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In 1982 my mother was hospitalised at St Luke’s with liver problems. After being in hospital for three months, as her only son I was taken to a small room and told that she was dying with no chance of recovery, and to be prepared for the worst which could be as soon as that evening or at best within the next day or two.
Her liver was so diseased that there was no hope. At one point that very afternoon my mother fell deeper into her illness and a call was made for a doctor to attend to her. This Consultant, a central European (at that time St Luke’s was full of them) immediately prescribed a new course of different medication to that she had received thus far, and lo and behold, my mother started to get better (consultants and doctors from all over St Luke’s came to see her in disbelief. Nurses for years after kept in touch).
So much so that within a month she was sent home and managed to live another 12 years, finally dying of something entirely unrelated to her liver. I subsequently questioned this ‘Slav doctor’, who informed me that he was an expert on liver diseases and went on to say that provided a small percentage, 10% or even less, of the liver is in reasonable condition let alone good, then there is an extremely good chance of 100% recovery.
Was that a miracle? I don’t remember praying to a particular saint. Certainly fate or luck, coupled with knowledge, had a lot to do with it.
Louis Aquilina
Sliema
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