At Fuda, Dayang Mahani from Sabah, Malaysia told us about her story, sitting on a white sofa and wearing a pinkish purple veil and violet dress.
The young lady in blue waistcoat is Mahani’s younger sister.
Dayang Mahani is a pious Muslim from a beautiful coastal city Sabah in Malaysia. In July 2016, a nightmare shattered her peaceful life.
1 Nightmare
During a party, Dayang Mahani fell over with massive intestinal bleeding and then immediately she was sent to a local hospital. However, she didn’t expect that she was diagnosed with colon cancer after a series of check-ups.
“At that moment, I felt it was the end of my life,” Mahani told the reporter.
In February 2015, she suddenly developed anemia once but she didn’t pay much attention to that and she thought it might be caused by renal failure that she had suffered for many years. Then in July 2016, she was hospitalized because of cancer.
In the following days, she went to different hospitals for examinations. Considering she had hypertension, diabetes and renal failure, Malaysian doctors didn’t think she can bear a resection of colon cancer for 7 hours because she might highly possibly die from renal failure.
What doctors said was a total nightmare full of desperation, aimlessness and fear. Then she tried herbal medicine and many other measures. She said, “We only live once so I wanna treasure every moment in my life. I don’t wanna die but what can I do?”
2 Hope
Every morning, Mahani would read the Koran and pray for a bright and new life. One day, her sister yelled at her while watching TV with a program-- irreversible electroporation (nanoknife ablation) from Guangzhou Fuda Cancer Hospital (Fuda) on. She missed most part of the program but she remembered the name of Fuda and searched for more information online.
“After searching on the internet, I found many successful cases of nanoknife ablation. Then I told my husband that I wanna contact this hospital.” Mahani said excitedly. For her, it was a chance of survival and she had to catch it, so she sent all medical reports to our hospital and waited for our reply.
Several days later, she got a piece of good news from our doctors who thought her disease could be kept under control through surgery after checking her CT reports. Then she decided to go to Guangzhou for treatment.
3 Treatments
In September 2016, when Mahani arrived at Guangzhou, she was seriously ill. After she was admitted to our hospital, she went through detailed examinations.
Dr. Shi, doctor in charge said, “Mahani was obese and her BMI was higher than 35. She developed massive intestinal bleeding and coma with unknown reasons before. Moreover, she suffers from diabetes, hypertension and renal dysfunction, which poses risks to further surgery.”
As the main surgeon, Prof. Niu said, “The patient is weak and she might not bear a conventional laparotomy, so we try a minimally invasive treatment but we have limited time for the surgery.”
Though the surgery was risky, Mahani still gambled everything on it. “I hope I can live a quality life instead of living on a wheelchair in the rest of my life.”
In the morning of September 27, the surgery was on. Before the surgery, Mahani prayed sincerely that the surgery could turn out to be a success. She recalled, “Before going into the operating room, I told the doctor, if I lose consciousness during surgery, don’t wake me up, because I don’t wanna plunge my family into a torturing waiting.” Tears fell down on her cheeks.
Prof. Niu said, “Patient had a surgery before, so her intestines might adhere to each other. To solve this problem, I prepared a laparoscope in advance that could deal with the adhesion and at the same time complete minimally invasive treatment. And this is specially designed for this patient.” Considering the potential risks that might happen in the surgery, Prof. Niu carefully performed each procedure and arranged a hematodialysis for Mahani right after the surgery.
Two hours later, when the surgery finished successfully, everyone felt relieved. Mahani came round and said with tears, “Hallelujah! Thank Allah! I’m still alive!”
It was destiny and also a gift from Allah.
4 The success of surgery
The success of surgery depends on full preparation, close cooperation of medical staff and advanced equipment, which helps maintain patient’s vital signs.
Prof. Niu said, “The success of this surgery means Fuda medical team has achieved more experience in medical practices. Excitingly, we are able to complete a surgery that other hospitals cannot perform.”
Two weeks later, before Mahani went back home with her family, the reporter and medical staff in Fuda arranged a farewell meal for her. In terms of this treatment experience, Mahani said a lot. Even though she came from a foreign country, she felt her heart connected with Fuda.
“Doctors here fulfill their duty in a responsible way and they care every patient, which gives me hope and power to survive,” said Mahani.
