"Understanding...My Dads New Heart"

"Understanding...My Dads New Heart"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.

My friend once wrote of a story about a little girl saying goodbye to her dad as he was about to be wheeled into an operating room. Im sure the little girl was sad in that story. A bit confused and afraid that they are taking away his dad to someplace. I thought to myself that little girl was lucky.

A few days ago my Dad underwent Angioplasty to remove 4 blocks in his heart. I was there through out the whole deal. I was there when the Doctors told my mom that some of the arteries had blocks amounting to 70% or more in lumen size. I was there when they recommended the operation that would make my dads heart new again. The little girl in my friends story was very lucky , ignorance is really bliss , as for me , a grown man , who has been given access to observe in the operating room and who has an understanding of the dangers of the procedure , I consider myself blessed that I can watch my old man , that I can see the doctors hard at work at saving his clogged arteries. I saw it all on the computer screen as they inserted stent after stent. I knew the anatomy. I knew where my dad was but strangely that was no comfort. I believe that I was holding my breathe the whole time , light headedness taking over me a couple of times. I had to watch my dad and console my crying mom who was there with me.

Procedures like these are expensive and we found ourselves emptying our reserves and asking for help. And everyone we asked responded with overflowing generosity. And I saw that in this trying time the love they all had for this man whom I call dad , there were his brothers and sisthers who waited anxiously outside the OR , important people who skipped work to be there , all of our friends and relatives who poured in , his company worried about his health and calling him irreplaceable. The last word ringed true to all of us and as I stood guard in the Coronary care unit and talked to him I count this incident a blessing , had he been out of the country and at sea we could not calculate his survival , we were all relieved that we had him here safe.

I didnt really remember how my friends story ended. All I know is my dad has a new heart and a new lease on life. And thats a much better ending than anything I can think of at the moment.