33 Year Old Thank You

This weekend I am working at a cardiac surgeons meeting. I looked at the list of attendees and saw that Dr. P is here. He did my Mom's open heart surgery in 1977. I saw his name and I remembered a day in June when I was a scared 12 year old and this man in green scrubs came out to talk to my uncle and my sisters. All I can remember is staring at his shoes. They were covered in blood. Was it my Mom's blood? I can remember snippets--she would be in the hospital for 2 weeks (they kept them a long time back then), she would be tired, but she would be fine.

My Mom's coronary artery bypass grafts lasted for 21 years. Essentially what they do is "jump over" a blockage in the coronary artery by using veins they harvested from the leg.  Success is measured by not having chest pain, being able to resume normal activity, and not having further cardiac issues (i.e.oxygen flow is restored in the heart).

I told the meeting coordinator that I wanted to talk to Dr. P. I explained it wasn't sales and told her the story. This morning she came to me and said, "Dr. P's over in the corner in the yellow shirt." I recognized him immediately. I went over and introduced myself and told him the story. I started to tear up when I recounted what it was like when he came out of the operating room to talk to us. I told him how his professional demeanor was calming to a scared 12 and 10 year old girls. He started to cry and hugged me. He told me that his son is now a cardiac surgeon in Naples. He said he wanted to introduce me to his wife. He took me over and introduced me to Mrs. P. I told her the story and she smiled. She thanked me for sharing. She told me how when her son was in his residency that the nurses would call her and tell how he was doing. He was know for being nice (not typical for cardiac surgeons). Dr. P's wife was a nurse too. She said she taught her kids to be nice. I told her how I stared at Dr. P's shoes when he spoke to us back in 1977. She grimaced and said, "oh, I bet they were covered in blood." We both started to laugh. She hugged me and said she would tell her son the story. She said he would be so proud of his Dad.