Kuala Lampur, Oct. 22 -- Reaching middle age means now even the youngest of my friends are in their 30s.

We talk about hospitals and the reality of juggling multiple medical appointments - our own and that of older relatives.

The same line seems to be repeated by many of them: "Once you go into the hospital, you won't leave alive!"

Auntie ah, if like that I'm either a zombie or miraculously reincarnate as myself at least once or twice a month.

Many older people are scared, seeing their friends go to the hospital ill and then never getting better.

Death comes for us all in time but the creeping fear of death's eventual ringing of our doorbell has instead manifested as a fear of hospitals.

A friend's family was especially scathing abo...