Glimpses of Sukhomvit. Bangkok
At around 8-30 PM, 03/01/13 I received a call. The caller introduced himself. He was Dr Pattanansak. He was the senior cardiac surgeon at Bumrungrad hospital in Bangkok. My 25 yr old daughter Eugenie needed emergency open heart surgery. "she is very dangerously ill. I will do what I can to save her."
My children, her siblings were amazing. At one stage I have vague recollections of trying to function whilst one daughter was working two phones, desperately ringing airline offices in different countries/timezones seeking seats. By 10 AM the next morning, three of them, my wife and I were on a plane bound for Bangkok.
Twenty six hours on from that phone call we were to witness our first miracle. Eugenie being wheeled from surgery to her room in the Intensive Cardiac Care Unit which was to be hers for the next fourteen days.
The amazingly skilled and gentle Dr Pattanasak had replaced both the the aortic and mitral valves, removed four abscesses (one in excess of 25 mm), the associated necrotic material from inside her heart and she was alive.
As the fog of panic and fear receded we were to find that Dr Pattanasak wasnt the only hero. She had been skiing in France with her partner when she became unwell. The local doctor could find nothing wrong, but with her health deteriorating rapidly, Willy assumed it was a re occurrence of a recent bout of pneumonia, drove for seven hours through the night to Paris, abandoned the hire car and flew with her to Bangkok where he knew of the Bumrungrad hospital and its stellar reputation. Apart from the six hours of surgery he did not leave her side for well over 72 hours. His love for her, his commitment, and decision making, along with the wonderful dr Pattanasak saved her life,
This was not the end of her crisis. Four days on she unexpectedly went into a total arrest and again they brought her back. Trust me. It isn’t like you see on the telly where they put the paddles on, and zap, everything is good. Given her condition she had no right to recover but she did. If you are counting the miracles, that makes two.
For fourteen days the two nurses, allocated to her in CCU (Jung and Bea) tended her with professionalism and a level of love one would expect to see from a mother. And then there were the doctors, Chaianon, the cardiologist, Yaowarat who admitted her and made the instant diagnosis of heart failure, Dr Non, Dr Sun and the list goes on. Specialists in infectious diseases, the urinary tract, the kidneys, the liver, the neurologists, Joy, the saintly physio, the plastic surgeons with their radiation scar removal. They didn’t come once, they came everyday and they found the time to talk with Eugenie and us, and encourage support and to take the time to answer every question thrown at them. To all of them we have a debt of gratitude. They were wonderful
What caused a perfectly healthy and extremely fit 25 year old to be confronted with such a near death experience?? Four days before she left for O/S she was given iv anti biotics at a major teaching hosp to clear up the residual effect of Pneumonia. Through what could only be a failure in hygiene procedure she received a streptococcal infection directly into her blood stream and untreated it proceeded to destroy her heart. Years ago, this came under the general heading of blood poisoning and people died from the associated multiple organ failure.
My wife and I were to spend the next month between our hotel room and the hospital with occasional forays to the river, Chinatown and the markets.
But most of our time was spent in the precinct of Sukhomvit and Wittayu (wireless road)
Bangkok is no longer the Bangkok of the '70s and 80's. No longer cheap it is now a "western" hi rise (with the homes of the masses tucked along side), but unlike Sydney the architects continually seek new concepts. No two buildings the same with the Ecoplex on Withayu being inspired by a Lotus. Not changed though is the food from the street vendors which is still sublime and no meal from them costs more than $1-25 per person.
PS. Should any one happen to find an abandoned Renault from Eurocar in the region of Charles De Gaulle , could they please hand it in
Read MoreMy children, her siblings were amazing. At one stage I have vague recollections of trying to function whilst one daughter was working two phones, desperately ringing airline offices in different countries/timezones seeking seats. By 10 AM the next morning, three of them, my wife and I were on a plane bound for Bangkok.
Twenty six hours on from that phone call we were to witness our first miracle. Eugenie being wheeled from surgery to her room in the Intensive Cardiac Care Unit which was to be hers for the next fourteen days.
The amazingly skilled and gentle Dr Pattanasak had replaced both the the aortic and mitral valves, removed four abscesses (one in excess of 25 mm), the associated necrotic material from inside her heart and she was alive.
As the fog of panic and fear receded we were to find that Dr Pattanasak wasnt the only hero. She had been skiing in France with her partner when she became unwell. The local doctor could find nothing wrong, but with her health deteriorating rapidly, Willy assumed it was a re occurrence of a recent bout of pneumonia, drove for seven hours through the night to Paris, abandoned the hire car and flew with her to Bangkok where he knew of the Bumrungrad hospital and its stellar reputation. Apart from the six hours of surgery he did not leave her side for well over 72 hours. His love for her, his commitment, and decision making, along with the wonderful dr Pattanasak saved her life,
This was not the end of her crisis. Four days on she unexpectedly went into a total arrest and again they brought her back. Trust me. It isn’t like you see on the telly where they put the paddles on, and zap, everything is good. Given her condition she had no right to recover but she did. If you are counting the miracles, that makes two.
For fourteen days the two nurses, allocated to her in CCU (Jung and Bea) tended her with professionalism and a level of love one would expect to see from a mother. And then there were the doctors, Chaianon, the cardiologist, Yaowarat who admitted her and made the instant diagnosis of heart failure, Dr Non, Dr Sun and the list goes on. Specialists in infectious diseases, the urinary tract, the kidneys, the liver, the neurologists, Joy, the saintly physio, the plastic surgeons with their radiation scar removal. They didn’t come once, they came everyday and they found the time to talk with Eugenie and us, and encourage support and to take the time to answer every question thrown at them. To all of them we have a debt of gratitude. They were wonderful
What caused a perfectly healthy and extremely fit 25 year old to be confronted with such a near death experience?? Four days before she left for O/S she was given iv anti biotics at a major teaching hosp to clear up the residual effect of Pneumonia. Through what could only be a failure in hygiene procedure she received a streptococcal infection directly into her blood stream and untreated it proceeded to destroy her heart. Years ago, this came under the general heading of blood poisoning and people died from the associated multiple organ failure.
My wife and I were to spend the next month between our hotel room and the hospital with occasional forays to the river, Chinatown and the markets.
But most of our time was spent in the precinct of Sukhomvit and Wittayu (wireless road)
Bangkok is no longer the Bangkok of the '70s and 80's. No longer cheap it is now a "western" hi rise (with the homes of the masses tucked along side), but unlike Sydney the architects continually seek new concepts. No two buildings the same with the Ecoplex on Withayu being inspired by a Lotus. Not changed though is the food from the street vendors which is still sublime and no meal from them costs more than $1-25 per person.
PS. Should any one happen to find an abandoned Renault from Eurocar in the region of Charles De Gaulle , could they please hand it in
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