A year ago I discovered that one of the valves in my heart was massively backfiring with potentially fatal consequences, a discovery I described here. Soon after this was published I was wheeled into the hands of a team of NHS anaesthetists, who ensured I have no recall whatsoever of the five and half hour operation that followed, as world-class surgeons opened up my chest and got to work.
Healing the heart
There are three interlinked processes to recuperation after a major operation. There is the biological healing of the body itself. Then there is the medical and scientific management of the process, which has to work with not against the body. And then there is the social – the healing of the person, and his or her reintegration into society. My own healing was hugely helped by messages of support and acts of solidarity, acts which became a modestly international health service – acts which, just as important, fortified my ‘primary carer’ in what can be a thankless task.
Each one of the three process can fail. The body can give way, doctors make mistakes, the social can be hollowed out. Only when all three combine together successfully do you have that wonderful transformation: a human being fully restored to life.
