20150728徹悟無常心戒慎 Awakening to Life`s Impermanence
Looking around the world, we see many disasters every day. When disasters strike, many people will suffer. Take drought and wildfires for example. See how they can bring unspeakable suffering to those affected. But think about it. With the harm we’ve done to the Earth, disasters are only Mother Nature’s way to fight back against us. Can we not awaken?
Look at the wildfires in Spain. The sea of fires in forests is truly frightening to see. Eastern California in the U.S. is also the same. Wildfires keep erupting in the mountains there, scorching a vast area of forests. This is how our Earth is being damaged. Seeing these fires, I was reminded that one month ago on June 27, at around 8 p.m. a colored powder explosion occurred at a water park in New Taipei City, Taiwan.
At the accident site, wailing could be heard everywhere. Next day, Supt. Chao of our hospital in Taipei shared with us that they had initiated the mass casualty incident protocol after the incident. At first, the fire department said that the injured wouldn’t be sent to our hospital because it was too far away.
But Supt. Chao was very alert. So, as soon as the first patient who was severely burned arrived, the mass casualty incident protocol was immediately initiated at our hospital. Within 40 minutes, over 120 doctors and nurses who were off duty rushed back to the hospital and started to prepare medical tools, make room for the injured, arrange beds, etc. as expected, more of the injured came in one after another.
In total, 13 patients with major burns were sent to our hospital. Since then, our medical staff have been very busy caring for them. Every day, they take care of them with great mindfulness and love. This is what they have been doing for the patients from the moment they arrived at our hospital. One of the patients was Xiaoxuan.
Her mother is from China. After her husband died, she has to raise two children all by herself. So, Tzu Chi volunteers have been caring for the family for years. When Xiaosuan was injured in the explosion, her mother rushed to the hospital to see her. When she saw that Xiaosuan was burned over 90% of her body, she knew that Xiaoxuan couldn’t maket.
But as she couldn’t afford not going to work, she told our medical staff that if Xiaoxuan passed away, she hoped they could buy her a beautiful dress as Xiaoxuan loved to dress up and look pretty. So, our hospital social worker went to buy a dress for Xiaoxuan after work. But it was too small for her as her body kept swelling up.
Since the day Xiaoxuan was sent to our hospital, our medical staff had been taking very good care of her. They had looked after her for over two weeks. During this period of time, they’d bought four dresses for her as her body kept swelling up.
In the end, I suggested that we make one for her. In total, we’d prepared five dresses for her, and the last one was tailor-make by our volunteers. When she passed away, the dress she wore was the one our volunteers made for her. She loved to look pretty, so we made a pretty dress for her to wear when she left.
I’m truly very grateful to our medical staff for giving of themselves with such mindfulness and love to care for Xiaoxuan. Unfortunately, she still left. Our Tzu Chi volunteers have also been doing all they can to help as well as pray for the injured. Apart from our hospitals, they also go to other hospitals to give care and support to the injured and their families.
This is what they’re still doing now. They also hold prayer services at hospitals to bring peace to people’s minds. Apart from that, the Abode also held several Dharma services.
Tzu Chi volunteers across Taiwan all took part to chant the Ksitigarbha Sutra, the Water Repentance text, etc. at our Tzu Chi offices and recycling stations to pray together for our society to be peaceful and for these young burn patients to suffer less and recover soon.
Be it in their communities or our hospitals, Tzu Chi volunteers have invited people to pray together for the injured. It’s been a month since the incident happened. From this day on, we hope that the injured will recover gradually one by one. Over 300 people are still hospitalized and more than 100 of them are in critical condition.
So, there’s still a long way for them to go. What’s most worrisome is infection. That’s why so many nurses are needed to change dressings for one patient. When a nurse has changed dressings for one part, she cannot touch the other parts of the patient. See how mindful they are!
We also see that another burn patient at our hospital in Taipei was transferred out of the ICU yesterday. His mother was very grateful to our medical staff and volunteers. So, she has promised that she’ll serve as our volunteer.
All in all, life is impermanent and unpredictable; with life comes suffering. This is the truth we must fully understand and awaken to. At all times, we need to lead our life with a sincere heart, pray for everyone in the world to be safe, and live with vigilant care in our daily living.
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