Dont sweat the small stuffs

My family and I met a family friend during breakfast last Saturday morning. This was the first time I met the wife after her horrific labor experience. She just finished her confinement period and is ready to meet other people again. She was in bad shape both physically and emotionally that she refused visitation from friends.

She related her experience which to me, is not short of a miracle. Her delivery went well. Her third baby girl was healthy. As doctor is packing up, all of a sudden blood starting gushing out from her. They unsutured her uterus. Doctor found no problem there, but blood still oozing out from her. They wheeled her out from labor room into the operation theatre. They asked her to sign a piece of paper which she did and suddenly she had difficulty in breathing. All around her chaos was taking place. She heard the nurse trying to confirm her blood type to another medical staff which she herself answered O+. Her breath is getting laboured and each inhale is painfully difficult. She kept hearing her doctor shouted save her first, save her first! Both her right and left hand veins collapsed, they finally got her jugular vein (i think - bcos she said at her neck) and at her thigh (saphenous vein?)

She then saw faces of her husband, her eldest 7 year old daughter followed by her youngest 5 year old daughter and said to herself 'oh god please..., my kids still need their mom' and she kept hearing the doctor said 'we losing her, we losing her'!!! then everything went dark and she passed out.

According to my friend, she suffered something called embolism during labor. Something about air gushing into previously vacuumed space and causing anti-clotting mechanism (or something like that). Human body contained 5 liter of blood and she lost 4 liter that morning. They had to transfer her to another bed before taking her out bcos the original bed was too soaked with blood. When her husband signed the consent letter, doctor advised him that he must be prepared of the outcome. They performed hysterectomy. When she finally opened her eyes, the nurses wrote on a board saying that she's already out of danger. She immediately asked to see her husband.

By the time she finished relating her ordeal, both our faces were wet in tears in the cafe amidst other patrons, our children playing beside us and both our husbands talking and drinking hot tea next to us. Both me and her were clasping each others hands, passing tissue and hugging.

Although she is on the road to recovery, she admitted that sometimes she needs help to sleep bcos she kept hearing her doctor said 'we losing her, we losing her'.

Live is short. Go and hug or call your love ones and tell them you love them always.