The Ministry of Health Officials who talked with us said: “We’ve had recent cases whereby patients have passed away shortly after their arrivals at overseas hospitals simply because these patients were sent there with little or no chance of recovery but for reasons known locally as “Osubed-reng”, which in English could be translated to mean “Despite the best efforts provided, death was inevitable”. That knowledge was presumed to help ease the pains and sorrows of the living relatives. These types of referrals and their reasons for being carried out have cost the involved families and the Government of Palau lots of money, but they had not served any one any good.
Our own medical doctors, through their clinical examinations of patients who pass through their hands, can tell whether or not a patient has a chance of being cured from his or her illness if that patient is sent overseas. They can also predict, with some measure of accuracies, how long that patient might be able to live. Therefore, we don’t have to send very sick patients overseas, at great expenses to the family and to the Government of the Republic, just to have them die in overseas hospitals for the sake of “Osubed-reng”.The Ministry of Health officials we talked with emphasized that the revised medical referral program should not only have doctors and other hospital people in it, but should also have community representatives, particularly individuals with expert knowledge on business practices, who could speak about the public expenses involved in the program. “The overseas referral program is both a medical and community effort to help sick citizens, and it is only right that the community should have representatives participating in its determinations”, they said.Interesting sport-fishing tidbitsThe recent sport-fishing activities reminded me of similar earlier tournaments that brought Palau some world-wide attentions. Looking into my old records, I came across an entry which said that a sport fisherman by the name of Ray Acord won a world record in June 1970 for pulling in a 40-pound Wahoo in Palauan waters with a 10 pound nylon test line. Ray Acord, who managed Actor Lee Marvin’s boat Ngerengchol, accomplished this feat aboard the actor’s boat, which was built in Palau and home ported at Malakal harbor.When I related the story to some local boat operators, one fellow said the episode was “nothing” because it is not unusual to catch big fishes weighing many hundreds of pounds with 200 pound test lines. I do not know much about the strengths of fishing lines, but expert fishermen say there are ways one could use a small line to land a big catch. “The trick is how one handles his equipment”, they said.
