Country Driving [86]
“It’s very simple,” I said. “I’m paying for this. Before I pay the money, I have to know why he needs the transfusion now. If you don’t talk to me, I won’t pay it.”
Dr. Zhao turned to me, her face tight with anger. “He needs immune globulin,” she said. “If he doesn’t get it, there’s a risk that he’ll have brain damage. Already he’s bleeding inside his mouth. We know what to do, and you don’t understand anything about it.”
“I’m trying to understand as much as I can,” I said. “If you speak slowly, it helps. I’m only asking questions because I care about the boy.”
“If you care, then let us give him the transfusion!”
“I’ve talked with other doctors who say that maybe a transfusion isn’t necessary,” I said. “They said that usually they would wait for the biopsy results.”
“How long will that be?” the woman said loudly. “We don’t even know. It could be a week. We can’t wait that long!”
“Why hasn’t he been tested to see if he has a virus that’s causing his fever?”
“We know that his platelet level is low! That’s our primary concern!”
“Have you done a test for hepatitis?”
“He doesn’t have hepatitis!”
“Have you tested for it? I was told that it’s a possibility.”
“There’s no need to test for it! Hepatitis isn’t a concern!”
“If you give him gamma globulin, is there a risk that the blood might carry some disease?”
“Of course there’s a risk!” Dr. Zhao spat out the words. “It could have H.I.V. or hepatitis or something else!”
“Don’t they test the blood?”
“You can’t test it completely.”
“I think you can,” I said.
“Believe me, you can’t!”
It disgusted me to hear a doctor say such nonsense, but I tried another approach: “Where does the blood come from?”
“How am I supposed to know?” The woman was shouting now, and I backed out of the room with Wei Ziqi. I told him that the blood supply was my main concern, and he nodded calmly. Using my cell phone, I called an American I knew who worked for a medical company in Beijing. She told me that her organization followed international testing standards for blood, and she checked to see if it was possible to arrange a sale of gamma globulin. A moment later she called back.
“They can deliver it to you,” she said. “It costs three hundred and seventy-eight dollars per unit. I think that one unit should be enough for a five-year-old, if he’s not too big.”
“He’s very small,” I said.
“That should be fine,” she said. “They’ll deliver it, but you have to get the hospital there to accept it.”
Technically it’s illegal for such an organization to sell blood, but that’s how many things work in China. I took a deep breath and returned to the doctor’s room. “If I buy clean blood, can we use that?” I said.
“There’s no guaranteed clean blood in Beijing,” the doctor said.
“There is,” I said, and then I told her the name of the organization. “They have clean blood.”
“No, they don’t,” she said. “There’s no way to test for all of these things.”
“I’m certain they can test for H.I.V. and hepatitis,” I said.
“It’s impossible,” the doctor said. “There’s no test.”
“Forget about the test,” I said. “That isn’t important right now. What I want to know is, if I get blood from them and have it delivered here, will you give it to the child?”
“That’s impossible! They won’t sell you blood!”
“I’ve already talked to them,” I said. “They’ve agreed to sell it.”
“We won’t accept it,” she said. “It’s against hospital policy. What kind of question is this? Why do you even think of doing something like this? Who do you think you are?”
“You won’t tell me where your blood comes from, and you won’t tell me whether it’s safe,” I said. “So I’m trying to find a source that’s safe. This is the only reason I’m asking.”
“There’s no safe blood in Beijing,” she said. “You have no option other than using what we have. There’s a risk, but the risk is higher if he doesn’t get the gamma globulin. You need to make this decision right now!”
I was shaking with anger by the time I left the room. I called the American woman and explained the situation; she said that there