The year, 2007. The month, October. The holy month of Ramadhan. Tee Hui Yi was a petite, pretty teenager. So full of life yet so perilously close to death. She had been on a mechanical heart for close to a year. Only a heart transplant would allow her to see her twentieth birthday. Hopes were fading though. But Hui Yi was not about to give up.
Miraculously, on Thursday, October 4, 2007, she got that call. There was a donor.
Instantly the Transplant Team swung into action. The surgeons were mostly Malay. All of them had been fasting but there was no time for a proper buka puasa. One of the anaesthetic doctors was an Indian. I was not part of the surgical team but like many others was a passionate observer wishing everybody well, and willing to lend a hand if the need arose. I distinctly remember thinking to myself that this was the best of what Malaysia had to offer. A few dedicated and skilful Malay heart surgeons with an Indian doctor in the anaesthetic team doing a delicate heart transplant on a Chinese patient at an unholy hour during the holy month of Ramadhan. A script written from the heavens.