Latest Update as at 190309

Hi all,

will be using this blog as a mean of trying to disperse latest updates on my mum so that I don't have to be constantly worried about who have I informed or not informed. This will also save me from constantly repeating myself and nagging and lao-daoing which will make me feel so old!

So now, allow me to explain her medical condition to the best of my ability.

My mum left Singapore and arrived in HK on the 12 of March 2009.

At 130am on the 14 of March, while in her hotel room, she suddenly started screaming in pain. The staff working in the hotel was alerted and they immediately sent her to Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

Upon arriving at the hospital, what they first found out was that she had a Hemorrhagic stroke which basically means that a blood vessel had burst in the brain and therefore, decided that it was very serious and operated on her right away. After the operation, they then found out that there is this blood clot at the brain stem area and they said that the blood clot is quite big so it was also essential to get the blood clot removed as soon as possible because the blood clot is putting a lot of pressure on the brain stem and the brain stem is critical for sending signals from the brain to the body so it was therefore important to remove it as quickly as possible.

17th March 2009:
Doctors said that a second operation was necessary to remove the blood clot in the earliest possible time and there was a need for us to decide quickly. At this moment, the doctor, who happens to be the head of the neurology department spoke to us and said that there was a couple of options for us to take. Either we leave her as it is and be hopeful for the blood clot to resolve by itself but it might be a very long process, though good for the body but also, it might not even happen. It was a game to chance. The other option was to operate on her, remove the blood clot and hope for the best. At this moment, the doctor gave us a 50-50 success rate. Thereafter, they did a CT scan on my mum and gave me a 80-20 success rate which is much better then a 50-50 chance and so based on that, we agreed to the operation.

The operation was a major one and the doctors keep emphasizing that anything can happen but we still choose to remain hopeful, especially after the increased chances. The operation in total took 7 hours and by the time she was out of the operating room, it was 1130pm. We waited for the doctor but because the senior doctor that operated on her was too exhausted from the operation that he could only meet us 2 days later.

18 March 2009:
A junior doctor that was in the operating room spoke to us briefly on what happened during the operation. He said that during the operation, she lost alot of blood and doctors were struggling to keep her alive so they kept giving her blood transfusion. Basically, what was key was that it is likely that she'll remain as how she is now, for a long period of time. We're looking at weeks, or perhaps even months here. So he said, "Be hopeful for the best, but be prepared for the worst." and that was something that we didn't really want to hear.

19 March 2009:
We met the senior doctor today, also the same doctor that operated on her. Let's just address him as Dr Leung, easy reference for me. Dr Leung explained once again, more or less what the junior doctor said the day before about what happened during the operation. So the thing now is that they have put my mum on sedation to control her blood pressure. Dr Leung said that they cannot afford to let my mum's Blood Pressure go up too high if not there will be bleeding inside her brain again and the purpose of the sedative drug is to keep her BP under control. We were also told that we are not allowed to massage her in her limbs so that we don't stimulate any of her body muscles! Basically, the next step forward is that they will gradually lower the amount of sedative drugs and see how her BP reacts. If it gets too high, they will need to put her back on the medicine and this will have to be repeated till they can get her off the drug totally without worrying that her BP will be too high.


As of now, that is all that I can remember. I believe that's much more that is not in here but all these would be the main juice of what's been happening over here in Hong Kong. All we can hope for is that she'll be in a stable condition as soon as possible so that we can evacuate her back to Singapore which will make things much more easier for us as well.