Kabuati Babaua opened his eyes and whispered: "Where am I?" Then he lifted his head and began to breathe in fresh air.
The 45-year-old Warkworth resident was alive. His surgery in November to have a new liver transplanted had been successful.
Babaua, originally from Kiribati, had been having life-endangering liver problems.
His doctors feared his health conditions had deteriorated, leaving them with little hope. They told him that unless he received a new liver he would be dead.
A few weeks after he received the grim message, Babaua struggled with his memory.
“I have come to a point where I don’t know where I was, not even recognising my friends, I was just like a dead man walking. I knew I would be dead, and the only thought on my mind is a miracle.”
And that miracle happened in November when his long time friend, Martin Robertson also from Warkworth, informed him over the phone that he had got a donor.
“I don’t know what to say, I thought it was a miracle from heaven. I wanted to jump, laugh and thank the Lord, I could not find a word to express all my feelings when I heard of a donor," he says.
Life or death
While at the hospital, Babaua knew that the operation could mean life or death.
"When they injected me, my world was completely shut down. Then 10 hours later, I thought I was somewhere - in a different place or different planet.
"I opened my eyes and whispered to my wife: ‘Where am I?"
He said doctors and nurses looked like ghosts to him and did not want them to come closer.
‘It’s a very scary experience. When doctors and nurses came to check me out, I was so terrified I thought they were going to kill me."
A new liver was transplanted successfully and he spent Christmas and New Year's Eve in Auckland city to recuperate.
With tears running down her cheeks, his wife Tebwebweiti says: “They treated my husband like one of their own. Nurses never got upset with him, I knew he has been rude and mean to them sometimes, but I never saw them walk away from him.”
Discharged home
Babaua was discharged last week to his home in Warkworth.
“I am recovering now. I have to follow certain strict rules to stay alive. When I am fully recovered, I would liked to go back to work for New Zealand to pay off my debts.
“I owe much to the doctors and nurses at the Auckland Hospital, and especially to the donor family,” he said.
While on his sick bed, Babaua received food parcels and words of encouragement from his friends at the Warkworth Presbyterian and the Catholic church.
“I want to tell the world that there are so many good Samaritans in Warkworth - thank you so much,” Tebwebweaiti said.
She who flew from Kiribati late last November to accompany Babaua to the hospital during the surgery.
Babaua first heard of New Zealand from his wife who accompanied a patient from Kiribati hospital to New Zealand in 2001.
“I arranged for Babaua to come to New Zealand.
Sick bed
Tebwebweiti is a nurse in Kiribati and she took her leave to be with her husband beside his sick bed, but they have been separated for eight years now.
Martin Robertson says he first had contact with Babaua a few years ago when he helped him with his residence application.
Last year, he was told that he was very sick and offered to help him with his application for a new accommodation and assistance from work and income.
Babaua finds Robertson to be good company with lots of fun and jokes to share.
“I think he has a Kiwi sense of humour.”
Babaua migrated to New Zealand in 2002 and four months later he got a job with Southern Paprika Limited and he worked there until he resigned in 2008 after his health condition became too difficult.
He is getting better now and the only thing he has to decide on now is whether to reunite with his Kiribati wife.
Taberannang Korauaba interviewed Kabuati Babaua in the Kiribati language and translated the interview to English.
Pacific Media Centre
