Chapter 39#
Chapter 39 Side Story — Fourteen
The hospital is a magical place. Some people are born here, and some people pass away here. Life and death are staged here every day, like a replay button being pressed. Some say that working in a hospital for a year allows one to witness ten years’ worth of joys and sorrows in the human world.
Yu Xin was a young nurse in the obstetrics and gynecology department. She had been working in the hospital for two years. She had seen husbands crying nervously outside while their wives were giving birth, and she had also seen a husband’s family disappear the next day because the surgery cost was higher than expected. She often joked that if you want to know if a man truly loves you, bring him to the obstetrics and gynecology department for a walk.
Today, just after she arrived at the hospital and changed into her nurse uniform, a pregnant woman with ruptured amniotic fluid and forced premature labor arrived. It was said that this pregnant woman was also a doctor in the oncology department of this hospital.
Yu Xin saw several doctors rushing into the emergency room. Two hours later, a doctor came out of the operating room with a not-so-good expression. The man sitting on the chair, presumably the pregnant woman’s husband, immediately rushed up to ask the doctor about the situation.
“The patient is in a dangerous condition now, with massive hemorrhage, but we will try our best to save both the mother and the child,” the doctor pushed his glasses, his expression serious, “But you have to be mentally prepared.”
The family member’s face turned gray in an instant. After a long while, he grabbed the doctor’s hand and pleaded: “Doctor, save the mother, prioritize the mother.”
“We will do our best.” The doctor called Yu Xin and asked her to prepare some documents for the family member to sign.
Yu Xin brought the documents and explained them to the family member one by one.
“This is the list of medications. We need to perform hemolysis on the patient now. There are some imported drugs here that are very expensive…”
“Use them, use them!” Before Yu Xin could finish speaking, the family member interrupted her without hesitation.
“Okay,” Yu Xin took out another agreement, “This is the blood transfusion consent form…”
Soon, the family member signed his name on all the agreements with a flourish: Xiao Jun.
Yu Xin handed over the signed documents and went to get a late-night snack with her colleague. In the corridor, the family member who had just signed was curled up in a corner making phone calls to borrow money. When he didn’t hesitate to use imported drugs just now, she thought their family was well-off.
Her colleague also recognized this family member and asked Yu Xin: “How is the patient who came today?”
“Not very good, massive hemorrhage,” Yu Xin shook her head, then thought of something and said, “But her husband treats her really well.”
“Massive hemorrhage, that’s trouble…” The colleague looked complicated, “It’s not easy being a woman.”
“The longer I stay in obstetrics and gynecology, the more afraid I am of having children.” Yu Xin sighed.
…
Xiao Jun paced anxiously in the hospital corridor. The doctor had been in there for almost two hours, and there was still no news.
He, who never believed in religion, prayed to Buddha and Jesus in his heart for the first time. As long as Mo Zi could come out of the hospital safely, he would be willing to suffer anything in the future.
“Click”, the operating room door opened, and a doctor walked out. The cry of a baby came from inside. Xiao Jun hurried up, wanting to ask about the progress inside.
The doctor took off his mask, finally showing a hint of joy in his eyes: “The child is saved and very healthy.”
“What about the mother?” Xiao Jun looked at him uneasily.
“Her birth canal ruptured, causing uterine atony, and the bleeding won’t stop,” the doctor lowered his voice, wiping the fine sweat from his forehead caused by the long surgery, “She is still being resuscitated.”
“Doctor, please, please!” Xiao Jun kept bowing to the doctor, wishing he could kneel down on the spot.
“I understand, I understand,” the doctor grabbed Xiao Jun by one shoulder and helped him up, “We will naturally do our best. If other family members of the patient can come, I suggest you notify them as well.”
“Mm.” Xiao Jun responded weakly. Her dad and Xiao Xi were both in the US. The only family member who could be present now was him.
At this time, a nurse came out holding the baby. Xiao Jun saw the small bundle, red-faced, huddled in the blanket, and couldn’t describe his feelings. If he had known that having a baby would be like this, he would have persuaded Mo Zi not to have one.
The nurse quickly took the baby away, and the doctor reminded him: “If the condition worsens, we may have to make more contingency plans. I suggest you prepare more money just in case.”
After speaking, the doctor returned to the operating room.
Xiao Jun nodded in a trance. He only had the tens of thousands transferred by Mo Xi left. He had borrowed from everyone he could. If it still wasn’t enough, what could he do? Rob a bank? The bank wouldn’t be open in the middle of the night.
Just as he was thinking, a hurried figure appeared in the corridor. The person was wearing a black trench coat, wrapped in the cold wind of late autumn, strode up to him, stopped, and called out: “Brother-in-law.”
Xiao Jun looked up and saw it was Xiao Xi’s ex-boyfriend. He looked at Pei Hao in surprise and asked: “Why are you here?”
“I…” Pei Hao rubbed his hair and replied intermittently: “Xiao Xi, he asked me to come.”
“Oh.” Xiao Jun didn’t suspect anything. When he met Pei Hao at the cemetery last time, he felt that things weren’t over between him and Mo Xi.
“How is Sis?” Pei Hao frowned and asked.
“Being resuscitated. Ruptured birth canal caused massive hemorrhage.” Xiao Jun kept pressing his knuckles, making cracking sounds.
“What about the child?” Pei Hao asked.
“Born, healthy. If I knew it would end up like this, I wouldn’t have let her give birth,” Xiao Jun sighed with a bitter smile, “Sit here for a while, I’ll go out and make a few calls.”
Xiao Jun stood up, preparing to find a place with no people to call some relatives and colleagues he wasn’t very close with to try his luck and see if he could borrow some money.
“Um, Brother-in-law,” Pei Hao stopped him, “Xiao Xi said you might need a lot of money here. I have about two hundred thousand in savings. If it’s not enough, I’ll call and borrow some more.”
Xiao Jun’s nose suddenly felt sour. The emotions suppressed for hours finally found an outlet. From the moment Mo Zi entered the hospital until now, he had been shouldering everything: running up and down to sign various agreements and pay fees, comforting his parents back home, and finding ways to borrow money. Every time the doctor came out of the operating room, he had to be mentally prepared, afraid that the doctor would say she was gone. Now that the child was born, he couldn’t even attend to it…
Pei Hao stood behind Xiao Jun and saw him bury his head in his hands, his shoulders shaking violently a few times.
He patted Xiao Jun gently on the shoulder and didn’t speak.
After a long time, Xiao Jun wiped the tears from his face and turned to say to Pei Hao: “Thank you guys.”
“It’s what I should do.” Pei Hao pointed to the chairs at the entrance of the operating room, signaling Xiao Jun to sit down.
Neither spoke after sitting down. They were definitely going to stay up all night today. Xiao Jun looked so worried that he probably hadn’t even eaten dinner. The only thing Pei Hao could do now was open his phone and order takeout for him.
When the takeout arrived, Xiao Jun took a few bites and stopped. The time approached midnight, and there were fewer and fewer people in the hospital. Later, only a few people were walking in the corridor. Pei Hao and Xiao Jun sat on the chairs in silence, both staring at the operating room door, hoping a doctor would come out and say something, anything.
Such silent waiting was too anxious.
Suddenly, the operating room door was pushed open, and a doctor ran out quickly. Then several doctors pushed Mo Zi towards the elevator, shouting at the few people in the corridor while running: “Make way, make way!”
Pei Hao and Xiao Jun stood up like springs and ran to the elevator entrance with the doctors.
But after the doctors and Mo Zi’s bed went in, the elevator was full. The doctor only left a sentence “Going to ICU” and closed the elevator door.
Xiao Jun only caught a glimpse of Mo Zi in the chaos. She was wearing an oxygen mask, obviously unconscious, and her face was bloodless. Remembering the panicked expressions on the doctors’ faces just now, a bad premonition surged in Xiao Jun’s heart. He clenched his fists tightly, trembling, not even noticing when the elevator arrived.
It was Pei Hao who pulled him into the elevator, and it was Pei Hao who led him to the ICU entrance. When he came back to his senses, Pei Hao had already finished communicating with the doctors.
“Brother-in-law, wait here, I’ll go pay.” After speaking, Pei Hao disappeared in a flash.
Xiao Jun dug his nails deep into the skin of his palms, trying to sober himself up. At the most critical moment, how could he be like a lost soul?
The doctor said the bleeding couldn’t be stopped and asked him to sign a bunch of agreements he couldn’t name, mostly authorizing the hospital to perform surgery. Xiao Jun signed these agreements tremblingly, as if signing a life-and-death contract for Mo Zi. Every time he signed one, his heart tightened.
When Pei Hao came back from paying, he asked him if the confinement nanny had been contacted. Xiao Jun then remembered that he had been worried about Mo Zi and hadn’t thought about what to do with the child starting tomorrow. The time he agreed with the confinement nanny was half a month later. He didn’t know if she could come tomorrow. Although his parents would rush over from the countryside tomorrow, it was hard to say if two elderly people could take good care of a newborn baby.
Seeing Xiao Jun’s distracted look, Pei Hao understood. He took out his phone and set an alarm for “Find a confinement nanny” for tomorrow morning, saying: “Leave contacting the confinement nanny to me.”
“Thank you for your trouble. I will pay you back as soon as possible. My parents will also come tomorrow.” Xiao Jun slumped weakly on the sofa outside the ICU. How he wished he could slap himself and find that this was just a dream. After waking up, Mo Zi would be fine, and the child would be fine.
“Don’t worry about the money for now.” Pei Hao replied unhurriedly. Since he paid the money, he never thought about getting it back.
A sleepless night.
At seven in the morning, a red glow appeared on the horizon, gradually spreading to the surroundings. The sun slowly poked out its golden head.
This was an extremely long night. Yu Xin was busy all night. The patient who came yesterday had massive postpartum hemorrhage and was transfused with 4000+ml of blood. The entire hospital’s blood reserve was almost used up, and they temporarily transferred blood from other hospitals.
Everyone in obstetrics and gynecology knew that postpartum hemorrhage was one of the major factors leading to maternal death. There had been cases in their hospital where patients couldn’t be saved. That patient lost so much blood yesterday and was still in a coma. It was really up to fate now.
When Mo Xi arrived at the hospital, it was almost noon. He couldn’t get through to Xiao Jun’s phone, so he could only run quickly to the obstetrics and gynecology department and grab a nurse to ask: “Excuse me, is there a patient named Mo Zi?”
The nurse looked at him blankly and pointed to the front desk: “I don’t know, go ask over there.”
At this time, Yu Xin had changed back into her usual clothes and was ready to go home. She happened to hear the name “Mo Zi”. She turned around and looked at the young man in front of her who was speaking while panting. He looked haggard, as if he had traveled a long way.
She said to the young man: “Are you referring to the mother who had a massive hemorrhage last night? She is in the ICU now.”
“ICU? Intensive Care Unit?” The young man looked at her in panic, “Is my sister okay now?”
“She is still in a coma. You have to ask the doctor for details,” Yu Xin said, leading the young man to the elevator entrance, “Go to the top floor. It’s right there when the elevator opens.”