Page 10 - PMCC on the Globe and Mail - 2016 Edition

Medical miracles What can be known for certain patient, it is the person, it is the After Rebekah
are becoming is that the intervention and family.” Hughes had her
commonplace at the care of Dr. Tirone David and a successful surgery,
Peter Munk Cardiac multidisciplinary team at the Ms. Hughes’ critical months in Dr. Tirone David,
Centre (PMCC), but PMCC – nurses, pulmonologists, cardiac intensive care followed above, told her that
the life of Rebekah respiratory therapists, a heart operation that other had he known the
Hughes will always be pharmacists – made it possible surgeons declined to attempt. amount of damage
incredible. for Ms. Hughes to come home to he would find
her husband and their children “Every other cardiologist I talked when he opened
Ms. Hughes lives with her after spending 80 days in the to said it’s near impossible to fix,” her up, he would
husband, Jon, and their three Cardiovascular Intensive Care she recalls, “and the risks too not have attempted
children in Everett, Ont., near Unit (CVICU). high.” the surgery. To the
Alliston, where Mr. Hughes works right are examples
at the Honda plant. Those days included her 38th Then she spoke with Dr. David. of the heartfelt
birthday and her 15th wedding “She was going to die otherwise, correspondence,
Perennials grow at the front anniversary, a Thanksgiving so I had no choice,” says Dr. post-surgery,
porch, and there’s a trampoline in dinner and her son’s ninth David. “She’s so young, a between
the big fenced backyard. birthday. wonderful human being, with Ms. Hughes and
three kids at home.” Dr. David.
A framed poster made by The CVICU team arranged The bond between patient
teenager Larissa Hughes hangs celebrations in a conference room and surgeon goes beyond what Peter Munk Cardiac Centre
on a wall near the front door: adjacent to the unit for some of happened in that operating room.
“Every family has a story. those occasions. “We brought “Every day he was in the hospital,
Welcome to ours.” in some pizza, and one of the he came to see me,” she says.
physicians had an ice cream cake When she went home, he asked
The story of Rebekah Hughes picked up for her son’s birthday,” her to stay in touch and told her,
and her family is a remarkable says Helen Storey, Nurse Manager “I’m going to miss you, Rebekah.”
story of faith, fortitude and love. of the CVICU at the time. Ms. Hughes adds: “He intrigues
me because he has this emotional
And the miracle? “That’s part of caring for side. We shed tears together.”
“That I’m here to tell it,” says patients,” she explains. “It’s not The story of Rebekah Hughes
Ms. Hughes. just the task or the problem that really begins with a three-year-old
This is also a story of two people needs looking after. It is the total girl who swallowed a penny.
brought together by fate or
providence in a cold operating
room at the PMCC: one with
a severely damaged heart
and scorched lungs caused by
childhood cancer treatment, and
one with a compassionate heart,
a creative mind and an intuitive
surgical skill that astonishes
colleagues.
“Dr. David is the legend of
cardiac surgery. He’s the best
heart-valve-repair surgeon in the
world,” says PMCC cardiologist
Dr. Paaladinesh (Dinesh)
Thavendiranathan. “He does
things that are not routinely done
in surgery. It’s just innate for him,
a gift.”
With all his skill, Dr. David
didn’t minimize the risk of Ms.
Hughes’ surgery.
She recalls his warning after she
checked into the PMCC in August
2014 for presurgery tests.
“He said, ‘It’s going to be
extremely high-risk. But if we
don’t do it, you won’t live.’”
Whether or not there was divine
intervention in the life of Ms.
Hughes, as she believes, depends
on your faith.

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