Hospital update

Many, many thanks to everyone who has skyped, emailed or phoned to express your best wishes and prayers. Yesterday afternoon, my family skyped me to let me know that Dad's condition was critical and that he was on life support machines: respirator for his breathing, dialysis machine to do the work of his kidneys, intraenous antibiotics, drip feeding, and a machine to keep track of his irregular heartbeat. Doctors said that he was gravely ill and the next 48 hours would be critical.


Basically, what seems to have happened is that my Dad's initial surgery on Tuesday went well, but somehow he ended up back in a normal ward instead of in the high dependency ward, and he seemed to be doing so well that they gave him a big three course lunch on Wednesday. He vomited it up, and he's been in pain ever since. The second operation on Friday showed that there was a leak where the two parts of the colon had been rejoined, and intestinal fluid had been leaking into his body, poisoning his system and causing intense pain. His body went into septic shock and his organs began to shut down.


I flew to Scotland last night, my Mum and brother met me at the airport after midnight, and we drove straight to the hospital, where we were allowed to go into the intensive care unit at two o'clock in the morning. Dad was hooked up to various machines, with a night nurse there to watch him constantly. He was sedated, so we don't know if he was aware of our presence (he hasn't really  been conscious since the surgery on Friday) but we spoke to him and prayed with him. We phoned the hospital about ten minutes ago and they say that his condition is still the same.


Thanks for praying for my family. One of the hardest things for my Mum is to know that Dad was doing so well last week before going to hospital, he also seemed to be doing so well after the cancer op, and it now seems highly likely that this setback might have been caused by human error - by the fact that he probably shouldn't have been given the large meal that caused him to throw up and may have been what caused the leak in the colon. Amidst the fear of losing him, there's a feeling of anger that this emergency situation needn't have happened. But we can do nothing about what is in the past; we can only hold on to God in the present and for the future, knowing that Dad is in His care. We'll be going to see him in the hospital again this afternoon.