The abduction of Caramen T.

Meeting the doctors.
August 16th, 2018

The next day, Thursday morning, August 16th, we went to my Cardiologist in Willebroek for a few health checks and from there we went to the hospital “Heilige Familie” in Reet, where I was expected.

In the afternoon I went to visit doctor Van Bael in the hospital as planned, but he was not available.

Dr. Lambrechts would take his appointments over.

Karel Vandervorst and his daughter Maryssa came also to the hospital to visit me and my daughter.

While I was visiting the doctors, they had a chat with my brother and my daughter.

After a few test (X-Ray and Ultrasound) and consulting the CD with the scan results from Thailand, Dr. Lambrechts decided that this operation was too risky for him and he would not perform the operation.

Instead he forwarded me to Dr. Bing, a professor at the University Hospital in Jette who was better qualified to handle this operation.

On 21 August 2018, we went to the UZ in Jette to meet Dr. Bing.

Dr. Bing ordered again a few tests and after the tests I and my brother went to his office.

Dr. Bing told us about the complexity of this operation and the additional dangers due to my advanced age, previous health problems, etc.

He explained to us exactly what the operation was about on a model on his desk.

He was prepared to perform this operation, but he would not take any responsibility about the final result.

In order to limit the risks of the operation, he proposed to perform a surgery “In Vitro”.

A surgery “In Vitro” is performed by introducing a tube into the Aorta at the groin and perform the whole surgery without cutting.

This kind of operation would require much less recovery time and Physical therapy after the surgery because the "cutting" would be limited to a little hole in the groin.

But for this kind of surgery, he would need to order an exact copy of my existing Aorta at a specialised company in Germany.

This company would produce an exact copy (3D printing) of my Aorta vessel and the copy would be introduced into my body trough the tube.

But producing this copy of my Aorta would take at least 3 months.

Dr. Bing would need to discuss the operation first with his team and he would call my brother (I had not yet a SIM Card from Belgium) about the outcome.

That was more time than I had expected.

I discussed this with my brother and his answer was that I did already travelled to Belgium and the best option was to have the operation performed now.

We would try to find a solution about the housing and my daughter later he said.

Days passed, waiting for the phone call from Dr. Bing.

But no phone call came.

After 2 weeks of waiting, my brother proposed to visit a doctor in a local hospital (nearby his house) and ask him for a second opinion.

My brother said “If you would go to a local hospital, I can visit you more often with my wife and Samui.”

We arranged a meeting with his general practitioner Dr. P. Bongaerts, on 27 August 2018 and he forwarded me to Dr. G. Lauwers at the local hospital ZOL in Genk.

At the ZOL hospital I did a few tests and meet Dr. Lauwers.

Dr. Lauwers was not keen to perform this operation, but he was ready to help me out on the condition that 3 other doctors agreed with him:
- A Cardiologist, Dr. V.,
- A Lung specialist,
- An Anaesthetist.

I went to the Cardiologist at the hospital Andre Dumont in Waterschei, and his verdict was that I had no particular signs that would inhibit an operation, but the operation was still a “high risk” procedure:
- "No obvious angor pectoris or ischemia detectable at this time."
- Off course high risk procedure in this obese man with peripheral, renal and coronary arterial disease”.

Next I went to the lung specialist and performed several lung test, which all were satisfying.

The 3 doctors agreed with the surgery, although reluctant, and on 16 September 2018 I was expected at the hospital for an operation.

Future procedures
The following procedures are planned for your patient:
17-09-2018 AORTA FEMORALE GREFFE
These procedures, as well the possible complications, were discussed in detail with your patient.
A brochure explaining the preoperative and postoperative course was also provided.
Kind regards,
Dr. G. Lauwers

Picture out of the brochure of the Aneurysm surgery

Dr. Bing called for an appointment in the mid of September, but by that time I had already an operation at the local hospital.