only fitting to pay tribute to my father, who has given unlimited support in my endeavors to achieve excellence in IIUM. It was a rarity for him to ever say no to giving financial support for my efforts in buying all of However, my late father fell ill during my final year of studies with stroke, making life extremely hard for my family as a whole. He then was afflicted with a heart infection, which required heart surgery - on the day of my final professional exams. And yet my family and I persevered, and I passed my exams which I personally viewed as with flying colors considering the circumstances surrounding the end of my undergraduate life. But 1 month ago, ironically on the first day I was on call, my father passed away due to complications of his illnesses. It instantly had made the hardship of work, and the rigors of studying before that, pale in its emotional stress. The scolding of senior doctors and specialists, and the fatigue of long hours at work, felt tolerable with the death of my father.

The emotional burden of personal family illness, yet with the coincidence of becoming a successful graduate has taught me one thing, something that I wish to impress on you today: your success as a graduate today is to be cherished, but its elements are never to be forgotten. The success you achieve will thus protect you from arrogance, and keep you humbled.

And your humbleness in remembering your roots will keep our parents safe once they leave us, which they will. It is with this humbleness that we will remember to pray for them. To pray that they will be rewarded with Paradise, and saved from Hell. As the prophet once said, “One does not bring but 3 things to the Hereafter: beneficial knowledge, charity, and prayers of a good son.” But before we go further, I would like to remind everyone of a verse in the Qur’an”... I want to create a khalifah on earth...” To fulfill the principles mentioned in the above verse, we muslims must rediscover what it takes to become political and professional leaders. And the effort must be exemplified by none other than the IIUM graduates themselves.

It is important for IIUM graduates to not only be humble as I have mentioned above. IIUM graduates are bred in its system to be more than mere certification holders. We have to, and are educated to, to be more than followers. We have to be leaders. And the leadership displayed by IIUM graduates is not limited to our muslim ummah only, but also to the general public, or in terms of lofty standards befitting an IIUM graduate, leadership of present mankind itself. And better yet, the principles required to lead the ummah in the 21st century are easily derived from the Triple I-CE vision introduced by IIUM, that is internationalization, integration, islamicization and comprehensive excellence. By living the principles above, doctors, allied health professionals, and lawyers from IIUM will not be mere professionals; we will be professionals with leadership, who will unite the muslim populace and lead the world via the various avenues, whether it be academics, practice, or politics.

Internationalization is an important principle to be upheld if we are to achieve our ambition of being khalifah on earth. Muslims in the modern era are now segregated by nationalities and race. In the political sense, muslims are characterized by divisions, infighting, selfishness. And in the professional sense, muslim professionals are slow to not only develop, but to adapt new revised and better standards as regards to our professional development. Instead, we have left it to our Western colleagues, of whom the majority are non-muslim, to develop new ideas, practices, and guidelines which have increased the quality of the work of their profession.

In a different aspect, muslims now still stuck by sometimes questionable traditions. We have refused to see outside of our bubble, thinking that we are superior simply because of our religious faith as being muslim, or by misguided notions that some aspects of culture and tradition have their roots in religion when they are not.

Muslim professionals must be the spearhead of efforts to finally bring muslims to the forefront of the international arena. Muslim doctors, allied health professionals, and even lawyers must learn to be at the forefront of research and development, and to quickly explore new avenues of ideas that may help us improve the standard of healthcare care and legal systems. We should not hesitate to seek knowledge from non-muslims if it means improving ourselves. After all, best practice is best practice. And we must make example of muslim professionals who are among the leaders in their fields, but ply their trade in the western world, and thriving in it.

Muslims professionals from IIUM must also be at the forefront of efforts to educate the general public and modernize its thinking. The muslim professionals should make effort to educate the general public, to teach them than modern development does not have to, and should not lead astray from religious principles. Muslim professionals must teach the public to differentiate culture and religion; the latter is permanent, the former can and must change according to its suitability in modern practice. Muslim professionals from IIUM should be exactly that: excellent professionals, and faithful muslims. We must equal the accomplishments of the various muslim professionals of whom their names we keep on hearing as regards to the Islamic Golden Era.

To become a leader in the modern era, it is not enough to simply be a doctor, an allied health specialist, or a lawyer. The certificate that we have received today, despite of its significance, is not enough to allow us to lead the muslim world and the general ummah as a whole. We must seek out further knowledge, more than the knowledge of our practicing field. And all of this various knowledge needs to be united into one. Muslim professionals from IIUM must live the principle of integration.

A good example of this is seen in medical education. For clinicians of the modern era, it is not enough for them to simply be a highly qualified clinician in practice, or to simply be a Masters holder in a specialist field. Clinicians must now be proficient at research to become leaders of their field, that is to become research clinicians, to search for better practices and develop better technologies. To do so the clinicians must not just deepen the depth of their knowledge; these clinicians now have to broaden the scope of knowledge to the basic sciences of mathematics, the truly basic medical sciences: biology, chemistry and physics. But mastery of these fields is not sufficient; the knowledge must be turned into one, that is integrated.

Integration can also be seen in another light: that is integration of the general ummah. Muslims, exemplified by muslim professionals from IIUM, must be the example of integrating the ummah as a whole. In IIUM, we are blessed with a mixture of muslims originating from various countries. We even have non-muslims studying in this garden of knowledge and virtue. Our experiences and abilities to integrate with various peoples must be extrapolated to leading the muslim professionals and muslim populace as a whole, and then on to becoming political leaders of integration for the general mankind. Muslims professionals from IIUM must be at the forefront of education and goodwill to peoples of other faiths.

Muslim professionals from IIUM must not shun themselves and segregate into their own group. Instead, we must reach out to peoples of other faiths. We should provide service and education to muslims and non-muslims alike. And the responsibility is double-fold for us: to provide as a professional, and to provide as a muslim. During our practice is an excellent opportunity to preach regarding Islam to our clients and patients. And this preaching may not be direct; the character that we portray may sometimes be enough preaching in itself.

Integration and internationalization are interrelated with the next principle of Islamicization. IIUM graduates are ingrained with the principle that all worldly and religious knowledge is interrelated with each other. Secularization is the exact opposite of the what is taught in IIUM. Muslim professionals must change the current practice of their fields to reflect on basic Islamic principles. A good example of this is the field of shariah law, which combines the principles of modern law with basic Islamic rules and regulations into one field, which is already established by lawyers and led by IIUM. Other good examples are the halal food business and Islamic banking. And there are many avenues for muslim health care professionals to contribute to health care. The most obvious of this is medical ethics which I want to talk about.

Medical ethics is currently led by the Western world, based on mostly ethics based on human thinking, which can be wrong. And the western world is itself segmented, with those who believe and those who do not believe in divine concepts. This is where muslims have a great avenue to contribute. This is because Islamic principles of the world and law are based on permanent concepts: the revelation via the Holy Qur’an and teachings based on the Hadith of our beloved prophet Muhammad s.a.w. Because of this, medical ethics based on Islamic teachings would thus have more permanence and acceptance, as basic Islamic principles are true regardless of the passage of time. By improving our practice by integrating fields of professional practice with religious teachings, we will be following in the footsteps of the Golden Era researchers who pursued knowledge of Graeco-Roman origin and related it with Islamic principles to develop new fields of knowledge for which the muslims were the leaders and not mere followers.

To live by the previous 3 principles stated earlier, muslim professionals from IIUM would be living by another principle of IIUM needed to lead the muslim ummah and mankind in general for 21st century and beyond: comprehensive excellence. For to be leaders in an age with increasing populace, increasing political dynamics, increasing numbers of specialized academical and professional fields, and increasing technological advances, there is no other way other than to make effort to be the best: to be the best doctor, the best husband, the best father, the best son, the best neighbor and the best leader. This is because your deficiency in one area may ultimately hinder your role in another. And if you are deficient even slightly in a very competitive era, your leadership role will be taken by another. It sounds hard; no mission ever is easy.

But IIUM has taught you well. You have been taught to become excellent professionals in your field. You have been taught to become excellent muslims, who integrate knowledge of the islamic teachings and modern fields to develop knowledge more than the sum of its parts. You are taught to become one who integrates with the populace and others of your profession. You are taught to become one who seeks to be excellent in all aspects of life. You are a professional, an IIUM graduate.

Now go and make us proud.

Thank you. Assalamualaikum wbt.

The Last Day I Saw Him Was When I Showed Him the Wedding Pics...

Thanks all. But when a patient is under cardiology care, and no serial ECG/cardiac enzymes were taken after seeing new development of ST dep and T inv in V3-V4, and the patient ends up dead in a state of episodic SOB for hours on end and eventual cardiorespiratory arrest, despite "patient is for active cardiac intervention"... I wish you the "best". As said by Arif Shahar (whom I coincidentally met at the ward), my first on call was spent on call somewhere else. Al-Fatihah for my father who passed away last Monday due to "sepsis secondary to HAP with a background of AVR (aortic valve replacement".