He can no longer work and where the lives of others go on, his life often comes to a standstill. Rutger Meij (35) suddenly ended up in hospital more than five years ago. That moment changed his life forever.
Meij had to undergo surgery for ten hours after a tear in his large body artery (aorta).
Lawyer
At the age of 29 he was working as a lawyer and in the prime of his life. Meij: “That particular day I had run 15 kilometers in the morning. In the evening I was relaxing during a meditation course, when I suddenly got an extreme pain in my chest. I immediately knew: this is not good.”
To make aware
Heart surgeon Ehsan Natour of Maastricht UMC+ has now published a book to make people aware of the consequences of major surgery. “We are robbed and are suddenly patients or involved. Very often there is fear of death. That makes the impact so extremely great. You are not prepared for that,” says Natour. He previously started the Stilzet foundation, which focuses on the emotional and social side of medical treatments.
Letting go
Natour has been involved in Meij’s operation and is still in regular contact with him. According to the heart surgeon, people wrongly assume that their life will return to the way it was after a major operation: “They often change their character, their resilience decreases and their world and environment also change. The physical consequences of, for example, stopping a heart are already big, but so are the mental consequences.”
Meij notices this emphatically in his own life. “Letting go has become part of my life. For example, because I can no longer work. A round of running is no longer an option either. Where other people’s lives go on, my life often comes to a standstill.”
Marfan syndrome
The cause of a tear in Meij’s aorta is Marfan syndrome, a hereditary disorder of the connective tissue. In many people with the syndrome, the aorta is wider, making the wall weaker and prone to rupture.
Marriage and baby
Since the operation five years ago, Meij has been thinking more consciously about certain things in life. “Just before the first operation I said to my wife: we are going to do what makes us happy. And that was getting married and having a baby.” Meij advises other patients to enjoy the beautiful things in life. “Because it can suddenly all look very different. It just happened to me too.”