Love and care prove vital to a healthy heart
Emotional support is just as important for patients as medical treatment when they start on the road to recovery after successful cardiac surgery
Some time ago, Dr Jason Ko treated a heart patient in his 20s whose dying wish was to eat a hamburger and French fries.
Ko, a consultant in cardiology at Hong Kong Adventist Hospital – Stubbs Road, said the patient had been suffering from a fatal genetic disease called Duchene Muscular Dystrophy, which causes the muscles to deteriorate at a rapid rate, leading to severe heart and lung failure.
“As a doctor, I naturally advised against unhealthy fast food and tried to give him a positive outlook on life,” Ko says, and the man never ate the meal he wanted.
“The patient passed away a few days later with little support from his family.”
After the patient’s death Ko began to reconsider his role as a doctor.
“In medical school, we are taught to ‘do no harm’… but I realised that we never learned what it means to ‘do no good’,” he says. “Sometimes, we have to think what is best for the patient.”
From this experience, Ko realised the importance of emotional support for those who are ill, either with terminal conditions or those recovering from surgery.
