I was visiting at the pediatric ward
last week.
We were chatting when we notice
that the kid from the opposite bed was coughing non-stop. It looks like she is 1
year plus. The father of the child was holding her close, perhaps trying to
make her more comfortable despite the coughs.
Suddenly a nurse asked the mother
of the child, who was standing right behind the father, “is her dad a smoker?”
The mother turns her head to look
at her husband then turn back towards the nurse and nodded slowly.
Then the nurse asks again, “did
the father just come back from smoking?”
The mother did not respond.
Then the nurse starts her
lecture. She said she knew the father just come back from smoking, right before
he hold her daughter. The nurse tells them that the chemicals from the cigarette
smoke are all over the father and when he hold her daughter close, the daughter
is exposed with the dangerous chemicals, hence the cough.
Then the nurse asked again, “have
your child been coughing like this today, before the father come?”
Again, the mother chooses not to answer.
The nurse answers her own
question. She asked the mother to notice how her child only cough non-stop when
her husband is around. This is clearly due to her husband’s habit of smoking.
Slowly and respectfully the mother
gets the child and holds her, the father watching sadly. After few minutes, the
cough subsides…the nurse said nothing…
….so are you a father? And are you
a smoker?
More importantly, are you a
smoker who couldn’t care less about your second smoker?!
p/s: it amazed me when they said
that the e-cigarette will cause chronic illnesses, even worse than the ‘original’
cigarette… renung-renungkanlah… ;)