Friday, March 7, 2008

A sad case.

My wife Jenny is staying in Wuxi's TB hospital in a room with two other women who are old.  The one on her left hand side is elderly with a face so wrinkled and wind-blown that I wasn't sure at first if she were a woman.  She has a week or so left to stay in the hospital, or so Jenny tells me.  The one on Jenny's right-hand side is a sad case.

This grandmother looks consumptive for she looks to have shrunk to nothing.  She, Jenny tells me,  has TB and diabetes.  She had been visited by her relatives, this morning, who told her that they couldn't afford to have her in the hospital anymore.   Because her family is poor, she has been to the hospital three times only to have not been able to afford a full recovery.  Now, her son and husband want her to go home and die.  Or so Jenny told me.

Jenny also tells me that this lady's relatives don't bring her any food.  Jenny has been sharing the food brought by us with her.

No comments: