“Someone Up There Was Watching Over You”

When Wen Chang, had a follow up appointment with Martha Mercado, MD, a cardiologist at Kaiser Permanente Baldwin Park, she told him, “Someone up there was watching over you.”

One afternoon, Wen was walking with his wife, Mei Lien. About midway through the walk, he felt pain and tightness in his chest that radiated up to his neck and back.

The next day, Mei Lien urged Wen to get checked by his physician. During the visit, the doctor recommended that he have a treadmill stress test. Wen’s results were analyzed by Dr. Mercado. She told him that he was not leaving the hospital that day. She shared the extreme seriousness of his condition and explained that he may need immediate surgery. This was a life-changing moment for him.

Wen had an angiogram to assess that determined that neither stents nor angioplasty would solve the advanced issues affecting his heart. The only alternative was open heart surgery and a quadruple bypass operation.

After eight weeks of recovery in the intensive care unit, Wen and Mei Lien went back to see Dr. Mercado for a follow-up appointment. It was during this visit that Dr. Mercado told Wen that he was a lucky man. “Your heart blockage was very significant. If something had happened to you, it would have been fatal, you wouldn’t have made it. Someone up there was watching over you,” she said.

Wen is sure that, in addition to that “someone up there,” there was someone down here named Dr. Martha Mercado who saved his life.