I had my open heart surgery to correct my heart on 23rd May 2006. The surgery took about 12 hours due to some complications. My parents were really worried throughtout the time I was in the operating theatre, even though the surgeons mentioned that the success rate of such surgery is 95%.
They were relief when they saw the surgeons pushing the bed with me on it to Intensive Care Ward. At the same time, their heart were broken to see me with tubes all over my face, body and a big chest wound.
I went through the first 24 hours of critical stage. My parents stayed next to my bed most of the time. They asked lots of questions to understand readings of each machine attached to body. There were numbers of setback on my recovery due to water in the lung, infections etc.
The nurses gave me lots of painkillers to make me comfortable.
I was sedated for 7 days and the doctors woke me up on the 8th day by stop giving me strong painkillers. I could open my eyes but i could not move my hands and legs. I was trying to make noise but i could not because of the feeding tube down my throat. I did not like that.
I was happy to see my mum and dad standing next to my bed. I stayed at Intensive Care Ward for 9 days then transferred to Ladybird ward for 3 days. In ladybird ward, my mum and dad took turns to look after me. My mum stayed with me for the night and my dad stayed for the day.
I was discharged from hospital on 3rd June 2006.
What I would like to say to all parents and friends are that please do not give up and be strong......
Below are photos taken while I was at Intensive Care Ward.