In Search For A Miracle

A few nights ago, I had dinner with my boyfriend's roommates in the University. The conversation was light and I enjoyed those few hours with them. This was a table of student engineers and most of them are Christians. They know that I am an MD and one of them, Rob, asked if in my many duty hours, I witnessed a miracle. At that time, I boxed a miracle as a patient coming in DOA and us helping him back to life. Because that, I have never seen. Which is why my answer was a quick, "No."

The next night, it was my turn to go out with my college friends, whom I haven't seen in a while. One of them asked me the different surgeries I've assisted in and I recalled one that I don't think I will forget in a long time.

I was in the General Surgery Service of the hospital I am rotating in. Instead of calling the pre-duty interns, they asked me to scrub in because the surgery might extend after 5 pm as it a staged surgery. Honestly, I cannot remember the name of the patient nor her exact age, all I know is that the patient is a mid-50s/female who came in due to increasing abdominal girth and jaundice. Work-ups were done and they found out that she had liver and kidney cysts. She was put on dialysis and the surgery will unroof the liver cysts and remove one of her cystic kidneys. It is called a staged surgery because one service -- the General Surgery team, where I belong, will open her and unroof the liver cysts and the Urology team with their own intern will do the nephrectomy, after that, we (the GS team) will go back in and close the patient.

I cannot go into the detailed events of what transpired in that OR because of confidentiality reasons. But I will write the details that I can. Our official time out was 2pm. What was supposed to be a 4-5hour surgery stretched to 9. Our patient's BP started falling by the 6th hour. We had to transfuse 13 bags of blood. I can't remember if they were packed RBCs or whole blood. We also transfused platelet concentrate and voluven but the patient's BP was still falling. Our surgeons seriously considered doing damage control. Once or twice I heard that there was the possibility of a table death, which we are all avoiding because a table death is never a good thing. One of the surgeons said that it'll be a miracle if we can get her into the recovery room, more so in the ICU.

By the 8th hour, her BP started stabilizing. We quickly closed her, using staples instead of sutures should there be a need to open her up again.

By the 9th hour we unscrubed and I literally fell down on a chair from exhaustion and hunger. My phone started beeping because I forgot to tell my boyfriend that I will scrub in a 9-hour long surgery. Because in the first place, it wasn't supposed to be a 9-hour long surgery.

I climbed up to the wards for my prerounds for the census after a quick nap as it was already well past midnight. I woke up at around 3 or 4 in the morning for my prerounds with the resident. I told her I will just check on the patient in recovery.

"Huh? Sino? Wala na tayong patient sa RR." She said.

"Doc yung OR ni [General Surgeon] kanina." I answered. "Oh no, she went into the light?"

"Yung unroofing? Hindi, naikayat na sa ICU kanina lang." She said as-a-matter-of-factly.

"No! Seriously?"

"Oo nga. Balita ko nga ang daming nangyari sa OR na yun."

Then for the next three wards that we pre-rounded, I told her the details of the surgery. Yes. Three wards. Because it took that long to relay all the events of the surgery.

"Ang swerte niya ano?" She said.

"And lakas ng mga nagdadasal para sa kanya." I said sleepily.

My rotation in that service ended the next day and I didn't know if the patient made it to full recovery but for us, adding just a few more days to another's life to be with the people they love is miracle enough.

So there. Recalling my many duty days I realise that my answer to Rob's question shouldn't have been a flat "no" but a resounding "yes". As I look back, there are more patients that I have seen at the worst condition one night and walking up and about on the next. But they deserve their own entry, their own story. This is just one of the many.

Talitha Koum!

Many times have I encountered the gospel for today, and I can still remember the first time I read it, it was one of our bible study homework in the protestant grade school I studied in. Of course at that time, it was just some story about Jesus and the girl who rose from the dead.

It was during the homily today that this gospel hit home. I recently finished my post-graduate internship and is on my way to becoming a licensed physician. To most of the people I know and are always with, and even my boyfriend of three years, this is who I am. But they do not know who I was before. 

In a different life, a little over seven years ago, I was a nomad, a vagabond, an aimless wanderer. I did not know what I want to be. I lived in the present. I wasted my parents' time and money sending me to college and culinary school without so much as to what I really want to be. I haven't graduated from college and I almost conceded to being a college undergrad my whole life. I didn't want to go back to the University. I just want everyone to leave me be. 

Until an argument with my Mom drove me to pack my bags and leave home for a while. I sought refuge in my grandmother two expressways away. She took me in, and after a weekend with them, my cousins talked me into going back home. So I did. Little did I know that I was in for a surprise. 

My Mom, while I was away, relayed my problems to a congregation of nuns who serve our community. Upon coming home, their Mother Superior talked to me and gave me a few responsibilities in the community, aiming for me to find my way. It was in their community that I realised that I want to try medical school. But my undergrad degree is in the way. 

I went back to the University to finish the units that I still have pending. Until one day I approached my Mom with an application form for medical school. I need her signature to make sure that I will be able to pay for my way in. My Mom was more than thrilled to sign, her hand was still holding the pen when she hurriedly called my Dad to tell him the news. 

I was in the brink of throwing my life away when circumstances led me to where I am now, and I would be a fool to not recognise God's hands steering my way, I could almost hear him saying "Little girl, get up!"

After the DOH Post Graduate Interns' Commencement Exercises 2015
Philippine Heart Center, Quezon City

I can't say that med school was a breeze but here I am now. I knew that everything I went through before med school prepared me for it and beyond. And I would not have it any other way.