News

M’sia Doctor Relates How Dying Patient Has His Wedding Ring Exchange in ICU

Faith Ong

2019-05-24 , 9:00 am

Reading about this reminds me of the heart-wrenching song ‘Forever and always’ by Parachute.

Whenever I listen to it, my heart breaks all over again for anyone who has to go through such a situation.

Sadly, this happened in real life in Malaysia.

The doctor, Fiona Lowm, was so impacted by what she witnessed that she took to Facebook to share what happened at work.

The fateful morning

A relatively healthy young man aged 34 woke up on 18 May and experienced ‘severe chest pain and weakness in both legs’.

Sensing that something was amiss, he made his way down to the hospital immediately.

Diagnosis

After a series of radio-imaging CT scans, the young man was diagnosed with Aortic Dissection, Stanford Type A.

According to Mayo Clinic, Aortic dissection is a ‘serious condition in which the large blood vessel branching off the heart tears’.

Some typical symptoms are sudden severe chest or upper back or abdominal pain, loss of consciousness, shortness of breath, loss of vision or/and leg pain.

In the young man’s case, the doctor shared that his vessel was torn till his tummy.

This blood vessel is a vital part of the body as it transmits blood to his ‘internal organs including (the) kidney, liver, and bowel’, it is also supposed to supply blood to his legs.’

In the doctor’s words, his internal organs and legs were starting to die. He did not have long to live.

As his blood vessels to his brain were still intact, he was still conscious and able to interact with his family.

However, each time his heart beat, it would add pressure to the blood vessels and cause them to tear even wider.

Making the most of his reminding time

The family could not comprehend why he was in such a critical condition all of a sudden. He had been a healthy individual up to that point.

However, seeing that there was not much time left, his family members and best friends all gathered around him with the health care providers.

Just before he faded out, the family decided to hold a ‘simple wedding with a ring-exchange ceremony in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU)’.

Life is fragile

Doctor Fiona Lowm finished her post beseeching readers to make the most of their time on earth as one can never know who will be taken away from you or when your life will end.

My condolences

I would like to dedicate this song to the young man’s widow. Stay strong. Sending love to you.

Health checkups

No matter how young or healthy you are, it is recommended to go for a health check-up.

Because it’s better to be safe than sorry, yes?

Here’s the post in full, which has been shared over 2.3K times (prepare your tissue paper because it’s even more heartbreaking reading this):