Okay so I finally have the time to sit down now to blog about my experience in the operating theater when Fighter was born. Actually I totally forgot about it until Shorty reminded me. Seems like this is an entry she wants to read herself too.
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Shorty was lying on her hospital bed that they had just pushed down from her ward. Just a few hours earlier Dr Teresa had told us that her severe preeclampsia had escalated. We could no longer control her blood pressure and there was suspected water in her lungs. We had to deliver the baby today.
On her hospital bed, Shorty was dressed in the hospital gown that had become her uniform for the past 3 weeks. Both her hands had tubes coming out of them. The doctors had used it just a few hours ago to put in medicine that could help bring her blood pressure down and something called magnesium sulfate that was meant to protect the baby’s brain and prevent Shorty from going into a stroke during surgery.
Shorty looked at me and said “I hope you can come in with me.”.
Shorty and I have had this talk before. That no matter how scared of blood I may be, I was going to be there with her when she delivered Fighter. Because this was an emergency procedure though, we weren’t sure if the Doctor would let me in so we were waiting on the Doctor to come to see if they would let me in during the procedure.
Then Doctor Teresa showed up all dressed in scrubs. She told the nurses to make preparations for me to go into the Operating Theater with Shorty. A nurse immediately handed me a form to sign. The form said something like I would leave if the Doctor ever told me to leave the theater…. and that “I understand that the cutting of the umbilical cord is only done by a trained medical professional”. I guess some Fathers in the past probably insisted on cutting the cord… like “cutting a ribbon” at the opening of a restaurant or something. I had no problems though… I didn’t need to cut anything. I just needed to be with my wife.
A nurse led me to a changing room where I changed into scrubs myself.
Then she told me to wait. i waited for about 10 minutes and then she led me into the Operating Theater. As I walked in, the surgery looked like it was already underway.
The Operating Theater was quite a spacious room. I counted 3 Doctors and 7 Nurses in there. I sat beside Shorty’s upper body with a barrier that blocked my view of the surgery that was going on at her stomach level. Our gynae Dr Teresa seemed to be working hard on that area. I heard her say “So much water…”, which I thought referred to Shorty being really bloated from all the water retention.
Behind the barrier with me was another Doctor, the anesthesis who kept checking with Shorty to see if she felt any pain. Pain wasn’t something Shorty looked like she was feeling. In fact she looked only semi-conscious. As I held her hand throughout the thing and talked to her, I heard muffles at most coming from her.
To my back, standing at the corner was our neonatologist, a specialist in premature babies. He was there with his team waiting for Fighter to be delivered. I sat there with Shorty for a good ten minutes, listening to the water being sucked out of Shorty’s womb with a tube like what they use at the dentist.
When those first ten minutes ended, I heard Dr Teresa say “Audrey… you’re going to feel a bit of a push now ok?”.
Shorty mumbled back something which I think was an “Okay”.
Then I heard the most beautiful sound I have ever heard in my life: Fighter’s cry.
In those next few seconds, so many things were going through my mind. I remember initially feeling relieved that his cry was so loud. I was thinking that if his cry was so loud, his lungs should be okay. I was thinking of how he looked like but I was too nervous to look at him. I don’t know why… it was sort of like going on a blind date with someone and you feel nervous about looking at that someone that you’ve been talking to for a long time.
Eventually I mustered the courage to turn my head and I saw Fighter for the first time in my life. He was so small, crying and kicking around while the neonatologist cleaned him and helped him breathe with some sort of a portable breathing device. Then after a few minutes they wrapped him around in a blanket and Fighter settled down. The Doctor brought him over to me and Shorty and showed Fighter to us close up. Shorty had her eyes closed and seemed to be sleeping. So I looked at the Doctor and asked the question that I knew Shorty would ask: “Is he okay?”.
The Doctor said that he was okay for now but he had to take him back to the nursery for more tests. But right now he looked fine. Right then the nurses brought in a mobile incubator that was rolled around on wheels. Fighter was put into it and brought away. I spent the next 30 minutes of the surgery or so with Shorty holding her hand as she was unconscious as they sewed her up. I remember hearing Doctor Teresa say “The placenta was so unhealthy”. That was the placenta that was giving Shorty her high blood pressure and all the problems we had but I was still grateful. Grateful that this placenta had brought Fighter this far.
For a minute I wanted to look beyond the barrier to see what Doctor Teresa was working on in the womb. But I was afraid that I might throw up at the sight of blood. I imagined Dr Teresa telling me off “We’re already having a complicated procedure here… don’t make it more complicated for us”. So I kept my eyes on Shorty the whole time and didn’t look anywhere else.
Just before the procedure ended, the anesthetist Dr Chua brought me out of the Operating Thearter. I went to the changing room, changed out of my scrubs and headed back to the ward to wait for Shorty. Some time later, the nurses rolled her back in on her bed. Shorty was awake then. She asked me “What happened?”.
I looked to her and said “You don’t remember anything”. She replied with a no.
Then I held her hand and said “You did it… you’re my champion. You gave birth to our beautiful baby boy. He’s small.. but he’s ours”.
PS: I have to thank all the Doctors and nurses that were involved in Shorty and Fighter’s case from almost 4 weeks ago leading up to this operation. Each and all of them have given Shorty and Fighter so much care I don’t know how we would have done this without them. Thank you.
Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space