On Wednesday, April 13, to provide moral support, I accompanied them to the hospital where he would have surgery to insert a metal plate into his shoulder to connect the fractured bone. When we arrived we were assigned a room in the VIP area which is attached to the regular hospital though an underground tunnel. The room looked very much like a 4 star hotel room; it had two large twin beds, a flat screen TV, and a refrigerator.
Shortly after we arrived a male nursing assistant came in to prepare Kevin for the surgery by shaving his chest, underarm & arm. He and the nurses thought it was very funny that Kevin had as much hair as he did. The nursing assistant came back several times after a nurse inspected Kevin and decided that the nursing assistant hadn't shaved enough hair. After Kevin was shaved we anxiously waited in his room for him to go into surgery. He was instructed not to eat or drink, even water, from 10:00 p.m. the night before in anticipation for his 9 a.m. surgery, but he didn't go into surgery until 7:15 p.m.
When the nurse finally came to get him we were surprised to see that they simply took his down comforter from his bed and placed it on a dirty gurney. They then asked him to lay down on the gurney. The nurse was very concerned that he didn't have a hat and tried to place a hand towel on his head because they said that he would catch a cold if he didn't have anything on his head. Kevin wasn't too keen on this idea. When we got to the hallway we discovered that myself, Leon and our friend Cindy were expected to physically push him through a dirty dungeon of a basement to the operating department. When we were in the elevator almost to the operating department the nursing assistant escort turned to Kevin and asked if he was nervous. Kevin responded, "No, are you." The nurse responded, "Yes, it's my second day." Thankfully we assumed that she wouldn't be allowed into the operating room.
Once we reached the operating department, our friend Cindy translated the legal paperwork Leon had to sign since none of the personnel spoke English. Then they indicated that Kevin would be awake for the surgery. Of course this was a bit alarming. Kevin and Leon quickly responded indicating that he didn't want to be awake for the procedure. Thankfully Cindy was there to translate or Kevin may have been awake for his three hour surgery.
Cindy, Leon and I were lead to a waiting room for friends and relatives of people having surgeries. We noticed it was a bit different than Western waiting rooms. There were individuals smoking and a family has pounding hard alcohol. We also noticed that there were two TVs built into the wall and they were labeled TV 1 and TV 2. After awhile, on the screen on one of the TVs was a view of a man laying on a hospital bed, seemingly still under. We learned this was the other group's family member coming out of surgery after having a "bowel full of tumors removed from his head."
After about three hours we could hear the word "Westerner" over the loud speaker and decided that they may be referring to Kevin so we went to the first floor of the hospital searching for Kevin. Luckily, as we were frantically searching, the elevator opened and we saw Kevin who was wide awake and moaning in pain. We were alarmed since we had expected him to be out of it and comfortable. Now two other nurses and a doctor were pushing him back through the dungeon basement tunnels to get him back to his VIP room. Interesting enough they didn't have any clue where to go and Leon and I had to run ahead and look down hallways to figure out how to get back to his room as they pushed the gurney and knocked Kevin's shoulder into the walls. When we reached the room Kevin was lifted into his bed and the duvet was placed on top of him. He was in an incredible amount of pain, but the nurses couldn't be found. Finally after 20 minutes the nurse gave him a shot of pain medication in his butt, but we didn't know what type of medication. He was then hooked up to several monitors. Over the next two hours we begged and pleated with the nurse to administer more medication and some water, but she said in broken English that this was the only medicine and he couldn't have any for 2 hours. The nurse said he couldn't have any water, but could be given ice chips. We asked where we could find the ice chips and she said they didn't have any. It must have been the longest two hours of Kevin's life. While Kevin was in horrifying pain, the nurse asked Leon to sign some paperwork, which included that someone would be with Kevin 24 hours a day while he was in the hospital. During this time we did get a hold of our friend Cindy who conveyed that they had given him morphine, the best pain medication that they had. Not knowing what to do, did my own internet research to see if they gave him enough, (although I'm not sure what we could have done if we thought he could be given more, I'm not a doctor). Later Kevin told us that he could hear Leon & I whispering about the amount of medication he was given & thinking how crazy this situation was. Exactly two hours later we went to the nurse to administer the additional medication and his pain began to wain just a little.
The next morning, after a sleepless night, Kevin was told by a laughing and English speaking nurse that he wasn't very strong because he needed so much pain medication... Lesson learned, the Chinese don't have the same philosophy about pain medication as Westerns.
Later in the day, the nurse asked Kevin when he had received his last dose of pain medication instead of tracking his medication on a chart. Over the next week Leon was told to get out of bed at 6:00 a.m. after only several hours of sleep, so the nurse could make the bed. The nurses also instructed to keep the room very clean because the nurse manager may stop by. Each day while in the VIP room, Leon and Kevin were given a bill and asked to pay for the previous day's services and in advance for the night stay. The entire surgery cost 19,292.16 RMB equivalent to less than $3,000 for surgery, treatment & 7 days in hospital. The interesting thing is the anesthesia was less expensive than the surgery itself. Again, very different from Western hospitals.
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| The actual bill for the entire hospital stay & surgery. Notice the name is just "Kevin." |
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| Kevin being shaved by a nursing assistant. |
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| Kevin trying to rest after surgery. |
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| Kevin sporting his nice hospital issued pajamas. |
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| The scare. |
Update: Kevin's doing well. He returned to week after 4 weeks recovery and the doctor said his bone is almost completely healed.
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