Members of my WhatsApp group for school friends were in shock earlier this week. We learnt of the sudden death of one of our schoolmates and a regular contributor to the group. She died after falling asleep in the bathtub in her home overseas.
For some of us who might never have taken a bath in a bathtub before, our initial reaction was “How could it be?”
” Curious to find out more about bathtub deaths, I did some research online and found that they are not uncommon. ”
I have no bathtubs at home and only see them in four-star or five-star hotels. Curious to find out more about bathtub deaths, I did some research online and found that they are not uncommon.
Famous singer Whitney Houston and her daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown died in their bathtubs. Japan’s health ministry conducted a probe in 2012 after it was estimated that 14,000 people died in the tub annually – three times as many as those who died in car accidents.
The causes of deaths were drowning, heart palpitations, heart attacks and head injuries. It was discovered that the deaths increased in winter months when elderly folks moved from warmer parts of their houses to the bathrooms.
The report blamed the Japanese cutlure of taking baths at the end of a hectic day to relax.
Doctors advised the people to avoid excessive changes in temperatures, soak in gradually and keep themselves hydrated.
The public are also advised to put non-slip mats in their tub and shower to prevent themselves from falling. They should place grab bars around the bathtub, toilets and shower areas and make sure the floor area outside the tub and the shower is dry.
Our schoolmate died at the age of 60. Is 60 years old too young for a person to die?
Life has taught me age has nothing to do with death. I have lost two brothers, one at 39 and another at 40. Young and old people all over the world die every second of the day.
” Now older and wiser, the same lines remind me of how short life on earth is for everyone of us. “
According to the World Health Organisation, 56 million people die each year, which is an average of about 153,424 people each day. The exact number of people who die each day fluctuates.
Non-communicable dieases or diseases which are not contagious are the number one killer of people around the world; they are believed to be responsible for about 69 percent of all deaths each year. Of the noncommunicable diseases, cardiovascular disease is the number one killer in the world. After cadiovascular disease, strokes are the leading cause of death followed by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
In countries with high incomes, people live longer with 70 percent of deaths occuring in those aged 70 and older. In low-income countries, 40 percent of all deaths happen in children aged 15 and younger, with complications that arise during childbirth as the pirmary cause of death.
At the time my school friends and I received the shocking news of the death of our schoolmate overseas, Malaysian rescuers were busy retrieving a sports utility vehicle (SUV) that plunged into the sea from the Penang Bridge in a tragic accident.
The SUV, driven by a 20-year-old male college student, had plunged into the sea after colliding with a black car early one Sunday morning.
At the same time, the world also learnt that Premier League footballer and Argentine striker Emiliano Sala was one of two people on board a light aricraft which went missing over the Channel Islands. Cardiff City had signed Sala from French club Nantes in a record deal.
At press time, the search for the Argentine striker, 28, and pilot David Ibbotson, 59, has been called off but Argentina’s president has joined calls for the search for Sala to resume. Mauricio Macri told his foreign minister to issue formal requests to Britain and France.
My schoolmate who died suddenly had already made plans for the forthcoming Chinese New Year. She was supposed to return to Sarawak in the next few days to spend the festival in the company of friends and family members. Needless to say, many of them will be thinking of her with tears in their eyes this Chinese New Year.
When I was a student at St Elizabeth’s Convent School (now renamed SMK St Elizabeth) in the early 70’s, one of my favourite hymns during the school assembly every morning was “The Pilgrim’s Song”.
At that young age, lines in the hymn like “Man is lonely by birth, Man is only a pilgrim on earth, Born to be king, time is but a temporary thing.Only on loan while on earth” sounded rather romantic.
Now older and wiser, the same lines remind me of how short life on earth is for everyone of us. After the sudden passing of our dear schoolmate, many in my WhatsApp group for school friends are, no doubt, rethinking their goals in life. Time and tide indeed wait for no man.
