The New Year's Eve of 2023 and the Spring Festival of 2024 were spent in the hospital with my loved one.
Here's what happened. At the end of 2023 (during winter vacation), my loved one took our child back to her hometown city, J, to celebrate the New Year with her family. I had some things to take care of, so I went there later. My mother-in-law is a very filial person who visits her elderly mother every year at the end of the year. Her mother is now in her nineties. On the day before my mother-in-law was going to visit her mother (our grandmother), it snowed heavily in the city. On the day of the incident, the weather was sunny and much of the snow had melted. As a result, my father-in-law, mother-in-law, my loved one, and our child all went to visit our grandmother together. While on the way to our grandmother's house, my loved one even video-called me, with a joyful and warm expression on her face. The group finally left our grandmother's place at around 3 pm.
Perhaps due to the drop in temperature, there was some snow accumulation on the road in the afternoon, making it slightly slippery. On the way back, while my loved one and my mother-in-law were driving normally, they were hit by a car that was driving fast on the other side of the road, crossing the centerline due to the slippery road conditions. In an instant, my wife's left leg was slowly bleeding from a sharp object piercing it, and her leg gradually turned purple and swollen. My mother-in-law was also seriously injured in the collision. Worried that the driver might flee, my mother-in-law got up despite the pain and prepared to stop the car and the driver. The driver didn't run away in the end. After getting out of the car, they proactively contacted an ambulance and the traffic police. My father-in-law, who had gone home with our child earlier, hurriedly came to the scene of the accident. After the traffic police arrived and learned about the situation, they went through the basic procedures, including checking for drunk driving, registering the owner and vehicle information, and making statements. However, even though the responsibility was clearly identifiable, the traffic police did not immediately determine the responsibility. Instead, they asked the victim's family and the driver to come back to the traffic police station around the 28th of the lunar month to restate the situation and determine the responsibility. Afterwards, after the ambulance arrived, my father-in-law and the injured ones went to the hospital together.
On the day of the incident, I was still at home in another city packing things, preparing to go to J, my wife's hometown, to celebrate the New Year. On my way to J, my loved one casually told me that she had been injured and was in the hospital. Afterwards, she didn't communicate with me about the progress. At that time, I didn't think much of it. I thought that the injury should heal quickly and she would be fine soon. However, the next day she told me to go directly to the People's Hospital in J. At this point, I felt that something was not quite right. She should have gone back last night if she was injured, so why was she still in the hospital today? But since it was an injury, even if she needed treatment, she should be able to leave the hospital and go home for the New Year. When I asked about the hospital room, my loved one didn't tell me the truth either. When I entered the hospital and saw the condition of my loved one and my mother-in-law, I was stunned: they were lying on simple beds, my loved one's leg had been stitched and bandaged, and my mother-in-law looked exhausted, with an injured waist and a swollen back. Her hand was also very swollen due to improper intravenous drip (as high as a 10-year-old child's fist). Because the hospital was crowded with patients and the doctors wanted to go home for the New Year and didn't want to admit more patients, they couldn't arrange a proper hospital room. So on the day of the incident, they spent the night in the emergency treatment room. (At this time, the hospital's inpatient department should try to avoid admitting patients if possible. After all, surgery requires multiple people to coordinate, and at this time, everyone has already arranged their vacation and work schedules for the new year.) Afterwards, my loved one told me that before I arrived, because the hospital rooms were full and she couldn't move, she didn't dare to eat or drink when she was hungry or thirsty. All the beds in the emergency room were close together, and there were no curtains for isolation.
My lively and healthy loved one suddenly lying in bed with injuries left me dumbfounded. Originally, I came from another city to my loved one's hometown, J, and I was somewhat tired. This fatigue also manifested as a lack of mental activity and clarity. What surprised me even more was when the doctor told my loved one that she needed a family member to sign for the surgery. "Your leg is obviously misaligned, and the preliminary diagnosis is a torn ligament. We need to perform surgery as soon as possible. The family member needs to sign and transfer to the inpatient department for surgery." At that moment, I immediately asked my loved one about the doctor's previous diagnosis and the situation regarding the traffic accident and the responsible party. She told me that the emergency doctor had simply stitched up the bleeding wound on her leg and had taken an MRI scan. We were still waiting for the results and explanation of the scan. As for my mother-in-law, they had only done an MRI scan and administered an intravenous drip. As for the determination of responsibility for the traffic accident, we had to wait until about a week later when the victim's family and the driver would go to the traffic police station to restate the situation and determine the responsibility. After paying five thousand yuan for medical expenses, the driver quietly left the hospital.
Considering that although this hospital is a top-tier hospital, it is still a surgery involving the leg. If not handled properly, there may be lifelong disabilities after the surgery. Therefore, after careful consideration, I thought it would be best to understand my loved one's condition before deciding whether to proceed with the surgery. However, at this time, my loved one's uncles, older brothers, and cousins were all present, with the main person in charge being my fifth uncle (a school principal who was about to retire). When they heard that the doctor said surgery was needed, my fifth uncle took the prescription and prepared for my father-in-law to sign and have the surgery done for my loved one. Seeing that my father-in-law seemed to be acting without much thought and was about to sign, I became anxious. Thinking about how my father-in-law hadn't resolved the issue of determining responsibility for the accident and the issue of medical expenses, I spoke with a slightly blaming tone (of course, in hindsight, I shouldn't have done that. Perhaps my father-in-law was also scared and confused). I said to my father-in-law, "Dad, you haven't fully understood Sunny's situation yet, and you're already planning to have surgery? Let's wait. I'll ask my friends and then decide whether surgery is necessary."
After that, I continued to contact my friends for advice and opinions. When I returned to the emergency treatment room, I found that my uncles and cousins had already left and were outside the hospital gate. It was lunchtime, and it was also close to the end of the year. They were all quite old, and it was quite tiring for them to come over. So, I warmly said to my uncles and cousins, "Let's find a nearby restaurant. I'll treat you to a meal. You've worked hard." They all said there was no need, and after a brief chat, they left the hospital. Later, I learned that my uncles and cousins thought that I blamed my father-in-law for my loved one's injury and that surgery required money. They thought I was reluctant to spend money and didn't want my loved one to have surgery. In reality, my expression at that time was partly due to the fact that the situation was of great importance and everyone knew very little about it. Making hasty decisions could lead to unfavorable results, which made me very anxious. On the other hand, there was indeed an element of blaming my father-in-law. He hadn't handled the issue of determining responsibility for the accident well. If, before going to the traffic police station a week later to determine responsibility, the driver transferred his assets, refused to pay, or used connections to reduce his responsibility, then my mother-in-law and my loved one would not only be injured but also face difficulties.
So I quickly contacted my friends again for advice and consulted my doctor friends. During the process, my loved one's MRI scan results and explanation came out: meniscus damage, ligament rupture, and so on. At this point, I also consulted the opinions of artificial intelligence based on the information from the scan. The final reply was that a doctor needed to assess the patient's actual condition to determine whether surgery was necessary. At this point, the orthopedic doctor who had just come over contacted the doctor in the emergency treatment room through his phone and asked if my loved one needed immediate surgery. So when the doctor in the emergency treatment room asked for our family's opinion, I told the doctor that I wanted to hear the opinion of the orthopedic doctor. The doctor in the emergency treatment room handed me the phone. I asked the orthopedic doctor what procedures would be involved if surgery was performed. The doctor said that based on the preliminary diagnosis, my loved one's leg had a ligament rupture, meniscus injury, and bruising. They would perform surgery to examine the leg and use medical screws to fix the ligament, followed by rehabilitation treatment to restore leg function. When asked about possible postoperative sequelae, the doctor responded that due to the injury near the knee, there were many nerves and blood vessels nearby. Even with surgery, there was still a possibility of permanent disability, and the doctor couldn't guarantee a full recovery. At this point, I thanked the doctor for their valuable advice and said I would consult further to see if there were better options, such as transferring to a top-tier hospital in a major city for minimally invasive surgery, and then I would get back to them.
At this point, I already knew that the orthopedic department in this hospital couldn't perform minimally invasive surgery for ligament repair and that surgery was required. At the same time, considering the possibility that the hospital and doctors might see the patient as a means to make money (although there may be good and conscientious doctors), I became even more cautious about the surgery. Afterwards, I contacted the orthopedic doctor and said that we would first transfer to the orthopedic inpatient department for observation before deciding whether to proceed with the surgery. So my loved one was transferred to the orthopedic ward, and under my father-in-law's decision, my mother-in-law went home temporarily with some medication for observation.
After that, my loved one and I spent the end of the year, New Year's Eve, and the first few days of the new year in the hospital. (To be continued)
Note: This text is synchronized with Gengdu Blog.