Free Web NovelChapter 2250: Chapter 2250: Anxiety
Arriving at the entrance of the neonatal unit of Beidou Third Hospital.
The corridor here is filled with numerous anxious family members of patients. To the parents, the misfortune of their newborns being stricken with illness is a catastrophe that fell unexpectedly from the sky: joy has turned into sorrow.
Some parents find it hard to accept such an outcome, and it’s not uncommon to see adults here who seem as lost as children, helplessly shedding tears at the door, perhaps feeling more fragile than the sick children inside.
Second Brother Cao was right, one characteristic of pediatrics is that the relatives of the patients are often harder to communicate with than the patients themselves, with the mental state of the family members sometimes being a hundred times worse.
What makes the neonatal unit worse for the families compared to other pediatric wards is that they are not allowed to visit freely. The medical staff have explained that the immune system of newborns isn’t fully developed, making them especially fragile. All the children hospitalized in the neonatal unit are sick, so it’s best to avoid unnecessary exposure to the outside environment and people to prevent infections.
It’s similar to adults being monitored in the ICU. But in the neonatal unit, since it’s about children, the patient`s family might understand the reasoning but cannot emotionally accept it. Especially for the mothers who carried their babies for ten months and have already formed a close bond. To have waited so long only to not be able to see their child drives the mothers nearly insane.
Other family members, like the father, grandparents, and other direct elders of the child, are equally worried when they can’t see the child. It’s important to note some people spread baseless rumors, creating endless suspicions towards the medical staff among the families.
The most common rumor is that the child might be mistreated after being kept inside. Believing such rumors is definitely excessive. There’s no medical staff who would dare mistreat a patient as that would be a criminal offense. If true, that person would definitely end up in jail. After many years of medical study and work, no healthcare provider wishes to break the law. The special cases sometimes seen in the news make up less than one in a million of all medical workers. Using a few bad apples to disgrace the entire industry is truly damaging.
Additionally, if any wrongdoing is discovered, it’s usually other healthcare workers in such a closed environment who report it.
These rumors proliferate primarily because children do die in the neonatal unit. Various rampant speculative stories arise because the parents couldn’t see their child before passing.
Infant deaths in the neonatal unit are considered commonplace. If you think about it, in a place like Beidou Third Hospital that is mandated to treat critically ill patients, losing one or two children a week is common. Medical technology has its limitations. Even in adult ICUs, more deaths occur; it’s unrealistic to think that once a child is brought to the hospital, treatment will guarantee they won’t die.
Family members’ psychological states also need understanding. Unlike the death of elderly family members, the loss of young people and children often brings greater emotional pain because they were supposed to bring hope to a family, which instead turns to despair.
Considering all these reasons, Hu Hao’s anxious frustration over the phone begins to make sense.
Weaving through the crowd, Xie Wanying walked up to her classmate.
Hu Hao looked up to see her, his eyes full of urgency as if to hold onto her tightly, and said, "Where have you been? Why are you only here now?"
She had rushed over by car as soon as she got the news.
