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Testimony

by Dr. Andrew C S Koh

a photo showing a fireworks display on a dark night with a setting sun over a mountain
Fireworks, sunset

Spinal shock

On 26/12/2019, I attended a post-Christmas, pre-New Year celebration dinner with my cardiologist colleagues in a hotel in Ipoh. After dinner, when I was leaving the restaurant, I tripped and fell. I could not remember how I fall. I must have lost consciousness, and when I came to myself, I saw my friends looking at me and calling me.

I could see and hear them but I had a strange feeling. I could not feel my body below the neck and this was frightening! It was as though my head was cut off from the rest of my body from below my neck. I could not move my hands and feet, and there were no feelings below my neck. Then it dawned on me that I was tetraplegic, and the fall had resulted in a neck injury and spinal shock.

Prolapsed intervertebral disc

My colleagues called for an ambulance and transferred me to KPJ Ipoh Specialist Hospital. The paramedics were very careful not to move my neck and protected my neck with a cervical collar. I was immediately taken for an emergency MRI brain and neck scan and subsequently admitted to the ICU. The MRI scan showed no head trauma, but there was a prolapsed intervertebral at the C3/C4 level causing a 90 % compression of the spinal cord, confirming the diagnosis of a prolapsed intervertebral disc with cervical myelopathy at the C3/C4 level. By then, it was already past midnight.

Spastic tetraplegia

The next morning, I was taken for a CT scan of the neck to delineate the prolapse intervertebral disc in more detail. By then, the spinal shock had resolved but I was tetraplegic. The spinal surgeon who attended to me advised urgent spinal cord decompression surgery to remove the prolapsed intervertebral disc and to decompress the spinal cord. He explained that this was a delicate and precise operation, and there was a risk of permanent spastic tetraplegia in the event of complications arising during the operation.

Spinal Surgery

At 8 pm on 27/12/2019, I was wheeled to the operation theatre for the scheduled operation. I heard the anaesthetists in attendance saying that they were giving me pure oxygen, and will be putting me to sleep. The next thing, that I remembered was the doctors calling my name, asking me to wake up, and saying that the operation was over. When I opened my eyes, I saw the doctors, nurses, paramedics, and the clock in the operation theatre, and it was 11 pm. I was wheeled back to the ICU.

Rehabilitation

After 8 days in the hospital, I was well enough to be discharged and was able to walk with great difficulty using a walking frame. After 6 more weeks of outpatient physiotherapy and rehabilitation, I finally recovered and was discharged from physiotherapy. At that time, the COVID-19 pandemic kicked in, and the whole country was under lockdown. It took me another 3 months before I became ambulant. It is now almost 3 years post operation and I am fully ambulant but still requires the assistance of a walking stick.

Thanks for the support

I thank all my cardiologist colleagues for calling the ambulance and protecting my neck during the ambulance transfer.

I thank my wife, sons, daughters-in-law, sister, brother-in-law, nephew, niece, relatives, in-laws, friends, pastors, church members, ex-school, and ex-university classmates, for their prayers, support, care, visitation, encouragement, and reassurance.

I thank the spinal surgeon, neurosurgeon, neurologist, anaesthetists, radiologists, staff nurses, nursing aides, paramedical staff, radiographers, physiotherapists, KPJ ISH hospital directors, and all the hospital staff, who had attended to me during my hospitalization.

Miracle

According to one of my cardiologist friends who was an eyewitness to the accident, I fell head facing downwards hitting the floor, and was lifeless for about 5 minutes. He said that at that moment, he thought I have died and was so worried for me. When I woke up again, it was a miracle. According to one of my sons, who is an anaesthetist in New Zealand, he said that such an injury almost always results in permanent tetraplegia, and my recovery in such a short time was indeed a miracle.

So many people prayed for me, through whats-app messenger and in person. My wife and sister were very supportive throughout my hospital stay and postoperatively. My in-laws were also very supportive throughout my ordeal. They drove me to various places outside Ipoh during the Chinese New Year of 2020 for food and recreation, just to cheer me up.

Thank God

I thank God for saving my life, rescuing me from spinal shock, rescuing me from spastic tetraplegia, successful spinal surgery, and successful rehabilitation

I thank God for preserving my life so that I can serve Him in the church. For the past 3 years, He had enabled me to write and publish 38 books. God is good, He loved me, had compassion, mercy, and grace on me, and His eyes were on me throughout my ordeal. I had experienced such amazing grace.

Testimony

I was once paralysed but now I can walk! I hope this testimony will be an encouragement for you as it had been for me.

a photo of my business card
business card
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Reflections of a blogger

never a dull moment

Dr. Andrew C S Koh

a photo showing fireworks on a dark sky with a sunset over a mountain
Fireworks over a setting sun, captured on iPhone 11 plus pro

I retired from medical practice almost three years ago due to an accident that paralysed me from below my neck. I thank God for miraculously healing my paralysis. The simultaneous onset of the Covid 19 pandemic back to back with my accident gave me no choice but to retire for good.

Ever since then, I had no regrets and did not look back. I took up blogging, photography, writing, and book publishing to occupy my time. These are the things that I have wanted to do but never had the time to do when I was working.

Retirement was very challenging initially because I have so much time on my hands and don’t have enough things to do. Overnight, my circle of friends was drastically reduced. Suddenly, I do not have to do ward rounds. Suddenly, my phone stopped ringing except for scammers. I felt alienated, isolated, secluded, and cut off from the world. I felt that nobody was interested or wanted to know whether I am existing or not. Fortunately, I had a church family where I could serve full time, teaching, preaching, interceding, counselling, visitation, and so on.

But retirement was not all doom and gloom. There were more positives than negatives. I have freed myself from the tyranny of the urgent. I have freed myself from chains of the Goliath of medical practice that tied me down twenty hours a day, seven days a week, for more than a quarter of a century. I have freed myself from the responsibility of patient care, running a practice and on call.

My stress level was drastically reduced. I have better control over my time. I could do things out of interest in my own time and leisure. I could take a long holiday and be away from home for as long as I want without worrying about patients, clinics, and hospitals.

The burden of running a practice is forever behind me. I have finally earned the rest that I longed for. I became an author, publisher, blogger, and amateur photographer. There was never a dull moment.