Chapter 137: Chapter 137: You Insist on Coming When You’re Not Invited!
“I told you not to come, but you insisted on coming!”
“If I didn’t come, what would you do?”
Even the emergency room has old friends. When Old Wang entered the emergency room with his cane, Xiao Lin smiled and said, “Old Wang, you’re here!”
Old Wang chuckled, “Here I am, here I am.”
The head nurse personally went up to help him, “Old Wang, what’s troubling you today?”
Before Old Wang could speak, a bout of coughing interrupted him. He gasped for breath for a long while before Tian Xianglan quickly began patting his back and rubbing his chest to ease his breath.
Finally, he caught his breath.
Old Wang sighed and smiled, “I had a severe coughing fit last night, and it made my heart uncomfortable. I came over first thing this morning to register.”
It was just past seven in the morning, and the emergency room hadn’t switched shifts yet. Old Chen was still busy from the night shift; the day shift hadn’t arrived, whereas Chen Cang had made it his habit to come to the hospital early.
Upon entering, he saw Old Wang, greeted him with a smile, and wished him a good morning.
Even in the hospital, knowing that Old Wang was a patient, you couldn’t just greet someone by saying, “What’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell?”
When Old Wang saw Chen Cang, he too smiled, “Little Chen, you still come so early.”
At this moment, Chen Cang looked at Old Wang seriously and immediately frowned slightly.
Old Wang looked a bit pale today, didn’t he?
Could it be another attack?
“Old Wang, what’s bothering you? Are you having another attack?”
Old Wang, whose name was Wang Maugen, was a proud and stubborn old man. He lived in a saw blade factory dormitory not far from the Second Provincial Hospital. He was a leader his whole life, articulate and eloquent. Even in old age, he couldn’t sit still. However, his leadership days of heavy smoking had left him with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
As Old Wang used to say, “I was a leader all my life and acquired a whole bunch of nasty ailments!”
Old Wang always liked to chuckle, even when he was sick, the wrinkles around his mouth still showed a smiling expression.
Truth be told, Chen Cang admired the old man. Every time he saw him, he was in a clean, washed white shirt, neatly pressed suit trousers, and a pair of napped brown leather shoes—neat and presentable.
The old man was a regular in the emergency department. When Chen Cang first arrived at the Second Provincial Hospital, he even had to ask the old man for directions.
In the blink of an eye two years had passed, and the old man came in every now and then, either to purchase medication for himself or for his son.
The reason he came to the emergency room was that he always bought medicine in the middle of the night when the outpatient clinics were closed.
Before the old man could speak, he began coughing again. After the coughing fit, he started to gasp for air.
“Huff… huff… huff…”
The old man was desperately breathing, his complexion turning somewhat blue, the urgency in his breathing fierce!
Chen Gang’s expression changed, “Xiao Lin, take him to the observation room for oxygen.”
Old Wang was a regular patient, and almost every visit was like this; Chen Cang could even recite his medical history by heart.
Even Old Wang’s medical record book was filled with Chen Gang’s handwriting. In these two years, Old Wang had gone through two new books.
His condition was clear: acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, with cor pulmonale…
For an eighty-something-year-old man, every attack meant a further progression of the disease.
Chen Cang was even somewhat worried, how many more times could this respectable old man come?
Xiao Lin, out of habit, conducted an electrocardiogram for the old man, measured his blood pressure, and checked his oxygen saturation—all for free…
“Dr. Chen, his oxygen saturation is only 80…” Xiao Lin said in a low voice, looking worriedly at Old Wang.
Chen Cang nodded, though he didn’t need to measure to know.
Such low oxygen saturation would make another person show symptoms, but the old man was just sitting there, smiling with his oxygen mask, watching him.
Chen Cang felt a pang of regret…
Every visit from Old Wang tugged at his heart.
This was the only patient that Nurse Chief Tian Xianglan, the financial supervisor, would turn a blind eye to—whether it was for oxygen therapy or a new electrocardiogram… all free of charge.
As long as the emergency room could afford just a bit of subsidy, Tian Xianglan wouldn’t say a word.
As the saying goes, a patient long-ill becomes a doctor themself. Taking off his mask, Old Wang confidently said, “Dr. Chen… let’s do an arterial blood gas analysis, just the blood gas, no need for other tests.”
Chen Cang nodded with a smile and didn’t try to dissuade him further, because he knew it would be pointless.
This seemingly respectable and proud old man actually carried no light burden.
The seemingly generous pension was not enough to sustain his life.
Expense became the biggest hurdle hanging over his head.
Following procedure, Chen Cang approached Grandpa Wang with the medical record in hand, “Grandpa, you should be aware of the condition, I’ve always been telling you about the risks, such as shock… even coma, death, etc. Could you sign here to refuse the examinations?”
Grandpa Wang smiled, took the pen, and as he wrote with a shaky hand, he said, “I’ve been signing my name for half my life, never thought I’d still not escape this fate in my old age, haha…”
The fellow patients and nurses around couldn’t help but laugh.
What a humorous old man.
And a proud one, too.
He has told Chen Cang more than once with pride, “My son has been paralyzed in bed for over a decade, but he never once got a bed sore!”
He has also proudly shared with me, “Yesterday my son told me someone read his book, and someone even gave him a reward for it, right… on that Boxnovel Chinese website, which is part of Tencent Group, worth several billions!”
The old man had a successful son, but sadly, he was paralyzed at home due to the sequelae of a brainstem stroke, for over ten years now. His wife, along with his grandson, was in the United States and rarely came back; perhaps the old man didn’t know they had divorced, or maybe he did but didn’t want to speak of it… after all, Chen Cang had never seen his daughter-in-law, his grandson.
Yet the old man still proudly told Chen Cang:
“That grandson of mine takes after me, very clever he is, I hear he’s going to that… what’s it called, MIT for college!”
A fellow patient suddenly asked, “Grandpa, how many years have you had COPD? Why not go to the respiratory department for a hospital admission?”
Grandpa Wang smiled, “The old lady at home looks after our son; I can’t be hospitalized, there’d be no one to take care of me.”
Every time the old man came, it was Tian Xianglan who attentively looked after him, and the young nurses hustling around.
Looking at Tian Xianglan, Grandpa Wang said with a smile, “Xiao Tian, I initially wanted to set you up with my son. It’s a good thing that lad didn’t see clearly, otherwise… my whole family would have dragged you down.”
When Grandpa Wang was in his fifties, he developed emphysema, and after retiring at the age of sixty, he became a frequent visitor to the hospital. At that time, Tian Xianglan was still a young nurse, but Grandpa Wang really liked her and was intent on matchmaking her with his son.
Unfortunately, his son was too proud and did not look favorably on Tian Xianglan who worked as a nurse in the emergency department.
Tian Xianglan smiled, “Grandpa Wang, you’re talking nonsense.”
Grandpa Wang laughed heartily, looking at the walls around the emergency department, and suddenly let out a sigh, “The old, run-down Second Provincial Hospital has become so impressive now, I don’t know how much longer I can see it though!”
Wang Maugen was fully aware of his condition; if not for the worry about his spouse and son, he would have gone long ago!
But…
He didn’t dare leave. His little family depended entirely on his pension.
So, no matter how difficult, he had to stay alive!
After Grandpa Wang had been there for half an hour, a white-haired old lady walked into the emergency room and happened to see the nurse, “Nurse Lin, is Wang Maugen here?”
Xiao Lin smiled, “Yes, he’s in the observation room receiving oxygen.”
Upon hearing this, the old lady said thank you and headed for the observation room.
Old Wang was receiving oxygen when he saw his spouse come in, immediately reproaching her, “I told you not to come, yet you insisted on coming!”
The old lady glared back at him, “How can I be at ease? If you were alright, I definitely wouldn’t have come!”
Old Wang felt warmth in his heart and sighed, “Now that you’re here, what about our son?”
The old lady, sitting by the bed, tenderly held Old Wang’s hand, “If I didn’t come, what would you do?”
“Don’t worry. I fed him a bowl of egg soup, took care of his pee, turned him over, and patted his back…”
The old lady detailed everything, from how much he ate, how much he urinated, to how many times she patted his back, whether he drank water or not…
Old Wang looked at the wrinkled face and white-haired, somewhat stooped figure of the old lady in front of him, sighed, and thought to himself how hard it has been for you, my love. With that thought, Old Wang smiled, “My dear.” The old lady turned, “What is it?”
Old Wang smiled, “Let’s have dumplings for lunch? I’ll go buy some meat.”
The old lady glared, “Pork costs 40 now, what meat to eat? With the money for meat, I can buy you two more boxes of medicine!”
Old Wang, “Let’s have vegetarian dumplings. After a while, I’ll go buy some radishes!”
Chen Cang was standing in the observation room preparing things, but… he was deeply moved by the casual conversation of the two octogenarians, husband and wife…
It seemed like reprimands from the old man, yet they were his most heartfelt care.
It seemed like anger from the old lady, yet it was a companion’s enduring support.
In this tough life, two old people, two walking sticks, supporting each other forward, unafraid of the grim reaper.
“I told you not to come, yet you insisted on coming!”
“If I didn’t come, what would you do?”
Chen Cang might never forget these two sentences in his lifetime, perhaps the most touching love words he ever heard, surpassing any solemn vows and pledges, surpassing any earth-shattering proclamations…
Chen Cang turned his head away, not even daring to look at the two old people again.
Because he simply couldn’t help them with anything; he could only watch helplessly as such scenes continued to unfold..