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Jason Chan, a retired counsellor, an ordinary human being, decided to share his extraordinary life experience. He is one of my dearest friends, whom I have known for decades, and is a person that I admire.

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A Rather Different World

CHAPTER 15    -   Brain Injury

 

January 10, 2025

Since adulthood, I ran into hurdles regularly, later with my wife, and lastly with my children.  For several times I was very close to the gate beyond life. Yet U turns were made at the last 100 metres. 

 

This time a “stroke” struck me, as I thought, and I told my family, relatives and friends that. After reading the report in detail, I knew that it was called “Subdural Hematoma”. That is, blood filled in the space between the skull and brain. The pressure gradually killed the brain cells till the brain sealed the three holes of the skull totally. Then the person died. Since this injury was caused by external force, it would not come back, as told by my family doctor. I could relax to recover.

 

My surgeon came to me to drain the leaking blood in the midnight of early February, 2017. There were three other patients in the room. He verified my identity while putting the tools onto the mobile stand for meals. “Many people died on this bed.” He spoke and covered me from head to chest with surgical garments. The doctor called my wife who was watching attentively at the door of the room to come to my bed. He asked her when I fell. “No.” was her immediate response. Then she recalled that I did fall a few days before Christmas. “Possible.” “He may not be saved if he comes later.” The surgeon answered. There were more than forty days between the date of the fall and operation.

 

I felt cold on the left upper side of my head. Instantly, a small hole was drilled into my skull. Immediately a tube was connected to the hole with a container the size of a honey jar seen in the supermarket by a nurse skillfully. Blood that looked almost black ran through the tube filling the container quickly. My feeling of clarity returned in that ten minutes, and I started feeling cold.

 

I ate with a good appetite the following morning on Monday. Observation continued after room change. After confirmation that no surgery on my skull was needed, I was discharged on Wednesday. A follow-up CT scan in two weeks time detected minimal blood leakage, yet it did not matter as my surgeon responded. I was instructed to stop taking blood thinner and no appointment was needed.

 

The reality was that at least sixty percent of my executive functioning was lost. I could not return to work and had to apply for and live on the disability benefit offered by the agency I worked for, till I was sixty-five, end of November 2024. This is another story.
 

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