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Tag Archives: medical anniversary

You say it’s my re-birthday!

Posted on September 2, 2024 by Minna Hong • 0 Comments

My third re-birthday is coming up. It’s the third anniversary of my medical crisis–well, it will be the day after the day this is posted. September 3rd, 2021. That was the day I died–twice. And came back to life–twice. Sometimes, I think I should have chosen the day I woke up as my re-birthday, but to me, this was the more impactful day. Even if I don’t remember it.

That’s the weird part to me. Such a momentous day in my life is one I don’t remember at all. I’ve made my peace with it (and that I’m missing most of the week prior to it), but it’s still something I muse about from time to time. I woke up (or was still up) at three in the morning and could not breathe. I had the wherewithal to get up and get the cordless phone, to call 9-1-1, and to follow what they told me to do. Which was to go to the front door and unlock it. Then, I promptly passed out in the front hallway, which is how the cops found me.

I rarely think about it any longer, but when I do, it never ceases to amaze me. I did all that while being unable to breathe. The cops arrived in time to bag me (with oxygen) and keep me alive until the EMTs came. That the cops knew they had to bag me and had the ability to do so was a miracle in and of itself. It helped that where I live is a sleepy little suburb and they could get to me in two minutes was a big plus. Had they taken any longer, I would have been permanently dead. The brain cannot do without oxygen for very long. Brain damage starts in less than a minute, and you will not live past fifteen minutes. (Ten minutes is very dicey.)

I have very little brain damage (at least that I can tell), so they probably got to my house in less than a minute. It was helpful that I was able to open the door before passingh out because otherwise, that would have added several valuable minutes to the time it would have taken for them to respond.

This is what gets to me when I think about it. So many things had to go right in order for me to survive. Let me recap.

First of all, I had to call 9-1-1 and tell them that I could not breathe. I had to listen to the operator, get to the first door, and then unlock the door (before passing out). Then, the cops had to get there in less than a few minutes. Then they had to know what to do when they found out I was not breathing (bag me with oxygen). Then, the EMTs had to come there in a hurry as well. Following that, they did their thing in dealing with my two cardiac arrests and stroke.

Five month anniversary

Posted on February 3, 2022 by Minna Hong • 0 Comments

A few hours after this post goes up, it’ll be the five-month anniversary of my medical trauma. That’s astonishing to me because I didn’t think I’d make it past the third month, but not for health reasons. Healthwise, I’m lucky that I haven’t taken any sustained damage. I have been checked out and given a clean bill of health. I have a little bit of short-term memory issues, but it’s no big deal. It only comes into play during my private lessons and my note-taking, which I need to improve. Other than that, I can watch a video of the same movement time and time again, which helps.

It’s almost been half a year. That’s mind-boggling to me. And I still can’t remember what happened during that fateful night itself, but I can talk about it because my brother and I have talked about it several times. I can tell people what happened as if I were there (well, I was, but you know what I mean), but it’s all because of what my brother has told me and from what I’ve read in the Caring Bridge journal. He wrote daily entries there, which I’ve read several times and have been invaluable to my understanding of what happened to me.

To recap once again, this is the story. Roughly around three at night/in the morning on September 2nd/3rd, I couldn’t breathe. I called 9-1-1 (which is not like me at all) and they told me to unlock the front door. I did before promptly passing out in my front hallway. The cops came and bagged me (oxygen) until the EMTs came along. Then, they took over. I had a cardiac arrest and the EMTs had to shock my heart so it would start pumping again. I had another cardiac arrest and they shocked it again. One of these times, they also jabbed me with an Epi pen. And I had a stroke as well. This was all in a 20-minute ambulance ride.

Here was where a lot of luck came into the picture. Remember, the pandemic was still raging at this time. Beds were at a premium. My brother had a friend who had a very similar experience a month earlier (pneumonia, couldn’t breathe, etc.). His wife rushed him to Regions Hospital and they didn’t have a bed so he was taken elsewhere. He had a cardiac arrest at some point and he died.

Regions has the best heart center in Minnesota. They do innovative techniques like lowering the patient’s body temperature to protect the innards (brain, lungs, heart, etc.). I was lucky to be accepted there. I was unconscious when I was admitted. My brother found me roughly fifteen hours after I collapsed, with a healthy assist from Ian. He and I Facebook message every day when I get up, which in those days was between ten a.m. and one p.m. When he didn’t hear from me ,he messaged my brother around seven p.m. his time (after messaging me and texting me from noon to six or seven or so).