Life is Like a Journey – Chapter 37

Volume 1: Rise

Donation

Over several decades in the profession, Lu Qingshi took a photo with a patient and their family for the first time, which was also the last time.

“The driver responsible for the incident has already been caught and is now detained at our station. Preliminary investigation results show a very high blood alcohol concentration. Rest assured, we will handle the case seriously and provide you with a satisfactory explanation.”

            

Qin Xuan, rubbing her sore neck, came out of the elevator and saw Xiang Nanke standing in the emergency center’s corridor, shaking hands with the patient’s family.

“Officer Xiang,” she greeted from afar, as she turned around, wearing her dark blue police uniform neatly and standing tall and dignified.

“What a coincidence, Dr. Qin.”

            

“Are you here handling a case?”

The other party chuckled: “Don’t tell me, is this accident patient, who was just sent over not long ago, also your patient?”

Qin Xuan quickly waved her hand: “No, no, no, it’s my colleague’s patient.”

            

She indeed had an argument with Lu Qingshi because of this patient.

Seeing her complexion wasn’t very good, Xiang Nanke went to the vending machine inside the hospital, bought two bottles of juice, and handed one to her.

“Getting off work this late?”

            

Qin Xuan took it and spoke weakly, “Yes, usually it’s always around this time. Aren’t you too?”

The clock on the wall passed midnight, and Xiang Nanke also sat down on the long bench.

“In our line of work, going without sleep for a few days is a common occurrence.”

            

When a doctor and a police officer start complaining about work, they naturally have endless things to say. Qin Xuan is cheerful and lively, while Xiang Nanke is kind and generous. Although you couldn’t say they were like old friends at first sight, she could catch all the jokes Qin Xuan threw out. From time to time, she spoke cleverly, making the young and beautiful doctor laugh until her eyes turned into crescent moons.

Xiang Nanke found it hard to look away from her almond-like eyes, and although she wasn’t usually a talkative person, tonight she didn’t know why, but she opened up and talked freely.

“Since it’s so difficult, why did you still choose to become a doctor?”

            

Qin Xuan was dazed for a moment, holding the drink bottle as her smile turned somewhat bitter.

It seemed a bit abrupt for a stranger she hadn’t met many times to ask this question, and Xiang Nanke also realized it was inappropriate.

“Sorry…”

            

“No,” she looked up at the officer’s gentle eyes and perfectly timed smile, and once again laughed carefreely.

“Because, there was no choice.”

Perhaps other people have strange and varied reasons for becoming doctors; some truly love the profession, some pursue dignity and high salaries, and some are compelled with no choice…

            

But her reason for becoming a doctor was extremely simple: she just wanted to cure herself.

Who would have thought that a senior obstetrician is actually also an infertility patient?

This world is truly extremely ironic.

            

Xiang Nanke keenly captured a hint of sharpness in her smile and said no more, and the atmosphere momentarily fell silent.

Qin Xuan raised her wrist to glance at the time: “He was supposed to pick me up at this time, so why hasn’t he arrived yet?”

Xiang Nanke smiled: “Boyfriend?”

            

The other nodded, took out her phone from her pocket, stood up, and walked a few steps to call Old Bao. After just a few words, she started getting angry, with phrases like “you liar” and “bastard” faintly reaching Xiang Nanke’s ears.

Xiang Nanke watched her back and thought: she truly is someone whose emotions are vividly expressed, whether laughing or scolding.

Seeing her return with an unhappy expression, Xiang Nanke also stood up: “What happened?”

            

“The subway has already stopped running at this hour, and I’m afraid taking a taxi isn’t safe,” Qin Xuan sighed, tossing her phone into her bag.

“Do you want a ride in the police car?” Seeing her dejected look, Xiang Nanke couldn’t help but ask.

The female doctor’s eyes lit up: “Wow! Really?”

            

Xiang Nanke dangled the keys on her fingertip: “Of course you can~”

“So amazing, I always thought only criminals got this kind of treatment,” Qin Xuan said as she sat in the police car, looking around and feeling as if she had suddenly become tall and mighty.

Xiang Nanke held back a laugh, taking out handcuffs from under the seat: “Wouldn’t it be wonderful to add these?”

            

The other person quickly waved her hand: “No, no, such a valuable thing looks like it’s made of pure silver, you keep it safe.”

Xiang Nanke laughed heartily, noticing it was getting late, and started the engine: “Fasten your seatbelt.”

Qin Xuan pulled a few times but couldn’t get it out: “Uh… I seem to be unable to move it…”

            

“Let me see.”

Xiang Nanke turned on the overhead light, loosened her own seatbelt, and leaned over slightly to help her fasten it. When she raised her head, because of the close distance, her lips unconsciously brushed against her chin.

For some reason, Qin Xuan noticed a very light small mole at the tip of her eyebrow, which was a gentle intellectual beauty different from Lu Qingshi’s cold indifference. Both her speech and conduct were very comforting.

            

She smiled slightly: “Thank you.”

The other person didn’t pay much attention to this small incident, opened the phone navigation: “Where to?”

Qin Xuan gave the name of an apartment, and Xiang Nanke, while driving, casually asked: “Do you live alone?”

            

“Sometimes my boyfriend comes over.”

“I see, well, remember to lock your doors and windows when you’re resting, there have been quite a few thieves lately.”

Qin Xuan replied in an elongated tone: “Thank you, Officer Xiang~”

            

The other person, while watching the road, took a moment to glance at her: “Protecting the people is what we police should do~”

She escorted her to the downstairs area, watching her enter the elevator. Three minutes later, Xiang Nanke counted the suddenly lit floor and sent it along with the noted address to a colleague.

“Deep coma state continues for 12 hours.”

            

“Pupils have no reaction to light, showing a dilated state.”

“Autonomous breathing has disappeared.”

“EEG shows an electrical silence state.”

            

“Transcranial Doppler ultrasound​¹ shows no cerebral blood flow signal.”

The determination of brain death often follows a very strict procedure, supervised by the Human Organ Donation Ethics Review Committee. The Jinzhou City Health and Family Planning Commission assembled experts from various hospitals to form a team to conduct a detailed examination of the patient. This is the first time brain death is being determined. After 24 hours, a second and third determination will be conducted, and only then will the patient be considered truly brain dead in the medical sense.

However, at this point, discussions about organ transplantation with the family can already begin. The earlier they agree, the higher the organ survival rate, and the smaller the transplant rejection reaction.

            

In this situation, the attending physician is not suitable to be present. Lu Qingshi leaned against the corridor waiting, as time passed minute by minute. The conference room door opened, and the patient’s parents, supporting each other with faces full of sorrow, walked out. Liu Changsheng followed closely behind, shaking hands and bidding farewell. The organ donation coordinator was also present and sighed deeply after they left.

“No way, they still won’t agree to donate, and my lips are almost worn out from talking.”

Lu Qingshi tightly pressed the corners of her lips: “When the second brain death determination results come out tomorrow, please try again.”

            

Liu Changsheng patted her shoulder: “Don’t hold out too much hope, the parents of this patient are both elderly, and she is their only daughter. They’re very traditional, and they said they want to leave a whole body, even in death.”

ICU visiting time is only fifteen minutes. Father He and Mother He, wearing isolation gowns, masks, and shoe covers, sat by Miaomiao’s bedside, tightly holding their daughter’s hand. He Miaomiao had also fallen into a deep coma, her body filled with tubes, and a heart pacemaker had been implanted. Even so, the doctors didn’t dare let her wake up, as everyone knew the result if hemodynamics changed and heart failure occurred again.

“Come, husband, take a photo of me and Miaomiao,” Mother He barely managed a smile, handing the phone wrapped in plastic to her husband, and leaned on Miaomiao’s bedside.

            

Father He, holding the phone, was stunned for a moment. In the short span of one day, this originally spirited man had become unshaven, and just over thirty years old, his temples were already streaked with white hair.

“You…”

Mother He choked back sobs, as tears fell one by one onto the bed: “While Miaomiao still has breath, I want to take a photo with her. If Miaomiao is no longer here in the future… at least I’ll have a memory…”

            

Father He swallowed, his eyes slightly reddened, as he raised the camera towards the two women he loved most. Click— in the picture, He Miaomiao seemed to be in a dream she couldn’t wake from, and Mother He smiled like a flower, as if she had just recently been a bride.

They flipped through the photo album, from when they had just married to having Miaomiao, and then to the years spent treating Miaomiao, running everywhere. Time quietly flowed by, and Father He bit his teeth, not letting himself shed tears in front of his wife and child. He is now the only support for this family.

“Come, wife, take a photo of me too.”

            

He passed the phone over again, leaned on Miaomiao’s bedside, and his unshaven face kissed the child’s tender cheek.

Mother He laughed: “Hahaha, husband, you look so ugly!”

“Really? Let me see.” Father He snatched the phone over: “Where am I ugly? Clearly, it’s because you didn’t take it well. Look what you’ve made Miaomiao look like.”

            

Mother He turned her head and saw the doctor outside the screen door, waving to her: “Doctor Lu, come in and take a photo with us.”

“One, two, three, cheese.” Lu Qingshi reluctantly came in, took a group photo for the family of three, and then was pulled to stay as they insisted that she, as Miaomiao’s lifesaver, take a photo with Miaomiao. It eventually led to all the available medical staff in the ICU joining in.

When the photo was sent to the hospital communication group, Qin Xuan heard about it and rushed in: “Why didn’t you call me for the photos!”

            

This was possibly the first and also the last time Lu Qingshi took a photo with a patient and their family in her decades-long career.

She printed the photo and tucked it into her wallet, placing it alongside the yellowed photo of Lele.

“Ding dong—” A message popped up on her phone, and Lu Qingshi opened it to see Gu Yanzhi had sent a crying and ground-pounding emoji: “Why didn’t you call me?”

            

She didn’t know why, but every time she felt a bit sad, the other party always appeared very timely.

Lu Qingshi typed: “Aren’t you in rehabilitation?”

“Right, so I…”

            

Gu Yanzhi sent a photo, where she had photoshopped herself next to her, wearing a deep flame blue uniform, standing straight, with her hand straightened and raised to her temple.

Lu Qingshi couldn’t help but curve her lips slightly and sent an eye-roll emoji back.

Her slightly depressed mood was completely swept away.

            

Father He, who had lied to himself saying he was going to buy some food, just reached the corner and couldn’t help but take out a cigarette from his pocket and put it in his mouth. Then he remembered that smoking was banned in the hospital, quickly crushed it, and threw it into the trash can. He squatted on the ground, a seven-foot man helplessly wailing and crying.

“Why is it this kind of disease! Why! Why! Why…”

Why is it a disease that money can’t cure…

            

After crying and venting his emotions, Father He slowly stood up from the ground, wiped his tears dry, forced a smile, and carried the food back into the ward.

Lu Qingshi stood in the corridor watching from afar, her hands tightly clenched into fists in her white coat pockets.

When talking with Fang Zhiyou about these things, the other person, having a patient in the family, could particularly empathize. Sometimes she wishes her mother would die, but other times she feels that if her mother really died, then her only connection to this world would be severed. It truly is a contradictory and complex feeling.

            

“Zhiyou, why do you think this world must have diseases?”

At that time, the young doctor was sitting on the rooftop, swinging her legs. The strong wind lifted her hair from her forehead and puffed up her white coat, blowing her name tag to flip over and stick to her chest.

“Probably, it’s that without the existence of disease, people can’t understand the importance of health, right?”

            

The next day, after conducting the second brain death determination, Lu Qingshi found the patient’s family and stopped them in the corridor, deeply bowing towards them.

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t save your daughter…” the doctor said, lowering her head, her eyes somewhat red.

“But now, there is another life that urgently needs your help…”

            

Before she could finish her words, the girl’s mother suddenly rushed forward, grabbing her collar and crying out: “Is it you, is it you who deliberately didn’t save her to make Nannan donate her organs! You heartless doctors, give me back Nannan’s life!”

In the struggle, several buttons of the white coat were torn off, but Lu Qingshi remained with her head lowered, unmoved, repeating: “Sorry…”

“Wife, wife, calm down! I believe the doctor already did their best!” The girl’s father rushed up and pulled her away, as the girl’s mother collapsed into her husband’s arms, her face streaming with tears.

            

“I tell you all! Even if Nannan dies, she won’t donate her heart! You give up this thought!”

“Doctor, please go back first, my wife is greatly distressed because of the child’s matter…”

Before the words were finished, he suddenly froze in place.

            

Lu Qingshi slowly bent her knees and knelt on the ground with a thud, the sunlight falling on her armband, her head buried in shadow.

In her life, she holds an iron-strong unyielding proud spirit, never begging, except for once when Lele was ill, no other thing could make her lower her proud head.

The young doctor, wearing a white coat and the department director’s name tag, bent her waist and knees in front of the patient’s family, biting her lips, eyes red, voice choked: “I am not begging you as a doctor, but as a mother who once had a child. I deeply understand your feelings, and I beg you to give another child new life, and let your daughter forever live in the world in another way.”

            

“As a doctor, there is so little I can do… but as a mother who once had a child… I don’t want to see a child who was originally hopeful to be cured die regrettably because of a lack of a donor heart…”

Lu Qingshi gritted her teeth, lowered her head again, as water stains fell on the smooth marble floor: “So… I beg you…”

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