Lesson 35

               Text B

    Wang Jinghui is a lecturer in China Textile University in Shanghai. Now, at the age of fifty-three, he is about to leave this world.
    In July last year, he was diagnosed as to be suffering from cancer in the esophagus. The doctor told him that there might still be a slight chance for him if he got operated on at once, as the cancer was already in an advanced stage. The news greatly alarmed Wang and his daughter who had accompanied him to the hospital. Naturally they wanted to have an operation at once as there was not a moment to be lost.

    "But all our wards are full at the moment," the doctor told them.
    "How long do we have to wait then?" the daughter asked.
    "At least two months. We have a long waiting list. "
    Back at home, the daughter was at her wit's end. Five years earlier, her mother had died of cancer. It was her father then who had looked after everything - her mother's operation, then the funeral. And after her mother's death, it was her father who looked after her and her younger sister, and had seen them through school, and then college for her. She had just graduated and her younger sister was still at school. How could they do without their father? No, their father must not die.

    She lost no time and spared no efforts in finding a hospital for her father. She went everywhere and asked everybody friends , relatives , acquaintances , anyone who might know of a way to , or have connections with a hospital. A few days later one of her former schoolmates came with the heartening news that one of her friends had a relative who could pull strings with a certain big hopital.

    And so this friend's friend's relative made his appearance. He proved to be very helpful and enthusiastic, and promised to see the whole thing through. But he constantly dropped hints to Wang's daughter about the "going price" for"road-paving" to a hospital.

    At the hospital things went as smoothly as he had promised. Wang's daughter had handed him three hundred yuan, and soon he had everything arranged - consultation for Wang and registration for living in. He informed them that there would be a vacant bed the following Monday.

    They went home full of hope. He, the man who had arranged everything for them, began to lay down his cards. "The going price is two thousand and five hundred yuan. But don't worry," he hastened to add when he saw the alarm in father and daughter's faces. "I've managed to bring it ddwn to the bottom line-- one thousand two hundred. But you have to get it ready soon. I have to satisfy the registration office, the surgeon-in-charge, the operating doctor and his assistant, the two anaes thetists- not a single one could be left out. "

    What else could they do? In order to cure her father, the daughter went about and managed to scrape together 500 yuan which she handed to the man just before her father went to live
    As arranged Wang entered the hospital on Monday, July 16. But more than a week went by and nobody seemed to bother about him, and nothing was 'mentioned about his operation. Both father and daughter were worried about this endless waiting and she approached the man again, to see if he could speed things up. "An operating doctor has yet to be found. " She understood what that meant , and as she was almost worried to death, she gritted her teeth and produced another four hundred yuan. Apparently the man meant what he said when he mentioned one thousand two hundred as the bottom line.

    On July 28, Wang finally was wheeled into the operation theatre. But he was not kept there for long. The doctor opened up his chest and found that cancer had reached such a stage as to make an operation impossible. So merciless was the hand of fate!
    When a reporter from Xinmin Evening went to see Wang early this year, she found an emaciated man lying in bed, obviously nearing his last. He could hardly produce a coherent sentence, but he kept repeating ; "We've been robbed of one thousand two hundred yuan . .. Now we are penniless . . . what is going to happen to my two girls?. . . "

    The daughter said: "What happened to us was far from unique. It has become quite a common practice for patients to pay through their noses in order to live in. All the same I want our story to be told, not that I have any illusions about getting our money back"

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