Thank God

She's my best friend, she shares my ups and down, go through thick and thin, and stands by me all the time.

She's also my best teacher, a teacher who taught me something more than whatever it is written in text books or dictionaries- she taught me about things beyond those, about life- she's the best philosopher.


She's a leader in my faith, bringing me to church, telling me to pray, to believe in God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

You may call me a mommy's boy but I wont be bothered now, this blog entry is dedicated to my beloved mom, as I almost lost her.

I was given a great blessing from God, a great mom, who's forever so selfless, kind, loving and protective. Not to mention, being positive and strong as ever. Whoever dont understand the phrase 'age gracefully' can look onto my mom and get the best living example ever.

27th Aug 2008 8.30 pm
She rushed into my room, hands shaking, eyes filled with tears, whole body trembling and shouting in agonizing pain. Her right hand was in full force, gripping tightly and with her knuckle, pressing against her right temporal bone. Being a tough and with enormously high pain threshold, I knew at that instance- something must be really wrong, and i shouted for help.

How idiotic was I to rush for two stupid paracetomol tablets thinking it may be a severe migraine attack like one of those she has been always complaining about constantly. When I return to my room, she was having an episode of partial seizure, drooling saliva, and her eye lids were dropping. Vomitus were next to be seen regurgitating out from her mouth which was clenched tightly by her jaw. She then lost consciousness and her soul was in God's hand. Everything happened within two minutes- It was indeed an emergency...

She was then carried by my dad, my youngest bro, Hui and I downstairs into the car. It was not an easy task, not due to her weight, but everypart of her body were flabby and partially digested food particles were all over. Dad was panicky, bro was shocked and pushing all his adrenaline out and contracting every single muscle of his to carry mom, and me- praying to God ,please Lord, save my mom.

Throughout the whole journey to the emergency department, i held her head upright, knowing that she's in coma and vomitting non stop, the vomitus may block her upper airway and subsequently she'll go into respiratory arrest. She was sent to Kajang hospital.

10 minutes after ariving, she developed respiratory arrest and the doctors had to resuscitate her. That was when I knew i needed to inform my elder sis who's in Australia. I told her everything and ask her to be prepared for the worst, and at the same time, pray for Lord's mercy.

She was succesfully resuscitated, intubated and put on mechanical ventilation was later sent to Hospital Serdang for a CT brain. I followed every single step, and the scan returned showed something which seems really familiar. A bright spot at the right temporal region- a fresh intracranial bleed which i used to see in hospital during rounds on stroke patients. But this cant be happening. My mom being a perfectly healthy yoga-going lady without any previous co-mormidity, almost impossible.

She was subsequently referred to GHKL, admitted to ICU at 3am the next day and an emergency brain angiogram was scheduled when office hour commenced. The attending specialist told us that she has had a ruptured intracranial vessel from AV malformation and an emergency craniotomy(cutting open her skull to remove the blood clot and to remove the AV malformation) will be needed a.s.a.p. and he did not even dare to say about chance of recovery more so on her possibility of returning to normal daily function.

Life was never that tough for me, not even close to having my finals of passing medical school. Having to handle every single situation, every steps taken by the doctors, every single visitor's Q and A session, every single phone call from relatives sobbing in tears, and everything back at home with a youngest school going bro and the oldest granny who's on walking frame, these were not easy at all. Since i was the eldest after my sister who's far away in Melbourne, I knew i have to be tough and calm. And we had to hide everything from my first younger bro, Hong who had just left to the States for his studies two weeks ago as we did not want him to be worried and not being able to concentrate in his studies. I'm sorry bro, thats the best for you.

Her operation was a success, but the surgeon who has cut my mom's head out (thanks Aunt Jane and Uncle Victor for the help in arranging the best Dr for us), being the head of Department, Mr Saffari, did not even dare to guarantee her regaining of consciousness. "Days" was his period given for us to wait to look for the results, and "pray" was his advice on our next course of action. Indeed we prayed, everyone of us.

The next day after operation, she was extubated. She can breath by herself again! And the next day she was able to talk and she was back on her feet day three post operatively. Such amazing determination shown by her. She was discharged day 12 post-op and is currently back home to make this home a complete one. She's recovering well and currently suffers from visual field defect and sligh left lower limb numbness which i believe will recovers in no time.

Life is so fragile. One moment your loved ones maybe here, and the next moment they may be in God's hand. After fighting throught death, my mom alway says : cherish every single person around us, forgive and forget and her famous quote :joh lang, chin chai lah(in short, be kind to people as a human).

Mom, great to have u back home. A home is never a home without you.