Chapter 29
Jennie
My hands were shaking in my lap, and I couldn't stop crying. Lisa was driving as fast as she could to the hospital and even though she was with me, I felt afraid. Mary had called me and told me that my father had a heart attack.
Lisa wasn't even home, but when I called her, she came running. I've been trying to call Jin so that he could meet us there, but his phone was going straight to voicemail. My heart was aching, and my imagination wouldn't shut up and leave me alone. I was terrified. I needed to see my dad. I needed to see that he was okay. He couldn't die, he just couldn't. I needed him in my life. I was a daddy's girl through and through and I love my dad more than anything else in this world. He's my best friend, my confidant, and the best father and mother there ever was. He always had my back and stood strong beside me.
A choked cry came out of me, and Lisa reached her hand over to squeeze my own. I knew she wanted to comfort me, but I was so wound up and anxious that it wasn't doing anything. I wiped at my tears with my other hand and was thankful once we arrived at the hospital. We parked the car and Lisa held my hand tightly as we walked inside.
"Richard Kim. He had a heart attack." I barely managed to say, and the nurse in front of me began clicking away on the computer. "His doctor is Dr. Jung."
"Dr. Jung is performing an emergency surgery."
"When will he finish?"
"In a few hours, but we have other cardiologists. Dr. Im." She waved her
hand over and another doctor approached us with a clipboard in his hand. "This is Jennie Kim; her father was the one that's had a heart attack after his bypass surgery." She explained.
"I know you're a cardiologist too, and I don't want to seem rude, but Dr. Jung is more familiar with my dad's case and heart problems." He gave me a small smile and placed his clipboard down by the nurse. "I read over his
case, and I spoke with Dr. Im before putting him in my care. We have stabilised him and he's now resting inside, but we might have to do another bypass surgery. Stress, anger, and even depression could have been a trigger for this heart attack. With situations like this, it's hard to pinpoint if he needs another surgery."
"I'm sorry, another surgery?" I was shaking as I tried to keep calm, "The doctors assured me that he wouldn't need another one so early after his last one. He stopped smoking and drinking. He exercises. He takes his medication. Why would he experience another heart attack? It hasn't even been a year since his surgery, how come now? Surely, you can't perform another heart surgery. He's barely still healing from the last one."
"Your father's heart is already fragile from the first two heart attacks he experienced, and sometimes three surgeries are necessary. The complications might not have been during the surgery, but maybe along the way they arose. The overwhelming and stressing factors might have played a hand. They should have explained this to you before his first surgery."
"They did, but it was so long ago that I stopped thinking about it. I know they do a second surgery to check everything out years after the first one, but it hasn't even been a year yet. Something like this must have more risk factors and complications. We're just going to check out the valve and make sure that with his heart attack, nothing major happened to his heart. We'll also have to run some tests and it is a matter of you signing off on the paperwork. There are many factors, as you know your father experienced two heart attacks prior to the bypass surgery. Complications like this aren't rare and do arise a few months after the initial surgery, such as infections or blood clots surrounding the heart. Statistics show that 5.2% of our patients experience a stroke or heart attack after their first bypass surgery."
I rubbed my temples and felt Lisa's hand wrap around my waist as she gave me a comforting squeeze. "What are the risk factors for having another bypass surgery?"
"He will be put under anaesthesia for a long duration of time. There is also the risk of infection, organ damage, and stroke. The severity of these risks varies from patient to patient. Patients with a more advanced heart condition face a higher risk of complications during and after the surgery."
"What happens if he doesn't do this surgery?"
"There are other alternatives to this surgery if you choose. The first choice is angioplasty which is where a surgeon places a stent inside the
