English Version
I learned that my mother had collapsed from a subarachnoid hemorrhage because of a single phone call from a neurosurgery clinic.
It was just after 10 a.m., during my morning break. I was smoking and checking my phone as usual when I noticed one missed call. The number was unfamiliar, but from the area code I could roughly tell where it had come from.
I assumed it was a wrong number, but I searched it anyway. The result led to the website of a neurosurgery clinic. Since it was in the same prefecture, I called back.
A woman answered. I told her I had received a call, asked if it might have been a mistake, and said that if the call really had been meant for me, they could call again. Then I hung up.
That “if” call came almost immediately.
Just as my break was ending and I was about to return to work, my phone vibrated. It was the same neurosurgery clinic. I remember feeling irritated, thinking, If it was a mistake, I told them they didn’t need to call back.
But this time, it was not the woman at the main desk. The voice on the other end was calm and measured. From the way she spoke, I realized she seemed to be the head nurse.
“Please stay calm and listen carefully,” she said. “Your mother has collapsed from a subarachnoid hemorrhage and is currently hospitalized.”
My Healthy Mother Had Suddenly Collapsed
It took some time before the head nurse actually told me the diagnosis.
First came the confirmation of my name and date of birth. Then they had to confirm whether they were allowed to tell me what had happened. In other words: What they were about to say might shock me. Did I still want to hear it?
Only after that exchange was I told the name of the illness.
The first thing I asked was whether there had been some kind of mistake. If anyone in my family was frail, it was my father. Was it really my mother who had collapsed?
But it was true. The person rushed to the hospital with a subarachnoid hemorrhage was my mother—the one who had always seemed healthy.
A Dark Room and Absolute Rest
I met up with my father at my parents’ house, and my wife and I went to the hospital with him.
At first, my father had convinced himself that it could not be that serious. But when the head of neurosurgery told him, “This is a grave illness, and she is in extremely dangerous condition,” he apparently broke down crying.
When we reached the hospital, we were taken past the intensive care unit to a room even farther inside.
My mother looked energetic—no, that was probably just her usual way of acting strong. Anyone could see from the many tubes running across her body that this was not normal.
I could not speak. My father was desperately holding back tears.
It was my wife who spoke first.
“Mother…”
That brought me back to myself, and I began speaking to my mother too.
As always, she answered, “I’m fine. I’m fine.”
I could not stop crying.
“I… I came as fast as I could. You’re going to be…”
That was all I could manage. The tears kept coming, and I could not put anything into words.
After we calmed down, the doctor explained that her condition was extremely dangerous. That day and the next might be the critical period. “But please stay strong,” he told us. “We will do everything we can.”
My mother could not be placed in the regular ICU. The room lights and even the light filtering in through curtains were too much. Even a small amount of light, sound, or stimulation could affect the brain and possibly lead to a major rupture of the blood vessel.
That was why she was kept in a dark room. Visits were limited to 30 minutes, and only two people could enter at a time.
Only then did I truly understand how serious the situation was.
The Tubes Came Loose, and the Bed Turned Red
I heard what happened the next day from my father.
While my mother was asleep, she must have turned over in bed. By bad luck, some of the tubes attached to her arm and body came loose. Her pillow, sheets, and the bed around her were stained bright red.
Fortunately, a nurse making rounds noticed quickly, and it did not become a major disaster.
When my father came to visit, my mother apparently told him about it almost proudly.
“Last night was terrible,” she said. “But while it was happening, I saw a big foreign mansion, and I was using a smartphone.”
My father assumed she had simply had a nightmare. More than anything, he was just relieved that she was alive and able to talk.
But when I heard that story, something came back to me.
Around the time my mother’s tubes came loose and everything was happening in the hospital room, I had invited my father to an electronics store. He had been worn down from all the hospital visits, and I wanted to help clear his mind.
My father wanted to look at large 4K televisions for digital broadcasts. I wanted to check out smartphones because I was thinking about replacing mine.
At the store, my father saw an English-style mansion on one of the 4K TV screens.
“4K really is beautiful, isn’t it?” he said to me.
I remember looking at the clear screen and seeing that foreign building sharply displayed.
At the same time, I was trying out the new smartphones on display and noticing how fresh and smooth they felt.
“Dad,” I said, suddenly realizing it. “Did Mom say she saw a foreign mansion and touched a smartphone in her dream?”
“Yeah,” he said. “She said it looked incredibly vivid… Wait.”
He noticed too.
The foreign building and the smartphone that my father and I had seen in the electronics store—my mother, who should have been lying in a hospital room, had somehow seen them too.
Could something like that really happen?
A Near-Death Experience?
My father said quietly, “There are things modern science still can’t explain. Maybe your mother had a near-death experience.”
I could not think of any other explanation.
Maybe my mother had felt that she might not survive. Maybe, even if only in spirit, she had left her body to check on her husband and son.
When I said that to my father, he cried in silence.
The next day, when he visited my mother, he apparently did not mention it.
I told her about it myself three months later, after her surgery had succeeded and she had been discharged from the hospital.
She did not remember any of it—not the dream, if that is what it was.
But by then, it no longer mattered to us. My mother had come home safely. She had some minor aftereffects, but she was living an ordinary life with my father again. That was enough.
Afterward
According to the doctors, my mother’s recovery after surgery and hospitalization was remarkable. They had originally expected it would take about six months before she could leave the hospital, but she was discharged in roughly half that time.
“Her recovery is extraordinary,” one doctor said. “It’s hard to believe she’s 70.”
My father and I, of course, never told anyone at the hospital about that dream.
Japanese Language
母が、くも膜下出血で倒れたことを知ったのは、脳神経外科からの１本の電話だった。。午前中の休憩時間である10時過ぎに、煙草を吸いながら、いつものようにスマホを見ると 不在着信が１件。見知らぬ電話番号…市外局番から、だいたいの場所はわかった。「間違い電話だろう…」と思いつつも、検索で電話番号を入れて調べてみた。すると、出てきたのは「脳神経外科」のウェブページ。まぁ、同県であることから 連絡を入れてみた。受話器の向こう側の女性に、着信があったこと・間違いではないか、その旨を伝え もし、本当に私宛の電話でしたら、またお電話くださいと、電話を切った。
その、もしの電話は、すぐに掛かってきた。休憩を終え、仕事に戻ろうとするかしないか…スマホに振動とともに着信表示。さきほどの、脳神経外科からだ。私は、間違いだったら、掛けてこなくていいって言ったのに！と 勝手に無関係の電話に出ることがおっくう…そんな気持ちだった。ところが、先ほどの代表電話に出た女性ではなく、電話口の落ち着いた声の女性が、 ゆっくりと話し始める…。どうも看護婦長らしいことが話しの内容からわかる。「落ち着いて聞いてくださいね、お母様が、くも膜下出血で倒れ…入院されています」 。
【元気だった母が、突然のくも膜下出血】。。婦長さんから、母がくも膜下出血で倒れたことを聞きだすまで、時間がかかった。生年月日や氏名、本人確認が済んで、さらには、くも膜下出血で母が倒れたという事実を 伝えてもいいか、つまり…これからお話することで、ショックを受けるかも知れない、それでも お聞きになりますか？。…そんなやりとりがひと段落して、病名を知らされたワケだ。先ず私が聞き返したのは、何かの間違いじゃないか？どちらかというと病弱なのは父の方だし、 本当に母が倒れたのか？
ということだった。もちろん、現実に、くも膜下出血で病院へ緊急入院したのは 普段、元気だった母だった。【暗室で絶対安静！集中治療室はNG!!】。実家の父と合流し、妻と病院へ向かう。父は、はじめ大した病気じゃない、そう思い込んでいたが 脳神経外科の委員長に「大変な病気で大変危険な状態なんです」と叱責され 泣き崩れたそうだ。病院へ着き、集中治療室のさらに奥の部屋へ。母は、元気だった…いや、それは、またいつもの強がりで、身体には幾重にも張り巡らされた チューブの管をみれば、誰もが普通じゃないことがわかった。
私は、言葉も出ない。父は涙をこらえるのに必死だった。口を開いたのは妻だった。「お義母さん…！」 。私も我に返って、母に話しかける。母はいつものように、「大丈夫、大丈夫よ！」と応える。私は、涙が止まらない。「…い、急いで来たんだ、大丈夫な…」 そこまでしか言えない、涙が溢れて止まらない、 言葉に出来ない。落ち着いてから先生にお話を聞くと、非常に危険な状態であること・今日、明日がヤマかもしれない… ですが、気をシッカリもってください。私たちも全力を尽くしますと。
集中治療室は、室内灯や、カーテンから差し込む光があるため、母は利用すること出来ない。少しの光・音・刺激…すべてが脳に影響し、血管の大きな破裂に繋がるからだ。だから、暗室なのであり、面会時間も30分の時間制限付きで、1日二人までしか一度に入れない。それだけ、事態は深刻なんだ、そう遅まきながら気づかされる。【入院数日後、母のチューブが外れ、ベットは血の海に】。父から、その話を聞いたのは、その翌日のことだ。睡眠中の母が寝返り等をしたさい、運悪く、腕や身体につけていた管・チューブが 外れ、まくらをはじめ、ベッドシーツなどが真っ赤に染まったという。
巡回の看護婦さんが早めに気づいて大事には至らなかったようだ。母は見舞いに来た父に昨夜のことを得意げに話したそうだ。「昨日は、大変だったの…でも、その最中、大きな外国のお屋敷を見たり、スマホを触っていたわ」 。…？父は夢にうなされたんだろうと答えるだけだった、母がこうして話が出来る状態であること それだけで大満足だった、無事で良かったと。その話を聞き終えた私は、はっと思い出した！昨日、母のチューブが外れ大変な事態になっているとき、 私は、このところの病院通いで気がめいってる父を家電量販店に誘った。
父の好きな地デジの大きな4Kテレビを観に、私は買い替えを考えている スマホの下見に。そこで…。父は、4Kテレビで、英国の洋館を見つけ、私に 「やっぱり、綺麗だな4Kテレビは！」と私に語り掛けた。私もクリアなテレビ画面を見て、英国の建物が鮮明に映し出されたのを覚えている。さらに私は、展示されている新しいスマホを触って、その真新しさを実感していた…。「…父さん！母さんは、夢で、外国のお屋敷を見たり、スマホを触ったって？」 「あぁ、すごく鮮明に見えたって……えっ？
」 。父も気が付いたみたいだ。私と父が家電量販店で見た、外国の建物、そしてスマホを 病室にいるであろう母が、見ている！。こんなことがあるのだろうか…？。【それは、臨死体験】。。…父が言った。。「今の科学では説明出来ないことがある、母さんは『臨死体験』をしたのではないか？」 。父の言う通り、他に思いつかない。母は、自分がもうダメかも知れない！そう思って、肉体から、魂だけでも 私たち親子の様子を見に来たのではないか… そう父に伝えると、父は…静かに泣いていた。
。翌日、母のお見舞いに行った父は、そのことは話さなかったらしい。私がそのことを母に伝えたのは、無事に手術が成功して、退院した三か月後の話しだ。母は、全く覚えていなかった。その夢？のこと。でも、私たちにとっては もう、どうでもいいことで、母が無事に自宅に戻り、若干の後遺症はあるものの 普通に父と暮らしていることで十分だ。【終わりに】。…病院の先生が言われるには、術後、入院していた時の母の回復力は凄く、 本来、半年は掛かるとされていた退院日も、その半分くらいだった。
「…人並外れた、驚異の回復力ですね！70歳とは思えませんね」 と。私と父は、あの夢の話は、もちろん誰にもしていない
