During JL’s orientation, PaPa got a call from MahMah that Granduncle’s wife called for a family meeting at 2pm that day. After orientation, we went home to change and fetched AL from KongKong and PohPoh’s apartment. It was a short meeting and some relatives went home when the hospital called requesting Grandaunty to be in the hospital. Grandaunty was on wheelchair and it would take some time for her to get ready.
PaPa, Mummy, JL and AL were the first to leave to UH. While Mummy was waiting near Secret Recipes with the kids, PaPa went up to see Granduncle. PaPa called Mummy at 4.05pm informing that Granduncle had passed away at 3.45pm. After getting the sad news, Mummy saw MahMah rushing to the lift with a sad face. Tai Pak Leong arrived with the two boys waiting with Mummy at the same place while Tai Pak went up to see Granduncle. Next moment, we saw Grandaunty arrived with her only son pushing her wheelchair and none of us dare to break the news to her. Tai Pak Leong and Mummy could only see her being rushed to the hospital.
It all started about two weeks ago when we found that he was admitted to the hospital due to blood in his stool. It was found that he had ulcer in his stomach. His ulcer was healing and no surgery was required. He was given blood transfusion and drip which was later found that his heart was too weak to pump the blood and drip causing his lung to fill up with water. The doctors didn’t want to drain the water too fast which would cause his blood pressure to drop drastically. His lung started to clear very slowly. He had no heart attack.
The Friday before his death, he was able to come down from the bed but the doctor decided to keep him over the weekend to monitor him. On Monday morning, he was supposed to go for a colon scope. However, his condition turned worst that his oxygen level started to drop and his blood pressure was not normal. He was put to sleep hoping his condition would recover. He was stable but weak. We are not sure if he was in any pain or not because for the whole week, he was unconscious till 31Dec2010 that he decided to leave the world. Talking about pain, Mummy came across that there was another type of painkiller besides morphine – oxycontin detox. It looked like medical was getting more advance but nothing could help Granduncle.
Mummy remembered clearly that the week before, we met with the specialist who told us that his condition could turn unexpectedly that we had to be careful.
This granduncle was the most fit compared to his wife and his younger sister (who was PaPa’s PohPoh). He was the one bringing his wife and sister to hospital for check-up. It was shocking news to the whole family. KongKong and PohPoh were very helpful and Mummy was grateful for them offering help to take care of JL and AL while PaPa and Mummy helping up Grandaunty with other relatives on the funeral.
He was 85 years old when he passed away on 31Dec2010.
1 comments:
Reading your post brought back sad memories of my dad's last moments in the hospital - he was admitted for GI ulcer too, and his red blood cell dropped to very low levels. His heart tried to compensate by pumping harder, which led to a heart attack. We lost him the same night he was admitted.
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