I believe I have a sixth sense. This uncanny intuition happens when my children are in danger. I can recall two incidence when my children were still young.
My namesake son was hospitalized due to amoebiasis. He was confined in a clinic for several days. It was my wife, Pat, who kept watch since I had an ongoing seminar. Since the seminar was held in town, I kept watch of our patient at night. The last day of the seminar ended early so I was able to visit my son in the morning. At first, I thought that the amoebiasis was contained since the clinic stopped administering the dextrose. Then I sense something foreboding so I requested the doctor to re-administer the dextrose.
My wife was not around. She went home to get some food for our patient. As I talked to my preschool son lying in bed, I saw him clawing at his tongue. Something was wrong. His tongue was retracting. Then his eyes rolled and turned white and after a short convulsion he became unconscious. His temperature rose past 40 degrees Celsius. A vial of antipyretic was hastily injected through the IV tube.
Pat and I brought the unconscious child to Cagayan de Oro City in a borrowed private vehicle. The child had regained consciousness when we arrived at the Madonna Hospital. The timely re-administration of the dextrose, upon my insistence, saved his life.
In another occasion, I went home without completing an out-of-town seminar. I felt uneasy thinking about the result of Emem’s blood test, showing high level of white cells. I suspected rabies sense Emem was bitten by a dog three weeks earlier on his way home from school.
Upon my arrival, Pat and I went to the dog owner’s house which was not far from ours. We want to see the dog’s condition. To our horror, a hired hand told us that the dog was killed for rabies symptoms. The timely injection of the anti-rabies vaccine saved our son. But he developed cynophobia after that.
