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Published: October 16th 2013
It’s a beautiful night. It’s warm but not too warm. It’s not windy or too humid. It’s nice outside. So, Ava and I come outside at 8:00 p.m. so that she could play with the other kids. There are lots of parents chatting and watching their children. It’s a typical night in China. I sat next to Licho and Jia, who speak English well and have 6-year-old daughters. They are quickly becoming two of my best friends here. We are talking and laughing like moms do when their children are happily playing. I hear Ava scream. I see her sprinting towards me. She is crying but I’m not worried… until I see the blood.
Ava has blood all over her hand. It’s dripping onto the ground. I ask her what happened and she says that she cut her fingers. All I can think about is that there is a lot of blood. I need to stop the bleeding. I pull her shirt off and wrap her fingers and hand tightly. As I’m wrapping, I say to no one in particular that we need to go to the hospital. Licho says that Jia’s husband Yong will drive us. I hold the shirt that is covering Ava’s hand above her head as she screams. She is scared. I am terrified. The car appears very quickly out of nowhere and I put Ava into the car. Young is driving. Licho and her daughter Lisa are in the passenger seat.
We arrive at the campus hospital. It has only been about 5 minutes since she cut herself. We run into the hospital. A doctor and a nurse are sitting on straight-backed chairs. They jump to their feet when they see Ava. The doctor takes us to a room. He wants to see Ava’s hand, but she doesn’t want him to unwrap it. I feel like I’m gonna throw up. I wasn’t able to see the full extent of her injuries because there was so much blood. “Ava, you have to let the doctor see your hand so that he can fix it,” I say as calmly as I can. She puts her hand down on the table and the doctor unwraps it. He takes a clear bottle full of clear liquid and pours it on her hand. She screams and tries to pull her hand back. I help the doctor by holding her arm and he pours more of the liquid onto her hand. The cut is deep. Really, really deep. Noone says anything. The only thing I hear is Ava screaming. The doctor gets some betadine and cotton swabs. I see the flesh next to her bone moving back and forth on her middle and ring fingers as he cleans them and Ava continues to scream. Tears flow down her face. Tears start rolling down my face. This is awful; an awful, terrible nightmare. The doctor gets some gauze and begins to carefully wrap Ava’s fingers. He starts talking to Young and Licho in Mandarin. I look at Licho and she says, “We have to go to another hospital downtown. He can’t treat the cut here.” The doctor finishes wrapping the fingers and we quickly pile back into the car.
We stop as we pass the gate to our apartment complex. Licho gives her daughter Lisa to a man on a scooter and takes the man’s jacket. This must be Licho’s husband. She hands me the jacket and I put it over Ava whose shirt is in a bloody ball in my lap.
We are driving to the middle of the city. Young drives with the hazard lights on at the fastest speed anyone should ever drive in China. Young and Licho are talking to each other in Chinese. It doesn’t seem like very long before we arrive at a hospital. We go in and within 5 minutes are told that the hospital does not treat children. So, we drive to a children’s hospital that is about 15 minutes away.
We all get out again. The doctor looks very young. Ava screams as he takes off the bandage. It hasn’t bled much since it was cleaned, but this is my only relief. I am asked to write Ava’s name and birthdate on a piece of paper. The doctor speaks in Mandarin to Licho and Young. “It is the policy of this hospital that they do not give pain medicine to children. He can put stitched in her finger, but only if she can stand the pain,” Licho explains. I feel my stomach drop. “No pain medication?” I hug Ava a bit tighter and a memory flashes in my head. It’s the memory of being stitched up after giving birth to her. I can still remember every time the needle pierced my flesh. It was painful; Too painful for a child to endure. But she needed stitches. What was I supposed to do? The doctor was saying something else. “There is a specialist for this type of hurt at another hospital. I think we should go to that hospital. The doctor is calling him now,” Young explains. I feel relieved. A specialist is a good thing, but we also need to hurry. We leave the hospital and get back into the car again.
Young puts an address into his GPS and he starts driving. He and Licho talk a little bit along the way. Ava is breaking down though. She is crying and saying she doesn’t want to get any shots. I can tell she is terrified. I start asking her questions about our travels. “Ava, do you remember the Dinosaur Park in Prague?” We talk about it and many other places until we arrive at the hospital. We are escorted to the doctor’s office. Licho is talking to the doctor and he asks to see Ava’s hand. He unwraps it. Ava cries, “I don’t want any shots!” Shots are the very least of my worries. “The doctor is concerned that she may have cut her tendon” Licho says. “They need to do some tests.” Then the doctor says something that Licho doesn’t like and she starts arguing with him about it. “The doctor says that he wants to give her an IV to make her sleep and that she should stay the night in the hospital.” My heart stops. This hospital is an awful place. It’s dingy and loud. It’s not a place for a child.
We are led to an x-ray room. A man shows Ava what to do with her hand and Licho and I walk into the safe room with him. I watch Ava through the window. I had taken the coat that had been covering her. She is standing there in her skirt with her hair covering most of her back. She looks so pretty. So young. And she is crying. Everything hurt her right now and I can’t stand it. We can see on the screen that none of her bones are broken or cut.
We take Ava upstairs for her surgery. They ask her to bend her middle finger and she can’t bend it far enough. They want to do a nerve block on her fingers so they can see if the tendon has been cut. I warn them that they won’t be able to hold her down. Licho translates. The doctor says something. Licho translates, “They say that you can’t do in because you don’t speak Chinese. Only I should go in with her.” My eyes start watering. I feel desperate. “But you can’t hold her down,” I say. “I know that I can’t hold her down. But the doctor says that I have to try.” Licho changes her shoes and puts on a jacket, mask, and hairnet. I bend down and tell Ava that Licho is going to take care of her and that she has to be brave. She starts sobbing, “I want you mom!” I feel the back of my throat burning. “I know. And I want to be with you, but they won’t let me. I will wait for you right here. Everything will be ok.”
The metal doors roll closed and Ava and Licho are gone. Young and I stand outside the doors waiting. We hear Ava screaming. I cry. I feel like someone is ripping me apart. Licho come out of the door a few minutes later. “I can’t hold her. The doctor says that you need to hold her down and then I have to come back in to finish the surgery.” I quickly change my shoes and put on the mask, hairnet, and lab coat. They take me back to where Ava is laying on the table. I have to hold her down while she is laying down. So, I climb on top of her and put my arm over her forearm. Another man holds her wrist down. Another man holds the palm of her hand down. The doctor puts the needle into her middle finger. Ava screams in my ear. I’ve never heard her scream so loud. He takes the needle out and puts it into her ring finger. Ava is screaming again. It seems like forever. They say they are finished. I kiss Ava on the forehead and tell her that Licho is coming back in and they everything will be ok.
I join Young in the hallway. “We could hear Ava screaming very loud. This must be so difficult for you,” he says. I start crying again. “Yeah. It’s really tough,” I say. We talk and I hear Ava scream more. Tears roll down my face. We talk about how he hopes that there will be people to help him in Texas. He and his wife and daughter are going there next year. He will be a visiting professor for a year. We talk about the things they will see during their vacations and anything else we can think of to talk about. After an hour, the doors open and the doctor carries Ava out. She is crying. Her hand is bandaged. “The surgery is over,” Licho confirms. I hug her and cry. The doctor shows me a photograph of her finger and it is obvious that the tendon was cut in half. “The tendon was cut but the doctor stretched it and put it back together. Ava should be ok now,” Licho translated.
On the way out of the hospital, Licho stopped at the receptionist window. She had paid for everything with her bankcard. She never asked me about the money. She just paid it. I have insurance for Ava, but it doesn’t pay the bill at the time of the injury. A person is refunded. It was 12:30 when we left the hospital and 1:30 a.m. when we got home. Young and Licho had to work the next day. My coteacher had been contacted and had cancelled my classes for the next day. I was so thankful for my friends who had been there every step of the way with me. Licho had been with Ava during surgery and paid my bill for me. Young had driven all over the city and tried to keep my calm. There are wonderful people and their kindness had me crying all over again on the ride home. Ava was asleep when we got home and I laid her on the couch. Lauryn came to check on Ava and I talked with her a bit before I went to sleep.
There is more to this story. I will write tomorrow and explain with pictures how Ava cut her hand. I have pictures of her stitched fingers and will explain the after care as well. But I think this entry is very long. Let’s call it done and check back tomorrow for the rest. I will let you know that Ava is ok and is in good spirits despite everything. More tomorrow!
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Pavla
non-member comment
Dear Kirtland, I hope by now you are calm. It must have been a terrible experience... thanks god, you have Chinese friends who could help you. I pray for you and Awa. I hope you will be fine. I am with you Pavla from Hradec Králové