Elderly lady survives major cancer surgery
One of the daughters is standing at the entrance crying. Her mother has been diagnosed with a large tumor in her colon and also has a liver metastasis. Could the patient – in her seventies after all – even survive such an extensive operation? And won’t any help come too late anyway? The woman in front of the fence encourages herself. “We’ll pray,” she calls out to me and raises her arms to the sky – to emphasize her statement, as it were.
The operation takes almost 7 hours. A test of patience for the whole team. Surgeons Dr. Huibert de Vries and Dr. Lukas Steffen are eager to get down to business. Anaesthetist Dr. Natascha Lapata is already looking a little tired on the operating field. She keeps all of the patient’s physiological parameters stable. Good news. At last. The bowel with the tumor is out and the liver metastasis removed. How will the seriously ill patient cope with this ordeal?
Nine days later – three days ago – she was discharged home. Everyone played their part in this success: The doctors and nurses in the operating theater and the praying daughter in front of it. /KDJ
