Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Lloyd met the patient’s family members first. They consisted of two petrified girls and a boy of twelve to thirteen years old who tried to act like an adult.
The young Nurse Wang Jia accompanied the three individuals and brought them some snacks. She said, “Come and eat. These are Doctor Ling’s favorite snacks. I made a lot of effort to get them from the wholesalers…”
She was just in her early twenties and never had the experience of caring for a child. She did not know what kind of expression she was supposed to show.
The thirteen-year-old boy stroked his sisters’ hair with his hands and stood up with his chest out. “Thank you, big sister. We’re not hungry now. When we’re hungry, we’ll go back home to have our dinner. You don’t have to worry about us. You can go ahead with your tasks.”
“Your mother’s hospitalized. No one’s going to cook dinner for you when you go back,” Wang Jia persuaded them tactfully.
The boy shook his head. “I usually do the cooking. Once the surgery is over, I’ll go home and cook. The first bus leaves at five-thirty in the morning. I’ll go back and return later. By then, we’ll just be in time for breakfast. My mother should also be awake.”
Wang Jia was stunned. She did not know what to say. After a while, she whispered, “The nurses collected these snacks. You can eat them first, so you don’t have to rush back home to cook.”
“Even if I don’t cook today, I still have to do it tomorrow.” The small boy looked down at the snacks for a few seconds, shook his head firmly, and said, “We can live well without any help. We can’t keep depending on other people.”
“Of course.” Tears pooled in Wang Jia’s eyes.
Lu Wenbin stomped his feet and walked over, creating a lot of noise.
Wang Jia was shocked. She turned around, and when she saw Lu Wenbin, she quickly wiped the tears in her eyes and pretended to be angry. “Lu Wenbin, are you trying to scare me? Don’t you know that you should say hello first, considering it’s so late?”
“I brought the foreigners to watch the surgery.” Lu Wenbin glanced at the three children who were sitting by themselves in the corner of the waiting hall. He lowered his voice and asked, “You still didn’t manage to contact the family?”
Wang Jia shook her head slightly and did not speak.
Right then, Lloyd looked at the three children and asked softly in English, “Are these the patient’s children? Aren’t there any other family members?”
Lu Wenbin coughed a couple of times and replied in English, “The patient is a single mother, and they’ve lost contact with their other family members.”
Lu Wenbin did not have to elaborate any more on the matter of them not being able to find the patient’s other family members.
Lloyd understood the situation very well. “When a single mother falls ill, it does indeed stir up pity in the soul. Well, will these three children be sent to the child welfare organization?”
“We’re not at that stage yet.” Lu Wenbin did not want to elaborate more on the subject in case the foreigners started preaching about their universal values again. He just said, “Doctor Ling usually doesn’t perform hepatectomy for liver cancer. But since the patient has a special condition, he’s agreed.”
In fact, the patient had been taken from the Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery. When Zhang Anmin saw the patient, he deeply sympathized with her and quietly asked Ling Ran for help to take the patient from He Yuanzheng.
He Yuanzheng actually knew that Zhang Anmin was being a whistle-blower, but he pretended that he did not know about it and released the patient. Firstly, Zhang Anmin had been a whistle-blower for quite some time, and there was no use getting angry. Secondly, he just wanted the patient’s prognosis to be better, that she could have a longer lifespan and that her quality of life would become higher.
After listening to Zhang Anmin’s explanation, Ling Ran nodded and agreed. He also immediately made arrangements for the surgery, timed the duration of preparation before the surgery, and sent people to the operating theater.
It was similar to the reason why Ling Ran performed hepatectomies on elderly patients with liver cancer. The current patient did not desire to have a lifespan of just thirty, twenty, or even ten years.
For this patient, the longer she could survive, the better. However, the most important thing that would make a big difference for was if she could survive for another five or even three years compared with surviving for another two years or one year.
The patient’s son was thirteen years old. If the patient could survive for another five years, her son would be eighteen years old. Not only would he be able to support himself by then, but he could also take care of his two younger sisters. Then, the patient can rest in peace.
Even if she could not survive for five years, the patient could at least survive for another three years, reducing her complications and recovery period. That would also be a great help to the patient’s family. At least, by that time, the thirteen-year-old boy in front of them would be sixteen years old, and he would no longer be a teenager, but a young adult.
Although a sixteen-year-old was still immature in the eyes of modern society, he would obviously be more mature than a fifteen or a fourteen-year-old boy.
In this era, fewer than 80% of people survived past the first year of liver cancer, and where those with late-stage liver cancer had an even lower rate of surviving past two years. And while Ling Ran could not guarantee that he would be able to extend the patient’s lifespan, at least he could improve her quality of life, which was still a good thing.
He would have to try to decrease the amount of liver he needed to cut, perform a cleaner hepatectomy, and make a more accurate intraoperative call. Even though it ultimately depended on how the cancer cells would react, Ling Ran believed that the surgery could bring positive changes to the patient and her family.
Lloyd had a ten-year-old grandchild. He did not have to understand Mandarin. Just by observing the scene in front of him and listening to Lu Wenbin’s brief explanation, he had a good grasp of the current situation.
Lloyd’s heart trembled. He then raised his head with a solemn expression. “If Doctor Ling needs help, I can serve as an assistant.”
“I’ll convey this to Doctor Ling, but we have a fully rested assistant, so we probably won’t need your help.” Lu Wenbin paused for a moment before he started to speak in Mandarin again, “I was replaced. Since it wasn’t yet my rest time, I cooked some pig’s trotters—Oh yea, pig’s trotters!”
Lu Wenbin patted his head and quickly brought out an airtight container before he handed it to Wang Jia. “I have some boneless pig’s trotters here. I was going to give it to the foreigner, but you can give these to the children.”
Wang Jia could not help but glance at Lloyd.
Lloyd, who was a little used to being ridiculed in Mandarin, smiled and was not bothered by it anymore.
“Alright,” Wang Jia answered. “He’s a foreigner, after all. Normal people don’t eat boneless pig’s trotters. Only people like you would think of such a thing. What’s the difference compared with unshelled sunflower seeds?”
“Are you asking me to develop a new product? It may go viral,” Lu Wenbin said casually, then seamlessly switched to English to speak to Lloyd, “Let’s enter the operating theater.”
“Okay,” Lloyd followed Lu Wenbin. After he took a couple of steps, he turned around and said to Wang Jia, “If it’s necessary, regardless of whether the surgery is successful or not, you can email me. I’ll be able to lend a hand one way or another.”
Lloyd shoved a business card to Wang Jia as he spoke.
Wang Jia looked alarmed and asked Lu Wenbin, “What did he just say?”
“The foreigner says if it’s necessary, he can pay…” When Lu Wenbin saw Wang Jia glaring at him, he continued, “He wants to help these three children, not you.”
Wang Jia’s eyelids drooped, and she glanced at Lu Wenbin in disdain. “I’ll tell everyone the way you’re interpreting the foreigner exactly the way I heard you.”
Lu Wenbin paused a while before he chuckled a couple of times. “Interpreting for the foreigner? Something doesn’t sound quite right with your words.”
“Someone who makes boneless pig’s trotters isn’t qualified to say that I sound wrong.” Wang Jia pursed her lips disdainfully.
“Doctor Lu?” Lloyd urged.
“Oh, let’s go.” Lu Wenbin did not dare linger any longer and argue with the young nurse. He never won, anyway.
Lloyd and Boyle exchanged a few words in a low voice. When they entered the operating theater, Lloyd whispered, “Doctor Lu, the Anderson Cancer Center’s telemedicine center is willing to help consult this patient. Can you convey our thoughts to Doctor Ling? We just want to help.”
He said that last sentence because Lloyd was worried that Ling Ran and the others would misunderstand. However, Lloyd was also kind of not worried that Ling Ran would misunderstand. If a doctor would rather delay treatment for a patient’s illness than receive help because of his ego, he would not want to befriend such a doctor.
Lu Wenbin frowned slightly and turned to the operating theater to convey the message to Ling Ran.
