David Ruwa Official Blog

Well, my wish was granted. My mother was allowed into the operation theatre and we did not speak, we just stared. A few minutes later, the surgeons asked that my mother may leave so that they should begin. I accepted. But as they wanted to put the anaesthetic mask on me, I made the same request: to see my mother yet again. Whenever I remember this, I usually just smile at my stubbornness that day.

This was the initial idea of my first reconstruction surgery. This is where my life changed and it has never been the same again. I was scheduled for my first reconstruction surgery. Tears filled my eyes as I was being pushed to the operation theatre. Well, I did not think I was going to make it out alive. I remember telling the surgeons I wanted to see my mother one more time before the operation.

"His heart looks totally okay! His oxygenated blood does not mix with his deoxygenated blood either!" The doctor excalimed looking at my x-ray results. We were all utterly out of words. "So no need of going to India?" My parents asked in confused disbelief. "Yes, said the doctor...No urgency in that. However..." he continued, "David is a  Dextrocardiac  and apart from that, we have to reconstruct his chest." Welcome to the new twist, please.

As I write this, I have never set foot in India and you know what that means in reference to the only two options we had. Clinic was due again; mind you, this was supposed to be the last clinical check up after which I should immediately be flown to India. To this day, neither I, my parents nor the doctor has been able to understand what happened in my heart between those two check-ups.

It was congenital. The doctor futher continued with the horrific narrative and even suggested that I should be taken to  India  for further medical assitance. Either that, or if we had any religious belief, that was the time to seek spiritual and religious help. I could not understand anything the doctor said at that time. But I could definitely read pain and heartbreak from my parents faces. You know, tough times call for tough decisions.

Reccurrent pneumonia had became a really big deal. Hospital visits became more frequent and I guess this pushed my parents to seek further medical assistance for me. I later later found out what the doctor said; I doubt if anyone liked it."I have never seen this in my entire career" remarked the doctor. "His oxygenated blood mixes with his deoxygenated in his heart." The verdict  I had a complicated heart condition, the doctor continued.

Being born with a depression of the chest cavity is something that changed my life as soon as I attained self-concious and awareness. The first couple of years were just okay but of course the enquiry of why my chest looked different kept growing within me. This continued with highly reccurent medical complications, basically consisting of pneumonia. Well as I approched two years of age, things were going to change. The journey had now began.

I did not just wake up one day and said  I want to become a philanthropist. I did not just  become who I am in a day. To become what  I am today, every minute and every day counted; and  still counts. I want to share an account of my  life. I want to share my side of my life  story. Bit by bit; in a hope that it might i nspire someome in the world.