Health DG: We ask patient, family to pray before surgery, too

Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said as a practising surgeon, he would ask his patients and family to pray before a surgery.

This remark comes after former minister Zaid Ibrahim defended his criticism of an AirAsia X pilot asking passengers onboard Flight D7237 to pray as it faced engine issues, by using a surgeon analogy.

He had said that if someone and their family were told by a heart specialist operating on that person to pray in the middle of the surgery, it would imply that person was in a dire situation and give out “worrying signals”.

However, Noor Hisham said he would ask his patient and their family to pray before a surgery too, as well as explain the nature of the operation.

“The important lesson is to start an operation with a prayer and explain to the patient and family the nature of the operation and, hence, create an expectation.

“We should assure them that we will do our best and ask them to pray too, regardless of their race or religion,” he said in a Facebook posting today.

Noor Hisham then related an incident during his career as a surgeon, which taught him this important lesson.

He recalled a difficult surgery he had to perform on a patient’s sternum, where it was a “bloody operation with blood loss of more than 15 litres”.

“The anaesthetist then had given up and I almost gave up too and started packing the sternum and closing it in layers.

“It was obvious then Almighty Allah had not given up and amazingly the patient walked home after one week,” he related.

“In Islam, we are taught to do our best and then ‘tawakkal to Allah’ (leave it up to Allah),” he added.

Zaid had criticised the pilot’s alleged prayer request, calling it “unbecoming” and saying that the pilot has to give hope.

His tweets attracted brickbats from netizens, most of whom asked what wrong had the pilot done in asking the passengers to pray.

AirAsia X Flight D7237 was bound for Kuala Lumpur from Perth, Australia on June 25 when it faced engine issues, causing the aircraft to shake.

The flight turned back to Perth 90 minutes after take off.- Mkini