PO’IPU — There are a few things Tony Ching remembers about the night he almost lost his life. At one moment, he was riding his moped down an O’ahu street. The next, he recalled himself flying through the air, in
PO’IPU — There are a few things Tony Ching remembers about the night he almost lost his life.
At one moment, he was riding his moped down an O’ahu street.
The next, he recalled himself flying through the air, in slow motion, figuring if he just tucks and rolls he’ll be OK.
And he remembers seeing his dear departed grandmother, with whom he lived for a time.
Ching, a former University of Hawai’i volleyball player who started on the NCAA championship squad, also recalled the first person on the scene, a lady who asked if he was all right.
He replied, “I’ll just walk it off. I’ll be OK.” The fact that he was even able to pick himself up off the pavement and avoid getting hit by another vehicle was nothing less than miraculous.
The injuries he sustained nearly cost him his life. He required four pints of blood and nearly five hours of brain surgery to keep living, suffering also a broken leg, both knees split open, and various other injuries.
He got out of surgery, full of morphine to kill the pain, with “stitches everywhere,” yet recalled his father at his bedside telling him if he survived the ordeal his father would buy him the car of his choice.
“As soon as you can walk, we’ll go car shopping,” he remembers his father telling him.
Rehabilitation included learning how to shower again, and taking what seemed like endless brain-functioning tests.
He spoke at the Blood Bank of Hawaii Kaua’i donor recognition luncheon at the Hyatt Regency Kauai Resort & Spa here, to thank those who gave blood he is convinced allowed him to continue living and pursue his dream of playing professional volleyball.
“I’m just happy to be alive,” he said, thanking all of the people who said prayers for him. “That meant the most of any gifts,” he said.
“You guys saved my life,” he told the Kaua’i donors. “I don’t know which one of you did, but thank you,” he said.
But his ordeal wasn’t over yet. A blood clot shot from his leg through his lungs to his heart, and that could have been a fatal happening, too, he said.
Now, he’s planning on going to Europe to pursue a professional career in indoor volleyball, but will never forget the kindness of volunteer blood donors he doesn’t even know.
In addition to Mayor Bryan J. Baptiste declaring January Volunteer Blood Donor Month throughout the County of Kaua’i, KGMB Channel 9 health reporter Angela Keen, the program emcee, shared her story of blood donated to her and her father.
Keen, a donor and recipient who had done several stories about the processes not only of giving blood but what that donated blood is used for, recalled being bedside when her father needed quadruple bypass heart surgery and four pints of blood.
Then, Keen herself later experienced chest pains that led her to a hospital where doctors found a blood clot in her leg had also moved to a more dangerous location.
She required fresh frozen plasma. Colon problems were discovered, too, she said. Her colon problem was fixed, and is treated today by pills she must take every day.
She also thanked the donors, because they “save lives, and let us go on with our lives,” she said.
“When you help one person, they live and help others. You help the whole world,” she said to the donors, who help create a “circle of lei around the world.”
The theme of the luncheon was “More Precious Than Gold,” and it came from a mother who was watching her child receive platelets hung above her hospital bed.
The platelets are yellow-gold in color, and she looked at the bag of blood and said “that’s more precious than gold,” said Dr. Robyn Yim, Blood Bank of Hawaii president and medical director.
Associate Editor Paul C. Curtis may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) or mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net.
