Senior staff chaplain Rev. Mang Tiak is used to bringing comfort to patients and families who come to Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center in Houston.
She knows the power of the healing presence of God at the bedside, especially during pre-surgery visits.
"I love what I do every day, because I believe that this is my divine calling, to be at the bedside," she said.
Rev. Tiak found herself on the other side of her calling last October, when she underwent surgery at Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center to repair an aortic aneurism. "I was so scared," she said of receiving the news she needed surgery.
She relied on the expertise of her coworkers, including the surgical and chaplaincy team, to help her on her own journey of healing.
A change in plans
Rev. Tiak, 64, was born and raised in Myanmar, in southeast Asia, where she graduated from the University of Rangoon with bachelor's and master's degrees in law. She earned her master's of pastoral theology from Princeton Theological Seminary, her master's of divinity from Philippine Baptist Theological Seminary and her doctor of ministry from Chicago Theological Seminary. After moving to Houston, she and her husband, Thong Kho Lun, started the Greater Houston Burmese Christian Fellowship Church. She joined the staff of Baylor St. Luke's in 2014. The hospital is part of St. Luke's Health System, a subsidiary of CommonSpirit Health.
About 30 years ago while studying in the Philippines, Rev. Tiak had to have an ovary removed, but was alone in the hospital with no family and friends. There, a hospital chaplain visited her, and together they prayed Psalm 121. Though the chaplain had no way of knowing, it was her favorite psalm.
One verse says: The Lord will keep you from all harm — he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.
"After that," she said, "I had a sense of peace."
The ovarian surgery went well. Her experience at the hospital prompted her to become a hospital chaplain, to help others who might feel alone.
Another health scare
At Baylor St. Luke's, Rev. Tiak typically arrives by 6 a.m. to visit patients who are going in for surgery. Later in the day, she visits patients in surgical intensive care and goes wherever she's needed.
Rev. Deborah Whisnand, the manager over clinical pastoral education at Baylor St. Luke's, has known Rev. Tiak for about 20 years and considers her a friend. She says Rev. Tiak is an organized, detail-oriented colleague who can quickly build a relationship with a patient, which is especially helpful during pre-surgery visits.
"You have to be able to get to the meat of the situation quickly," said Rev. Whisnand. "You don't have a lot of time in pre-op. At the same time, you have to make decisions about, Do I stay longer because this person seems to be fearful? What do they need? If they're a Hindu, what do they need from me? If they're non-religious, what do they need from me? And she supplies that."
Last summer, while Rev. Tiak and her husband were attending a conference in California, Rev. Tiak felt chest pain. Rev. Tiak got checked out by a nurse at the conference. Her blood pressure looked fine, and Rev. Tiak thought it had something to do with her kidney because she has chronic kidney disease. When she got home, after more tests and appointments, she learned she had an aortic aneurism and needed surgery as soon as possible.
Rev. Tiak thought of her family. Her mother died of a heart attack at 67. Her father died of coronary artery disease at 87. Her younger brother had surgery for a thoracic aortic aneurism at 45 and died of complications four years later. She was blessed by a chaplain's service during her brother's ordeal, she said.
Despite her worries about her condition, she knew she was in good hands at Baylor St. Luke's.
A change in roles
Rev. Whisnand stepped in as her chaplain. During their usual daily lunch walks around the hospital, Rev. Tiak talked to Rev. Whisnand about her fears.
"And this may not sound like very much, but in the world we live in every day, people don't want to hear that information," Rev. Whisnand said. "Nobody stops and says, 'OK, fine, you can talk now about all the anxiety that you have about what your doctors are saying about these tests.' It doesn't happen. So the chaplain plays a special role in that we are a confidential, safe space where people can talk to us about whatever we say is on their heart, and not worry about that."
Rev. Tiak's surgeon, Dr. Marc Moon, said a positive attitude is crucial for patients facing major surgery. Not wanting to give up is "critically important" for recovery, he said.
Rev. Tiak, he said, seemed "quite calm" about the process. "Times of pressure can test people," Moon said. "I think that she was secure in her faith that no matter what happened, it was a plan and it was a part of her life that she had to deal with."
Before surgery, Rev. Tiak had a quiet moment with her husband, who is a chaplain as well as a pastor. As he held her hand, she thought about how blessed she was to live in America with a good doctor, a good hospital, and support of friends and colleagues.
She and her husband prayed over verse four of Psalm 23: Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
The verse calmed her, she said, and she felt God's presence through her caregivers. "Even when they wheeled me into the OR," she said, "I had no more fear."
Recovery and perspective
After the surgery, Revs. Whisnand and Tiak prayed together. "Prayer is not necessarily a component of every chaplaincy visit," Rev. Whisnand said. "It's a rarity. It's more of a reflection of feelings and content paraphrasing. The patient does most of the talking, not the chaplain."
Rev. Tiak doesn't remember much about her time at the hospital, but knowing her colleagues and friends were praying for her assured and helped her, she said.
In the following weeks, as Rev. Tiak recovered, Rev. Whisnand went back more into her friend role, sending cards and checking in by phone.
Rev. Tiak returned to work in January with a renewed perspective on her ministry. She is requesting more time with cardiac patients, knowing that she can share her story with them. She can assure them they, too, are in good hands.
The experiences in her past that brought her fear helped give her strength to help herself and others, she said. She thinks about her husband, her colleagues, her doctors, and her role at the hospital.
"When I meditate on what the Lord has done for me, when I focus my thinking and my praying on the other side, the good side, I say, 'How blessed I am.'"