Why didn’t you accompany me to the end?

Another year passed.

Thinking of the child admitted at this time last year, I still have helplessness and sadness in my heart.

I have told so many examples of healing, but today, I want to tell the story of that girl, a sad story.

To treat a terminally ill child

On November 15, 2014, Tian Yang lived in Corey for the first time. The little girl was 7 years old and clever and sensible. During the injection, the nurse found that the blood vessels in her right hand were not very good and habitually said, “Come on, baby, stretch out your left hand…” In the middle of the sentence, the nurse recruited the child and the child did not have a left arm.

The little girl’s diagnosis is very clear:

Right pneumothorax, left fluid pneumothorax. Combined with the surgical history of osteosarcoma one and a half years ago, it should be lung metastasis.

Family members have been to several hospitals and refused to accept them anywhere. Our director’s heart softened, [accept it, symptomatic treatment.]

During hospitalization, routine extraction of pleural effusion did exfoliated cell examination. In fact, doctors and family members are very clear, there will be no other results, it must be tumor metastasis, the child’s chances of survival are slim. However, people sometimes need such a psychological buffer, even if it is inevitable to come bad news, hide your ears and steal the bell for a while, can also make yourself feel better.

I have done countless thoracic punctures, but it is the first time I have seen my empty left arm do chest punctures. Sure enough, bloody pleural effusion, the examination results are the same as expected, there is no surprise, the heart is very blocked.

Every time I go to ward rounds, I don’t know how to say what is good. I think what should say a little, and I think it is wrong to say what.

When I was a graduate student, I studied general surgery for adults. I have seen many elderly people who died of advanced malignant tumors and eventually failed. When patients die, I usually don’t feel too sad, but feel relieved for patients and their families. After all, death itself is a part of life.

But the child? Their life has just begun. Tian Yang has just entered the first grade of primary school. He should die of old age without regrets after seeing more wonderful things and experiencing the beauty of life. But now, life will end before it can bloom.

One and a half years ago, the couple rented a house in Beijing in order to see a doctor for their children. He visited several of the most famous hospitals in Beijing and received chemotherapy four times. In order to save his left arm, he did not succeed. Save his life, amputation. After the operation, he received chemotherapy four times and the child survived.

At the age of school, the child entered the school, very smart and with good academic results. Parents once thought that death had retreated, but death followed suit and never far away.

Doctor, what do you think we should do?

Do you really want to hear the truth from me?

Go ahead.

…… Accompany the children, time is running out.

…… Well, we are going to visit Beijing again. If there is really no chance of cure, we will take the children out for a look.

Before I was discharged from the hospital, I went to the ward and asked my family to sign it. The little girl was memorizing English words.

I want to ask her: [Good boy, have you learned what’s English? After learning English well, I have more eyes to see the world …]

But I just rehearsed these lines in my mind and finally didn’t utter them. After signing, he fled in a hurry.

In those two days, our general practice was in a bad mood. We knew that Beijing was unable to recover from the situation, but we also had some fantasies. After all, medical progress is changing with each passing day. What if there is really a good way for what?

Family members [hide their ears and steal the bell], as a doctor, am I not [deceiving myself and others]?

Hope never dies, but the reality is sad.

A well-written ending is doomed to be unchangeable.

According to the father of the child, after arriving in Beijing, the hospital that operated on the child had retained a thoracic tube and prescribed arsenous acid injection. This is not a first-line chemotherapy drug for osteosarcoma, but it may be useful for some patients.

After the illness eased slightly, the parents took the children back to Harbin and thought they could spend a peaceful day. Unexpectedly, just got off the train, the child’s condition was not good again and had to be admitted to our hospital again. Obviously, the child’s last moment is coming soon.

On Sunday, December 21, I came to make rounds as usual.

Knowing from the doctor on duty, the child was transferred to ICU at 7 o’clock last night and left at 5 o’clock this morning. Before the turn, the child had fallen into a coma, that is to say, when the child’s consciousness was still alive, the parents had been with her all the time, and they had not given up. The couple did not let the child die in loneliness and fear.

After lung metastasis and pneumothorax after osteosarcoma surgery, the 2-year survival rate is less than 10%.

When I was first admitted to the hospital, I estimated that the child could last for the first half of the year. I didn’t expect death to attack so quickly. This time, we, accustomed to healing, lost completely.

Neglected hospice care for children

It is estimated that there are about 60,000 to 288,000 children suffering from malignant tumors every year in our country. The most conservative estimate is that tens of thousands of families like Tian Yang will be at a loss at the end of their children’s lives every year-because hospice care for children is almost a blank in our country.

For example, in Harbin, there is no specialized ward for pediatric malignant tumors, let alone a professional hospice care institution for children. Our small patient Tian Yang, after returning to Harbin from Beijing, transferred to several hospitals, but refused to accept the reason anywhere.

Today, with the rapid development of medicine and science and technology, tens of thousands of families are suffering from such pain. That is really a great irony to modern medicine, which claims to be “people-oriented”.

Therefore, the significance of hospice care and soothing medicine is far beyond the medical scope we are familiar with in the past.

This kind of good non-therapeutic service is helpful for parents and children to get great comfort in their hearts. The management of children’s pain and symptoms is very effective in relieving mental pressure and the feelings of family where will you go. Children who receive hospice care die more peacefully…

Problems Caused by

At present, there are no what agencies or organizations in China trying to push forward this matter.

Those children and their families who should have received hospice care experienced some what in the last period of their children’s lives?

Although many parents are like miracles in their hearts-there is no possibility of cure for their children, they still bear great economic pressure and choose to stay in hospital for treatment. On the one hand, they are looking forward to miracles, on the other hand, they hope to relieve the pain of children through treatment and prolong their lives somewhat. According to statistics, 86% of families and children hope to have hospice care.

However, it often backfires. These treatment measures have brought great physical and mental pain to the children. If the life is really prolonged, the extension is also the painful part.

What is more tragic is that some parents who are on the verge of collapse are easily unable to control their emotions when there is no hope of cure due to the heavy financial burden. Intentionally or unintentionally, they blame the negative emotions on the children. Children have to bear the heavy burden of spirit while suffering physically.

Readers who have not experienced this kind of scene may find it incredible, but it is by no means uncommon in hospitals. In fact, hospice care institutions make treatment costs much lower than ordinary hospitals, and are much more professional and efficient than oncology hospitals and general hospitals.