“Mom, the doctor said that I have pneumothorax, and that I might die if I don’t have surgery right away.”
I received a phone call from my son who went to hospital for having breathing difficulty. Then the doctor talked to me over the phone.
“Hello, Ma’am. We just took an X-ray, and he is in a critical condition. He needs to have surgery right away. We will have him go through the admission process and get things ready for an operation, so please come right away. We will start the operation as soon as you arrive.”
My mind went blank when I hung up the phone.
‘Pneumothorax?’
I pulled myself together and quickly searched for pneumothorax. It is a condition that occurs when air leaks as the lung has holes, and this causes air or gas between the lung and the wall of the chest, resulting in collapse of the lung.
I packed up right away and went to the hospital. My son was already in a patient gown and was ready to go to the operating room.
I had a talk with the doctor before the surgery. My son’s lungs in the X-ray looked different from each other. On one side, the blood vessels were clear and healthy, while the other one had shrunk and looked dark. Although I didn’t have any medical knowledge, it looked serious.
Fortunately, the surgery was simple, compared with the critical situation. However, my son looked like a patient you would see in the intensive care unit, when he came out of the operating room; he had an oxygen mask on, and a long air hose, which was connected to the inside of his body through a hole, was by his chest. He was in pain whenever he moved, probably because the hose touched the ribs whenever he moved. It broke my heart to see him in pain.
Soon after, the doctor explained to me the result, comparing the X-ray pictures taken before and after. I let out a sigh of relief, seeing his lungs look normal after the surgery.
The X-ray picture taken before the surgery was surprising even at a second look. I couldn’t understand how he could live a normal life with that lung which had seriously shrunk. Neither could the doctor. He said he was very surprised that my son had come to hospital, looking normal; because people in that condition were usually taken to the emergency room or looked really pale because of the breathing problem. He repeatedly said he still couldn’t believe that my son played soccer for two days with that lung. I gave thanks to God for protecting us without a rest even in situations and moments that we were not aware of.
I learned many lessons through my son’s surgery. Just as our lives are put in danger if our organ that manages breathing doesn’t function properly, it must be the same for the spiritual breathing. Our souls will be in critical danger if they have breathing difficulty.
I will always communicate with God through prayer and receive spiritual oxygen for my soul to breathe well, so that the lungs of my soul will stay healthy and I will not run out of breath in any circumstance.