On death’s door after his liver failed, he experienced a miracle that healed his body, faith and marriage

When Regina Cheong’s husband called to ask her to take him to the hospital, she knew something was very wrong.

“He is quite independent. It’s not like him to say, ‘Come and be my chauffeur’,” she said.

She dropped everything at work and went to him. The moment she saw her husband, Aaron Gong, she was shocked.

“His eye whites were golden, like the colour of C3PO (a droid in Star Wars) instead of white,” Regina told Salt&Light.

Aaron, 53, was warded immediately. Tests results revealed his liver was failing. Despite medication, the damage could not be reversed.

He needed a liver transplant within two weeks. Though death was not explicitly mentioned, doctors advised Regina, 45, to “prepare for the worst”.

A costly decision

Two weeks prior, Aaron had had a dream. In it, he was warned that he was unwell and should prepare for his own funeral. He brushed it off.

Then, inexplicably, his YouTube account was suddenly inundated by videos about liver disease. Again, he shrugged it off.

But there were physical abnormalities that he could not ignore. He experienced unusual fatigue even though, as a fitness instructor and a dragon boater in his youth, he had always been fit and healthy.

Regina said: “I remember the weekend before he was hospitalised, he said he felt very tired. I thought he wanted to siam (avoid) housework because he had no fever, no sore throat.”

While Aaron (right) was in the hospital, Regina (left) managed the household, took care of their two teenage sons, appealed for liver donors, and upheld him spiritually.

There were other symptoms. His urine became dark, his stools turned pale and his skin took on a yellow hue, a sign of jaundice. It was then that he decided to get himself tested.

Aaron said: “The results were bad. The viral count was high, the blood clotting level was low, meaning that I could bleed easily, and the markers for the liver was into the millions. Off the charts.”

In his teens, Aaron had been diagnosed with Hepatitis B, a liver infection, which required him to be on medication. After years of managing the infection, he decided to stop taking his medicine.

“My liver readings had always been good. I mistakenly thought I didn’t need the medicine anymore. I didn’t realise that the readings were good because of the medication,” he admitted.

Within a year, his liver failed.

A call to repentance

On his first night in hospital, Aaron had a series of dreams.

“In the first, I was floating away from earth. In the second, I was walking in a dark tunnel, backwards. And in the last, it was dark, and a small, impish figure was hiding behind some trees, popping in and out randomly.”

Aaron did not know what it all meant. But a friend who visited him in hospital did.

That friend told him that all his life, he had not taken God seriously. Now that he was near death, his eternity would be spent in darkness – unless he repented.

Aaron had become a Christian in his teenage years, but later in life his faith had grown lukewarm. He understood what his friend was saying, and he went before God in repentance.

But there was more.

Said Regina: “He had a confession to me about our marriage.”

Making things right

Married for more than 15 years, their marriage had not been a “warm and fuzzy” union.

“He was quite calculative,” said Regina.

Aaron thought that he was managing his family’s finances, but calculating spendings so carefully hurt Regina.

Aaron confessed: “I would calculate, ‘Oh, you drive so much, you should pay this much petrol. I drive this much, so I should pay this much. How much parking and so on, I would try to divide things like that.”

Regina added: “Or like buying bread or some necessities for the family. He would be like, ‘Okay, so you want this, right? Then you pay.’ Even though, later on, the whole family would eat it.”

When Regina needed a pre-cancer lump removed, it was her friends who had accompanied her to all her medical appointments, not Aaron.

“We were together for the children. But our marriage was dying,” said Regina.

In hospital, God prompted Aaron to repent of how he was treating Regina. As he held her hand to apologise, he felt “a cool electric feeling flowing” through their hands.

“It was the Holy Spirit,” he told Salt&Light. “And a burden lifted from me and I was assured that all would be okay. If I go, I go in peace.”

Though she was deeply unhappy in her marriage, Regina hung on, believing it was a sacred covenant.

Regina said: “In that instant, I said, ‘I forgive you.’ I appreciated his sincerity. That came out the strongest. I felt he was really, really sorry. I felt I had closure because I finally understood why our marriage was like that.

“He was prepared to die without making things right. But God really loves me. If not for God, this wouldn’t have happened.”

Knocking on death’s door

Aaron thought that, having made right with God and his wife, healing would follow. Instead, his condition worsened.

Fluid built up in his brain, a complication related to liver failure, resulting in disorientation. He could not remember his own name or that of his sons.

His failing liver could not make enough clotting factors, causing him to bleed internally. His kidneys also started to fail.

“I was drifting into a coma, so they moved me to the ICU. But there was no fear or anxiety, no crying to get well or to live. I was just waiting to die. At that point, nothing mattered,” said Aaron.

A liver transplant was needed to save his life, but Regina was not a viable donor because she was underweight. Their only option was to appeal to friends and family.

Aaron’s condition worsened in the few weeks he was in the hospital.

Regina recalled: “When I got out of the ICU, I fell to my knees and kept saying to myself, ‘My God will not fail me.’”

Meanwhile, friends and family stepped forward to be tested to see if they could be donors. A friend who lived in France was even willing to fly to Singapore if his liver was a match.

Holding on by faith

Almost a week into his stay at the ICU, Aaron’s body “took the last plunge”. Regina was told that his last hours were near.

There were signs of a new infection, his blood pressure plummeted and he was bleeding internally. Aaron was placed in an induced coma and put on life support.

Just before he lost consciousness, Regina read Isaiah 43:2 to him. The last words Aaron remembered saying were: “God, have mercy on me. Have mercy on me.”

While he fought for his life, friends surrounded his family. They organised a 24-hour prayer vigil, ferried his sons to and from school, drove Regina to the hospital and back because she was often too tired or distracted, and made meals for them.

But there was still no suitable donor.

“Then God told me, ‘Help will come in an unexpected way’,” said Regina.

As the sole prospective donor backed out at the last minute, Regina clung to God’s promise, and to the faith community that stood with them.

Christian friends prayed. Those who were not believers asked their believing friends to pray. In all, Regina estimated that some 1,000 people were interceding for Aaron.

Against all medical expectations, Aaron’s condition stabilised.

He later testified: “One of the experienced ICU doctors told my wife that, in his years of practice, I was only the second liver failure patient whom he had seen coming in this sick and surviving until now. Another ICU nurse told her the same thing.”

April 17

Nevertheless, he was still not in the clear. Aaron’s red blood count was at its lowest and his body started to bloat.

On April 13, God spoke to Regina and gave her a date – April 17. She thought He was preparing her for widowhood.

By then, some 20 people had offered to donate their liver. Yet, there was no match among them.

Two days later on April 15, an anonymous donor surfaced. Regina was sure this was the fulfilment of God’s promise.

However, Aaron was by then too frail for a transplant. April 17 was looking more and more like a death date.

The next day, doctors found a sliver of hope. They had identified the source of the bleeding. Of the four litres of blood in his lungs, they drained a litre and a half, enough to allow him to undergo surgery.

“The doctor still told me to be mentally prepared because it was a very delicate operation, made worse by the fact that Aaron was in a fragile state,” said Regina.

She was told that it would take up to five days after the procedure for Aaron to regain consciousness. The doctor even remarked casually that “it would be a miracle if he wakes up the next day”.

So while Aaron underwent the 10-hour operation, Regina was told to go home and rest.

Miraculously, Aaron opened his eyes the next day – on April 17.

A changed man

By the end of the ordeal, Aaron had lost 15kg and been given enough blood transfusion to fill two bodies.

He also had discovered a renewed faith in God. “I used to go to church as part of tradition. Now I really do want to sing and praise God,” he said.

Listening to hymns has become his routine, as has reading the Bible with Regina.

He has also come to appreciate his faith community. “I used to think: What is the use of a small group? Just pray by yourself, you can settle it yourself. But when all those people came to help us and pray with us, I realised there is so much more.”

The long road to full recovery taught Aaron to be patient as well. The man who used to raise his voice at his family has been learning to keep calm.

Most of all, his marriage is different.

Regina attested: “He is definitely a very changed man. He is concerned about me when I work late. Last time, he would say, ‘Good that you work so late, earn more money.’

“Our marriage is no longer dry and we do enjoy being with each other. God has given me a new husband.”

Regina and Aaron have seen a turnaround in their marriage. They admit that it still needs work, but they are progressing.

Aaron added humbly: “Throughout this whole experience, I really learnt to appreciate my wife much, much more. Without her, I don’t think I would be around.”

Having received so much from others at his lowest, Aaron now gives back by sharing his post-operation recovery experience with the elderly at active ageing centres.   

He said: “I am grateful. It is really not my life anymore.”

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