For Madam Ang Kim Chu, things came together at just the right time for her heart transplant operation in November 2005.

She received a heart after a five-month wait, and her youngest son finished his National Service three days before her Nov 29 operation and was able to take care of her after that.

Mdm Ang’s body also responded very well to the new heart, and was up and about just two days after the operation.

She was discharged from hospital after 17 days – the shortest stay among National Heart Centre’s heart transplant patients.

“Everyone said I looked very well, and seemed to recover very quickly,” she said. She only needed to take painkillers for a few days.

The 56-year-old needed a new heart after being diagnosed with end-stage heart failure. The medical term for it is idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy, a condition where the heart enlarges due to unknown causes and cannot pump blood normally.

It was a case of second-time lucky for Mdm Ang. She had passed on the opportunity of receiving a heart some years back, as her condition then had improved with medication.

The petite, sprightly homemaker’s heart problems began a decade ago. Routine activities became strenuous, energy-sapping trials. She got breathless just from squatting down, or walking short distances.

“My legs swelled, my body swelled, my sleep and appetite were poor,” said Mdm Ang in Mandarin. It was tough going, she said. “Hen xing ku.”

Mdm Ang’s life has been a stressful one, especially when her children were growing up. She did not get much help from her husband, “who is of the generation that expects wives to serve them”.

Since the heart transplant, she has gone back to devotedly caring for her family. She has four sons aged between 24 and 34, one of whom is married with a young son. Her oldest son is mentally impaired and lives in a welfare home, where he is better cared for and taught skills such as handicraft.

Her days are kept busy doing the marketing, looking after her grandson, teaching the maid how to cook, and ensuring that her youngest son, who has the skin condition ecezema, watches his diet.

She looks forward to her weekly visits to the National Heart Centre for exercise, where she is friends with many of the nurses, doctors and attendants; she says she is “treated like royalty” there.

Sundays are spent in church, where friends have been very concerned and supportive.

At their encouragement, Mdm Ang recently went on a four-day church retreat to Kuala Lumpur, where she got to “sight-see, relax and put my problems away for a while”.

Religion has been a source of strength for her: “I am glad I have God, or I would have gone crazy. Now, I have learnt to let go a bit more.”

Source: TODAY © Mediacorp Press Ltd. Permission required for reproduction.