a man with hepatic encephalopathy

This is a medical jargon. Hepatic means liver related. Encephalopathy means brain pathology.
So hepatic encephalopathy literally means brain damage secondary to liver problems. It is an end stage presentation of liver disease, because the toxins in the body cannot be removed by the liver and therefore causing injury to the brain cells...


Last year when I was an intern I met a patient with this disorder. He came in and out of hospital for the complications of his end stage liver disease. He liked me a lot, he was especially nice and sweet to me' and always allowed me to perform all types of medical procedures on him.


He said I was very hilarous, I always made him laugh. He called me the Mighty Mouse.


Then I left that department at the end of my internship. But I knew he'd been in and out of hospital again. Every now and then when I visited my colleagues there, they would tell me that he asked about me everytime he came in. He usually described me as 'the little chinese female doctor who tapped my ascites ( it is an invasive procedure whereby a long needle is poked into his tummy to drain out the excessive fluid)...' and he was very proud that he let me jab him.


Why am I telling the story of this man?


Because this is a story about missed opportinities.


Since I left the ward, I have never gone to see him even thou I knew he was back in, in spite of the strong urge of doing so.


Today to my shock, I heard he had deteriorated very quickly this time,in coma, he might die anytime.


I ran up to the ward. I could barely recognise him. He was so thin, the whole body has turned yellow. He opened his eye at my calling , but no longer responded to the Mighty Mouse who once made him laughed.


I heard a voice in my saying, ' Tell him about Jesus now. Now!'
Then my own voice said ' No not now. The room is packed with relatives.'
' But it is about eternity!'
'But I can't do it! Too many ppl here!....oh God help me please!Let someone else do it! '


I have already given up. At the moment of weakness and cowardice, someone knocked on the door. It was the Chaplain.


Oh my God..! I heard myself exclaiming ' YOU ARE HERE!!!!!' ...as though I saw a long lost friend.


She was puzzled at my response for we have never met before. It is ok. She might not know, but at that very crucial moment I knew God was standing right at the door.


I left the room quietly , with a very burdened heart and a lot of flashbacks of him joking with me and calling me the Mighty Mouse. My patient was dying but I couldn't do it , my flesh was weak :(


But nothing would stop God's plan, not even my limitations.