Little Red Scarf: Story of Hongyan (3)-- the Day of the Operation

Little Red Scarf is in Lanzhou, Gansu province and provides financial support and encouragement to children suffering from congenital heart disease. In addition, they provide families with post-operative care and help the children sustain a healthy lifestyle.

The operation on March 5th was cancelled, because Hong Yan got a high fever. The next morning, she also had flu symptoms. The doctor gave her an infusion treatment and the operation was delayed one week.  

The family worried, because the flu made the situation even more difficult for Hong Yan. We were depressed and did not know what to do. The child had a high fever and her whole face became quite purple.

Her temperature became normal on March 10. A week later Hong Yan’s sickness was getting better. The doctor said if her temperature could stay normal, she could have the operation on Wednesday. 

Hong Yan did well and her temperature stayed normal for 4 days. The operation was arranged for March 12. Hong Yan became nervous and was crying for her mother. When we arrived at the door of the operating room we could not help being nervous, too.

After a while, her mother walked out and Hong Yan was sent to the operating room. 

The anesthesiologist talked to us and told us the risks. The doctor planned to do total anesthesia and the family had to sign the agreement. Hong Yan’s mother is not educated, but she could write her name. However, her hand was too shaky so her brother had to sign.

The operation lasted for about 6 hours. We were waiting anxiously. At 3:50 PM, the doctor finally opened the door and called for the family to wait outside of the ICU. We hurried to find the doctor and asked about the surgery. The doctor said, “It was successful and please do not worry.” What a relief! Now we just had to wait for news from the ICU.

Hong Yan was sent to the ICU but family members could not go in yet. When we were allowed to visit Hong Yan’s face looked pink and she was still on anesthesia with the ventilation pipe in the mouth. The doctor said her blood pressure, heart beat and other indexes were doing well. 

When we came out from ICU, we found Doctor Tang, Hong Yan’s doctor. The doctor told us, “the child’s surgery went well and it was successful.” Hearing this, we were relieved. Doctor Tang said he would stay at the hospital for the night and wait until the child woke up. He wanted to monitor her indexes when she woke up.

Original article written by Yujie Yun, translated by Maggie Li, and edited by Yanyan Zhang