Chapter 203 - Law of the jungle (1/2)
Was life cruel? Life would be incredibly cruel. Actually, anyone who was born into this world would already be incredibly lucky because it meant that they had already grabbed onto the most important opportunity of all, competing with countless other unborn siblings for the right to be born. After that, it would be a long and difficult process in the womb and growing up to reach adulthood! There would be countless dangers and difficulties along the way. Yet, you had bravely surpassed such difficulties already! So, you shouldn't feel that anything else was that difficult! That was because you were already the winner amongst several billion competitors trying to be born!
The principle of babies was actually the law of the jungle, survival of the fittest. With so many scientific developments, there were now many outside factors which would try to influence this process. Whether this was a good or bad thing? It would be difficult to say.
For instance, if there was a problem with an unborn child, and both parents were still young and had a good chance of a future pregnancy, and the doctor knew the parents quite well, the doctor would typically recommend against trying to save the baby. Things would be left up to heaven's will instead. Although this might sound harsh and difficult to accept, it might actually be the best choice.
Li Hui was three years older than Zhang Fan. He had been rather naughty while growing up, and had poor grades. He failed his first college entrance examination, but that finally motivated him to start working hard at studying. Li Hui's wife was also three years older than he was. Now that she was bleeding for no apparent reason, her family became really anxious. This was because she was already in her 30s, so she wouldn't have many more opportunities for pregnancy. As the old saying went, it would be best to have children while still young. This was actually quite logical!
A group of people was standing outside the gynecology department when Zhang Fan arrived. This was because Li Hui's wife had many older brothers. It was really cold in Chasu City during winter. Almost all of them were wearing leather jackets. Although nobody was saying anything, it appeared obvious that the atmosphere here wasn't very good.
Li Hui was dejectedly crouching in a corner. As the husband, he was the most worried of all. This was only natural!
”What happened?” Zhang Fan walked up and patted Li Hui on the shoulder.
”Old Wang told me that my child's development isn't going well. The gynecology director also arrived. She just went inside,” Li Hui said rather dejectedly. He now seemed to be someone completely different from his usual youthful and exuberant self. Old Wang was an attending physician in the gynecology department. Since Li Hui was a resident doctor of Chasu City Hospital, Old Wang felt that she should pay extra attention to this. She gave Li Hui quite a lot of face by even informing the gynecology director of what had happened. The gynecology director then personally came from her own home to carefully check on the situation.
”Oh, let's just wait for the news then. I don't think there will be any problems.” It was awkward for Zhang Fan to ask the specifics right now. And for such a thing, Zhang Fan could only give Li Hui a little consolation. Zhang Fan couldn't do anything to help him.
”I'm too much of a bastard. Her bleeding might be because I smoke and drink. Otherwise, why would she suddenly start bleeding for no reason!” Li Hui was blaming himself for this. Now that this had happened, he would only get a chance to regret things if the heavens gave him one.
”Why talk about such useless things right now? You should raise your spirits. While you may be feeling bad, your wife will be feeling even worse. What will others think of you upon seeing you like this? As a man, even if you want to cry, you should swallow your tears. The person who needs consoling the most right now is actually your wife!” Zhang Fan was rather angry after seeing how Li Hui was behaving. Although Zhang Fan also sympathized with him, Zhang Fan felt that now wasn't the time to be looking for a reason. Even if Li Hui found it, what could be done about it?
Gynecology Director Chen Hong was at the top of the field in gynecology and obstetrics in all of Chasu City. She soon exited the examination room. Li Hui's wife's brothers all instantly swarmed her. However, they felt that it would be inappropriate for them to speak up first, so they gave the chance to speak first to Li Hui, since Li Hui was also a doctor at Chasu City Hospital.
”Director Chen!” Li Hui pitifully waited for Chen Hong's diagnosis. Zhang Fan stood right next to Li Hui. Director Chen nodded to Zhang Fan before she told Li Hui, ”The cervix hasn't opened. The fetal membrane isn't broken. There's no significant difference between uterine size and menstrual cycle.”
These were all good news. Li Hui felt slightly reassured and his tense shoulders loosened up slightly since he also understood medicine.
”However, the fetus is indeed slightly underdeveloped. This time, what happened was a miscarriage warning sign. It's possible to continue with this pregnancy if she gets some good rest. However, there will be some risk with the pregnancy. It's also difficult to say if the fetus can catch up to normal development level or not. You should think things over properly and discuss with your family what to do.”
Chen Hong then went back inside to wash her hands. Li Hui's brothers-in-law all looked directly at him. It would be up to Li Hui to decide whether to try and keep this unborn child or not.
Li Hui blankly stared at his brothers-in-law before turning around to look at Zhang Fan. Li Hui then grabbed onto his hair and started crouching in the corner again. This was such a difficult decision for him!
If he chose to keep the baby, it would indeed be possible to continue with the pregnancy with modern medical technology. However, the director's statement that the fetus was underdeveloped was critically important! It would be good if the fetus could catch up in development by itself, but what if it didn't?
For fetal development, it would be critically important for the fetus to meet normal development standards. Otherwise, the child would typically be born with some sort of defect or underdeveloped organ. In the later stages, since underdevelopment would usually mean missing a critical period of hormonal secretion, it would become common for deformities to appear.
If Li Hui chose against keeping the baby, then that would be simple. Some medicine would be used to perform an abortion and clean out his wife's uterus. His wife would then be able to soon return home after some simple observation. All of this would be really simple. However, Li Hui felt too pained to make this decision. Not to mention, his wife would soon pass the best childbearing age. He really didn't dare to imagine if something bad occurred again!
”How about we try and keep the baby?” After several minutes of frustration, Li Hui raised his head and looked at everyone else. In China, only the husband would have the right to make such a decision due to the law. Although Li Hui's wife's brothers were all right here, according to Chinese law, the opinions of direct relatives, even siblings and parents, were all irrelevant compared to the opinion of the husband.
Li Hui's wife's brothers all sighed, with none of them saying anything. Li Hui then turned to look at Zhang Fan. He knew that Zhang Fan was highly skilled, so he really wanted to hear Zhang Fan's recommendation. Zhang Fan mulled things over before saying, ”It's like this. Director Chen has already explained everything quite clearly. You should also be able to understand what she means. You should first go and console your wife. Once both of you emotionally calm down, the two of you should then have a good talk. It's not urgent to decide right now whether you'll keep the baby or not.”
”That's right! That's right! There's no rush! No rush!” The wife's brothers all agreed.
Li Hui's wife's brothers were all really muscular. They lifted Li Hui's wife from the examination room to the patient room. Li Hui followed after them. Before he left, he thanked Zhang Fan with tears still in his eyes. Zhang Fan felt rather helpless about all this. Although he wanted to help, there was nothing he could do.
Zhang Fan reported to work at the ICU department on the next day. Director Lin Long had interacted with Zhang Fan many times before. The two were quite familiar with each other and already on good terms, so they would speak directly with each other.
”Doctor Zhang, there's no need for anyone here to be your teaching doctor. Take a few days to get used to things in our department. After that, you can independently take shifts by yourself.”
”You should still find someone to be my teaching doctor!” Zhang Fan said out of politeness.
”No need for that! You don't have to be polite with me. Just observe and get accustomed to things here. Whenever you're the primary doctor on duty, I'll also assign a rotation doctor under you. Otherwise, you might suddenly get called to perform a surgery one day. That would mean trying to find someone to suddenly cover your shift.”
”Oh! Sorry for the trouble, Director Lin!” Zhang Fan awkwardly scratched his head.
”It's no trouble at all. Only an expert like you wouldn't want to come to the ICU department. Most normal fresh graduates are trying their hardest to get assigned here permanently!” Lin Long declared proudly.
Actually, the ICU department wasn't all that popular with new doctors. This was mostly because there were now more and more medical students, especially those who were graduate students with a master's degree. The hospital departments were now becoming pickier about recruiting new doctors. Although the undergraduate students could still manage to join the hospital through various channels, it would be quite troublesome for them if no hospital department at all wanted to hire them after their rotations finished.