Written by Kang Meixin, Translated by Kim Phong

A few of my Iranian friends and I agreed to visit the Great Wall on 21st April 2007.  For convenience sake I had earlier arranged to hire our former workmate’s car.  When I got up that morning I felt a little chilly as it was drizzling slightly.  At the appointed time I went to the intersection to wait for my workmate and his car to arrive.  I was very happy to catch up with him again because I hadn’t seen him for a year.  Although he was over thirty, on this occasion he looked in his twenties, full of life and vitality.  Perhaps his pleasant mood had something to do with his current situation as he had become the father of the most adorable twin sons. 

On route to the Great Wall the weather slowly started to fine up and our mood turned for the better.  My friends in the back seat were sound asleep probably because they had not slept well the previous night.  My workmate and I then started to chat about what had been happening, and naturally the conversation led to his two precious sons.  It was probably due to his two boys that he gave up his original job to go into the hire car business so as to make more money.  In China, especially in a big city like Beijing, if you wanted to provide a sound education environment and other niceties for your children, a lot of money was needed.  A normal job simply could not satisfy these requirements so he even drove at night to make more money.  Of course it was hard going but he looked very happy.  In China, to provide a superior upbringing for their children, parents would work however hard required without complaint or regret.

I loved young children so I told him about my good friend giving birth in a hospital.  Unexpected this led to his painful memory.  He and his family lived in Chang Ping District, Beijing and when his wife was ready to give birth she was booked into the best three star hospital in the area.  Right from the beginning the beautiful twins were developing nicely in their mother’s womb.  They were healthy and there was no sign of any abnormality so they chose a natural birth.  But while they were waiting expectantly for the arrival of their gorgeous twins, something terrible occurred and his wife developed birth complications.  The most surprising thing was that the complication was caused by the responsible Doctor in the hospital.  He misread the ultra sound scan of the two foetuses and reversed their respective positions between top and bottom.  As a result the supposedly later boy came our first and the other was stuck in the womb.  The Doctor told him to be mentally prepared because if the child was stuck for any lengthy period death might ensure due to the lack of oxygen.  His mind went numb immediately as he just could not accept the words coming out of the Doctor’s mouth.  It was impossible to control his emotions at the time and he began to ague with the Doctor.  (Because I was not familiar with the subject of natural childbirth, I was not able to give a detail explanation of exactly what birth complication had taken place)

Had it been me in that situation I would have given that Doctor an earful.  A doctor’s job was to basically save lives, heal the sick and help people.  Yet in this instance he could become a killer.  Not because the situation was beyond redemption but simply due to a lack of responsibility in carrying out his duties.  It made people question the professional morality of the Doctor.  However no amount of debate and argument would change the situation and the only thing left for him to do was to pray for the smooth and successful birth of his adorable child.  Finally good news came from the delivery room.  The baby had come out.  But the bad news that followed was the baby was in a coma and had been rushed to emergency life support system.

He then asked the emergency Doctor if the baby would survive and also what caused the problem.  The Doctor replied rather coldly. “We will do the best we can.  But even if the baby survives, the lack of oxygen over such a lengthy period may stunt the development of his brain later.  As to the cause of the problem you need to ask the pre-natal unit.  It has nothing to do with us.”

At that time he was close to breaking point but the responsibility of a father slowly made him calm down.  He went back to the delivery room and when he saw his weakened wife and new born baby he did not know whether to be sad or happy.  One son lay healthily in front of him but the other was in a life and death struggle.  What pained him most was that there was nothing he could do about it.  When we got to this point his voice began to quaver and his eyes were filled with saddened tears.  He was no longer a strong and tough man and was more like a child who needed protection.  Even the strongest person has a weakness somewhere.

The cost of the emergency life support system was over $1,000 a day and for a middle class salaried family was a great burden.  One week later, the baby’s conditions improved and he was transferred from the emergency life support system to a children’s hospital.  One month later they brought their second son home.  However because of the lack of oxygen just prior to birth could easily cause later problems, they had to make regular visits to the hospital for check ups.  A few months later they took their son to the hospital for a complete check up.  Above expectations, all the tests indicated that their second son was normal.  It was hard to describe their feelings at the time.  Although it was still hard to predict what was going to happen later, at least for the time being they could rest their beating heart.

Last year I saw his twin boys in his office, very adorable and very cheeky but a bit on the thin side.  There was no sign that one of them had gone though this debacle.  According to their father they loved their food and what’s more they had both tasted the expensive $100 Kentucky Fried Chicken.  Under the care of their loving parents they were flourishing so let us hope that nothing like would ever happen again to them along their life long journey.  Of course it would be best if problems like this never happened again in the world. 

When he hand finished his story it gave me plenty of food for thought.  I was a frequent visitor to the hospital as my health was not the best since early childhood.  So when I was young I hated the hospital as I dreaded the pain and also its anaesthetic smell.  But now my attitude towards hospital was one of dismay and reluctant acceptance: dismay at the Doctors’ irresponsible attitude towards human life and reluctant acceptance at things there because there was nothing we could no about them.  We could only but pray that this sort of thing would not happen again.  Sometimes I just wished that their role was reversed and then they had to think of themselves as the parents of the children so this sort of near tragedy might be prevented.

I wish the all the children and their parents of this world the best of health and happiness.

Zhongguoren （中国人） should click HERE for the Mandarin version