STORIES OF LIFE – A True Caring Mother
While Anna, the fifteen-year old patient sat on the edge of the operating table, a bulky and heavy eyed female nurse grabbed her head and pushed it down into her chest forcefully. Then, as Anna moaned, with distress, the nurse said, “Be quiet girl. What I’m doing is for your own good. You see, I’m trying to make your back stretch properly so that the doctor can inject the epidural into your spine with no difficulty.”
The nurse went on to explain that the cervical epidural anesthesia would numb her body from waist down without knocking her out. She then smiled and continued, “This means although you would stay awake during your appendix surgery, but you won’t feel any pain at all.”
Anna gasped for breath, as the rough mannered woman pushed her face further down, almost pressing against her belly. In the meantime, the surgeon injected the painful epidural into the patient’s spine. Then, while the medical assistant and the nurses were busy helping Anna to lie down on the operating table, gradually her lower body turned as numb as a block of rock, and she became quite drowsy.
“Anna,” the surgeon muttered from behind his surgical mouth mask. “We shall soon begin removing your appendix.
The teen-aged girl winced with fear and peered at the surgeon as he went on, “Don’t worry at all. Not only you won’t feel any pain, but the surgery will be over in no time.”
Presently, lying half-conscious on the operating table, Anna gazed at the doctor through a haze. “No,” she told herself. “I don’t think I like his looks.”
Indeed, she never fancied boys and men with tight curly black hair such as the surgeon’s hair- now hidden under his operating room cap. What’s more, Anna did not like olive skinned men.
The doctor’s voice suddenly threw Anna out of her hazy world, as he blurted out, “Hey Miss, guess what? We’re done!”
Anna smiled and waved her hand to him thankfully. She could not believe that the surgery was already over.
Gradually Anna’s lower body began tingling, which meant the sensation in her legs and lower body was coming back. Thus, she thought she could begin moving her toes.
However, no matter how hard she tried, her toes and the legs did not respond. This drove Anna crazy. “Am I paralyzed?” she asked herself.
Anna’s heart began banging in her chest with anger and frustration as loudly as a deafening drum.
Soon, she began gasping for breath and passed out. Meanwhile, the nurses and the doctor’s assistant began panicking and running around. Therefore, they immediately called the surgeon, who had already left the operating room.
At the same time, Anna’s mother somehow got word of her daughter’s condition and decided to storm into the forbidden room with a small bottle of Valerian tincture in hand – which she always carried in her handbag. Then, as the panic-stricken mother ran toward the surgeon, she stretched the bottle of the Valerian tincture towards him and said, “Here doctor, use this. It is really good for the heart.”
The surgeon, who was shocked to see his patient’s mother busting into the operating chamber, yelled at the top of his voice, “Out… go out lady! Please note that unauthorized people are not allowed to enter the operating room.”
When they told Anna later about her mother’s behavior, she laughed, shook her head, and said, “Oh! My Mom thinks she knows better than the doctor!”
