Life is so precious

A month ago, I received a call from Ann informing me that her older sister was warded in a hospital an hour away from where I live. As usual, with my hectic schedule, things had to run as scheduled and I ended up traveling to visit her after midnight.

I reached the hospital and was stopped by the guard at the door. She looked fierce and said I could not get in. I told her I came from far and my sister-in-law had leukemia and I needed to see her. I managed to get in and sat down with my sister-in-law for more than an hour that night. I tried to motivate her and told her how important it was for her to visualize that she is going to get better. That she had to be strong for her children.

She had 8 children ranging from 5 to 24 years old. Her husband is a teacher. What moved me most that night was when she shed tears and told me that her children needed her. I kept trying to motivate her that she must be strong for them. That night made me think how precious life is.

At that point her platelet count dropped to 9000. A healthy platelet count is between 150,000 to 450,000. When I called my sister who is a doctor, she told me that at 9000 it was a condition when all the internal organs are already bleeding. The best part was there was no sign that her condition was that bad if we see her from the outside. She could still talk, walk and move around.

I did not get to visit her very often, only during weekends. Last weekend I was training off site and did not have the opportunity to see her. During the week, Syazwana, her daughter asked me whether my husband can spare a day this upcoming week to get blood samples to find a match. We later agreed on July 24th, 2007 to gather all siblings and get the blood samples to be matched against hers. The plan was the hospital would take her blood sample on July 24th at 8.00 a.m. to be taken to another hospital and the rest of the siblings will gather together at 9.30 a.m. to have their blood to be analyzed for an exact match to hers. The best bet would be siblings and not children. What they would do next is to culture the stem cells (which would take six weeks) and then transplant the stem cells into her body so that she would recover. Initially the date was set at August 6th but I guess the doctors discovered that it's getting far more urgent and they were running out of time since all blood transfusion and platelet transfusion did not help in getting her platelet count to rise above 9000.

Yesterday, we went to visit her. I have not seen her for two weeks. The moment I walked in her room, I saw that she looked far worse than the last time I saw her. My tears just welled up my eyes and there was no way that I could control it. I then spotted the swollen toe and red spots on her legs. When I asked Syazwana why, she said it was rashes. As she told me that her platelet count was 2000, it dawned on me that it was not rashes but her blood cells had ruptured internally. I knew deep inside the magnitude of her condition. As usual, I gave her words of encouragement. As the family members gathered around her, one of her sons said,"Mom, when you get better, we can go for a holiday." That was so touching to me as I could sense how slim that hope was. I left her yesterday at 8.00 p.m. after sharing her condition with other siblings.

Today, we planned to visit her after our Asr prayers. By 5.10 p.m. we received a called that she has left this world for good. It came as a shock to us. Like zombies we packed and got ready to go to the hospital. At the hospital lobby, we bumped into her sons carrying items and walking like zombies looking down with somber expressions and oblivious of our existence. It was so very sad to see the pain on their faces.

As we reached the 6th floor, they were on their way with her body to be taken to the mortuary. We followed them in the huge elevator and later waited for about an hour before the van arrived. Iskandar came to be with us and helped carry the body into the van. That was thoughtful of him.

When I thought about all these, that she was warded a month ago, was in the hospital all the while and never came back home until today, a lifeless body leaving behind 8 children, it dawned on me how precious life is. With each minute that I am still breathing and able to see the greatness in every single living thing in this world, I thank God for this great blessing.

May God bless her soul. Let us all pray for her. Al-Fatihah to the late Rusina Yusoff.