Horace Chang Says Heart Surgery Taught Him Balance, Trust And Limits

WESTERN BUREAU: Deputy Prime Minister Dr Horace Chang has spent much of his life in roles that demanded service, judgement and responsibility.

His path has moved from student leadership at Cornwall College and The University of the West Indies into medicine, elected politics and national security, with decisions and problem-solving forming a steady part of his adult years.

Last year, however, open-heart surgery pulled him away from the daily pressure of public office and placed him before a question he had not often had space to face: his own life.

"It was a period of introspection," Chang told The Sunday Gleaner during an interview at the S Hotel Montego Bay two Sundays ago, as he spoke about the months after surgery for three blocked arteries.

"You learn to value the people around you more. You confront your own mortality."

"You begin to think about how you want to live the rest of your life."

Chang, a long-serving political figure, said the episode made him stop in a way he had never previously experienced. The turning point came when doctors advised him that the problem was not the simpler blockage first thought suitable for a stent, but a condition requiring a more serious intervention.

"The real moment came when I was told I would need bypass surgery," he said. "That was the point at which I reflected on my own mortality."

Because he is also a medical doctor, Chang said the diagnosis was not abstract to him. "I fully understood what open-heart surgery was," he said. "At that point, you pause and look back."

The recovery period also put him in a position of dependence that his years in public life had not often required.

His wife, Paulette, relocated to Kingston while he recuperated. His daughter, Melissa, took charge of communications and helped keep the regular pressures of public work away from him. His son, Martin, and close friends stood with him, and Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness made sure Cabinet colleagues gave him room to recover.

"The support was tremendous," Chang said.

"My family was extremely supportive, along with some very good friends."

He said Jamaicans from across the island also sent thousands of messages wishing him well.

"The support I received was tremendous," he said. "People were constantly reaching out."

Beyond the surgery and rehabilitation, Chang said one of the deepest lessons came from being separated from the pace of work.

For someone who has led one of Jamaica's most demanding ministries, healing meant accepting that others had to carry responsibilities and make decisions without him at the centre of every matter.

"One of the challenges has been deciding what I should attend and what I should stay away from," he admitted.

"I have had to trust the people around me more and allow them to do what they are trained to do."

He said that lesson is not limited to politics. "One of the challenges everybody faces in life is successful handover," he told The Sunday Gleaner. "Leaders sometimes have difficulty doing that."

Chang said the experience strengthened his view that institutions benefit when leaders give others space to mature in responsibility. "You have to allow the people around you to develop responsibility and make decisions," he said. "That is a better route."

The physical recovery demanded its own level of discipline. Chang was hospitalised for more than two weeks and spent months in rehabilitation, following a careful routine that included breathing exercises, physiotherapy and controlled activity.

"The most challenging part has been maintaining the discipline required for recovery," he said.

"You have to slow down and allow your body to heal."

He has been gradually resuming public duties, but said the ordeal has altered how he thinks about life and work. At 73, Chang said he is more aware that service to the country must be balanced with care for his own well-being.

"I still have responsibilities, and I still have work to do," he said. "But I also have to make time for myself."

Reflecting on the full experience, Chang described it as hard, but also life-changing.

"It was a tough experience," he said. "But it was also a very instructive one."

The operation addressed his heart, but Chang said the period afterward taught him a lesson just as important.

"There are things you can no longer take for granted," he reflected. "You gain a better understanding of your limitations and learn to respect them."

For one of the country's best-known public officials, the lesson came not through political life, but through a personal confrontation with health, recovery and the need to let others help carry the load.