Surgery on the heart and the brain: the difficult year of a real beating

Photo Jean-Francois Desgagnes
After two major surgeries, including one in the heart that has failed to kill him, Pier-Olivier is looking forward to see 2017 to complete. “I hope that 2018 will be better”, says the teenager from Quebec, which account finish his secondary 4.

Pierre-Paul Biron

Friday, 29 December 2017 00:00

UPDATE
Friday, 29 December 2017 00:00

Look at this article

After a year 2017 painful at any point, Pier-Olivier Provencher wish only health for the coming year. After heart surgery that nearly cost him his life and a major surgery to the brain, the teenager says he looks forward to moving on to the next thing.

When asked how he would describe the last year, the brave young man diagnosed with Noonan syndrome is unequivocal : “It was something ! I just hope that 2018 will be better “, lance-t-il, outside a burst of laughter felt.

This laugh endearing, his relatives had thought never to hear it on the 1st of June last, when the doctors announced that the operation that their “P-O” was was not passed on. Surgery, his fourth in the heart, has been filled with complications that nearly killed the teen.

“A few days after that I woke up, my surgeon came to see me and told me that he was glad because there was only a small percent of chance that I could talk about it so it was complicated,” says Pier-Olivier, well aware that he is a survivor. “You have to believe that I was not ready to leave. “

Again and again

After a month and a half to the intensive care unit, Pier-Olivier has been transferred to the Institut de réadaptation en déficience physique de Québec (IRDPQ) for intensive courses of physiotherapy because of complications to a foot. A period that has marked the teenager.

“The young people there were severely disabled. So I had nobody to talk to. Let’s say that it was difficult to go back after the weekend, ” admits Pier-Olivier, who has spent 44 days at the institute.

And as if that wasn’t enough, a few weeks after its release, it was announced that another surgery, this time to the brain, was necessary. “But I have not even healed from the last “, he let it fall, demolished, in front of his doctor.

“I wondered how I was going to do. It is as if I had a pack-sack full on his back. When I arrived at the summit, I was told that I had a second mountain to climb, ” recalls the young flying about the surgery, which took place on 5 December last year.

Due to a syndrome of Chiari, a malformation at the level of the cerebellum, the doctors had to install a prosthesis to enlarge the affected area.

Looking to the future

Now back to the house, Pier-Olivier is getting better slowly. He is happy to be able to spend the Holidays with her family and especially away from hospitals. He wishes that it continue in the same way in 2018.

“It is important not that there is another patent that will slow us down “, launches with aplomb the young man who is determined to look ahead. After you have found the strength in his foot and be coming to the end of neuropathic pain that afflict it, he intends to resume school to complete her secondary education 4. Again, the determination is seen in her eyes.

“I was lucky, I know. But it also took a willingness to crazy for me to hang on too long to still be there. Now, I want to heal as quickly as possible. “

A long test also for the loved ones

If the last year has been difficult for Pier-Olivier Provencher, she was just as much for the friends who have accompanied on a daily basis through the trials that stood before him.

For the parents of the Pier-Olivier, Marilyn Petit, and Vincent Provencher, as well as his two brothers Louis-Philippe and Felix-Antoine, 2017 will have sometimes had the look of a long journey through the desert.

“On the moral plane, it has been a very difficult time. It has grown a lot this year “, admit the members of the family.

When you know that the doctors only gave that 1 % of luck to the young man to survive the complications of his operation in the heart, you understand that have had to endure his relatives.

“We got scared the last time. We didn’t know if we were going to review it. It was not known whether neurologically, he would still be there. It was a lot of anxiety to manage, especially when one has no control on what happens, ” says the father of the young Vincent Provencher.

The well-deserved break

So it is a real gift for the family to spend the holidays all together. They have already spent Christmas in the hospital in the past with Pier-Olivier, but nobody will complain of being at home this time. “It would not necessarily mean that it happen again,” says Louis-Philippe, became accustomed to visit his brother in the hospital.

And if the Provencher-Small had only one wish for Christmas and for the coming year, this would probably be a bit of a break.

“We finished 2017 on a beautiful note of hope with P-O in the house, so 2018 does not have the choice to be more beautiful,” says Mrs. Little, full of pride, thinking back to all that has crossed his son in recent months.

► Pier-Olivier Provencher 16 years

• Quebec

• Noonan Syndrome

• Treated at the Centre hospitalier de l’université Laval (CHUL)

  ” Pier-Olivier is back really far. He almost died. The doctors gave him 1 % chance of a draw. “

  – Marilyn Small, mother-of-Pier-Olivier