When my eldest was born in 2011, as new parents we were always very anxious about her well-being. For the first two months, we dutifully brought her for her check ups and vaccinations at the hospital, waiting for hours just to get to her turn. It was during when she was almost three months old something happened at home of which subsequently we were introduced to Dr Kwan.
My husband came home from work around 7pm to find me helplessly trying to console a screaming D. We didn't know what was wrong. She already had her milk, she took her nap, was already showered. My husband frantically called his aunt to find out if there was any paediatrician available during this hour. She gave us Dr Kwan's clinic's number and we found his clinic still opened. We rushed our way there, miraculously beating the rush hour traffic from Bandar Utama to Damansara Jaya. Upon arrival, we quickly did registration and she was the last patient to see Dr Kwan before his clinic closed for the day.
The minute we entered the consultation room, D immediately stopped crying. The first thing that caught my attention was Dr Kwan's stethoscope. It was filled with kangaroo soft toys. Dr Kwan himself looked like he was in his mid-sixties. He didn't smile but was very reassuring to D and us. He was looking at her, asking us the reason we brought her here. We told Dr Kwan what happened to D. Then he asked 4 questions, the most important 4 questions we learnt as parents which we applied to our children before going to the doctor :
1) Is the baby having fever?
2) How is the baby’s appetite?
3) Is the baby vomiting a lot of milk during each feeding?
4) How are the baby’s stools?
If the answer is no for the first 3 questions and normal for question 4, it simply means the child is ok, it is the child's own reason to cry. Bottom-line she was just being very naughty! In fact, while Dr Kwan was explaining to us, she was just smiling away. I did mention I changed to a different type of pants for her that day, Dr Kwan said that could just be the reason. He explained he will charge a RM40 consultation fee for new parents but no need for any medication for D. RM40 for valuable advice from a very experienced doctor.
From that day onward, we decided that Dr Kwan will be our to-go paediatrician whenever D is unwell, as well as for her vaccinations. I remembered the day when she had her first vaccination at Dr Kwan's clinic - She didn't even utter a sound. Usually at the hospital she would be screaming her lungs away. But not at Dr Kwan's. The queue is usually long, but he was a patient doctor. He would debunk any myths and answered all of our questions with very simple yet practical advice. Even his medicine was very effective, it was always the same few types of medicine - pink for fever, red for running nose, clear for phlegm, black for cough.
Only there was one time D had a long spell of cough and phlegm which cause her to vomit each night. After seeing Dr Kwan and taking the medicine, she did not seemed to recover. We decided to switch to another paediatrician to see if they could help. We went to 3 to 4 different doctors, all prescribed different medication but still D's condition could not be resolved. One day, we went back to visit Dr Kwan and sheepishly told him the history and what the other doctors had prescribed. To our surprise, Dr Kwan apologised!
"I am sorry if the first treatment did not help your daughter. Let me help her now again."
He prescribed Singulair and a different type of medication for her phlegm. Amazingly, after that course, D's problem was resolved and she never had that issue anymore!
During the time of J1's premature birth, D hardly fell sick so we also had not visited his clinic for a while. It was only much later that I found out his clinic was closed for quite some time as Dr Kwan was diagnosed with cancer. We brought J1 for a visit to Dr Kwan's clinic when he was 6 months old birth age as he was not growing well. We found out he reopened his clinic but cut down on his operating hours. He told us he still wanted to help children and was also taking care of his health after treatment. He looked a bit more frail but in fact he was still as alert as ever. He took a look at J1 and told us he didn't like his skin colour, it looked too pale, as if he lacked red blood cells (meaning not enough iron). He was also concerned with J1's eye condition, and even wrote us a referral letter to visit a personal friend of his who is an eye specialist. He did not want to intefere with J1's condition so he suggested we quickly drop by the neonatologist's clinic to ask about his skin being pale without mentioning his name. Sure enough, after checking we needed to give J1 iron supplement.
Before we relocated to Johor Bahru, we paid him a visit at his clinic. We also asked if he could recommad any paediatrician in JB but he only know a friend based in Muar. His last advice to us :
"Make sure you choose a doctor who is experienced. How do you know? Check if they have white hair or not."
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During my recent trip back to KL in December 2019, I passed by the shop lots where his clinic usually was.
Or supposed to be.
The signage was gone.
Another clinic has taken over Dr Kwan's clinic, it was buzzing with activity but it felt so different.
My heart sank.
I checked with my husband's aunt to confirm what I feared had happened.
Dr Kwan had passed away from cancer, back in December 2018.
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Every year ever since we moved to JB, we had always sent a Chinese New Year card over to Dr Kwan. Each year he would return us a card as well. Somehow this year we forgotten to send over the card. Even if we did, he would not be able to return us a card 😠I found the last card we received from Dr Kwan, inside D's drawer.
This tribute is one year late, but better than never.
Thank you Dr Kwan and may you Rest in Peace 🌻
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