Tuesday, January 07, 2020
Reflections on a bad time
My dad wrote yesterday on his own blog (in the context of New Year's resolutions) about something terrible and scary that happened a few years ago. In short, he went in for a hip replacement, and something went very wrong. Here is how he describes it:
I was given a gift on September 13, 2017 when the medical staff at Harper Hospital got my heart and lungs restarted after I suffered anaphylactic shock caused by an allergic reaction to an injected drug that was used before hip surgery. I went into cardiac arrest and my body shut down completely. I remember a wash of complete hopelessness come over me, but no pain or fear. l was aware that life was passing out of me. Through a ton of good luck and good emergency medical help my heart and lungs were revived after five minutes, and I miraculously survived. Except for the initial pain from the pounding that I took during CPR, there was no lasting damage. It was a one time event.
By chance, I was there at the time. I was arriving in Detroit at about the time he was going into surgery, to attend the Detroit Homecoming. Instead of going there, I went straight to the hospital, fearing that he had died.
Looking back at it, I see that I didn't write much about it at the time. Probably, I was a little shell-shocked.
It was a terrible thing, from the outside. Before I got on the plane, my Mom told me that there was some problem with the surgery. When I landed, I could not reach her. I was panicked.
I drove as best I could to the midtown hospital, and rushed around trying to find him. Finally, I located my mom in a waiting area. I saw her from a distance and feared the worst-- it was an awful moment. But then the news was not so terrible. And then we saw him, and he was alive. Kind of goofy, sure, but we Osler are like that anyways.
That moment, though, was searing.
I skipped most of the events for the Detroit Homecoming, and don't regret it a bit. It was worth it to be in the hospital and be sure things were going to be ok. And they were. And they are. And I couldn't be more grateful.
