Coming Home to Heal--Chou Su-yen's Story
Teng Sue-feng / photos Jimmy Lin / tr. by Minn Song
November 2005
At eight in the evening on most normal days, Chou Su-yen is with her two young daughters in the living room as they watch English-language cartoon programs as listening comprehension practice and do their homework. Two years ago, because her husband was assigned to Shanghai, the whole family moved there. Just after nine, with her husband still at work, the doorbell rings. It's a courier delivering plane tickets that her husband will need for a business trip that he is embarking on early the next day. She remarks that one of the jobs falling to the wife of a Taiwanese executive in Shanghai is waiting at home to take delivery of his plane tickets. Every evening, a maid comes to tidy up, and Chou has only to take care of her children's and husband's daily needs. However, her two daughters have had trouble adjusting to the alien environment, and their frequent bouts of contact dermatitis are deeply troubling.
Speaking about the two times last year that she flew back to Taipei to consult doctors, Chou wonders if her daughters' ailment might have been caused by flawed counterfeit goods.
In early winter two years ago, she saw some turtleneck sweaters with the American Gap brand when she was shopping. The style was attractive, and seeing that they cost only RMB40, she bought one. But after her younger daughter, a second-grader, wore it once, she developed a rash on her neck, which also swelled up. Chou didn't think too much about it, and went to a pharmacy to buy some anti-itch ointment. Unexpectedly, the affected areas on her neck got better, but her daughter's entire face reddened and swelled up, so that she dared not use the ointment again. She even drew a warning skull on the container, placing it on the piano as a reminder. Another surprise was in store when a teacher told her daughter, "I've never seen you so chubby before. It's so cute." Her daughter was so ashamed that for a week afterward she wasn't willing to lift her head up in greeting. Wrinkles even developed on her face, making her suddenly appear much older.
Alarmed, Chou asked a friend about where to go to see a doctor. After examining her daughter, the doctor said that applying ointment or taking medication would not necessarily be effective. To ensure a quick cure, six injections over 12 days--once every two days--was the preferred treatment. She told the doctor that she lived quite a distance away, and as her child's school did not dismiss classes until five o'clock, they wouldn't be able to make it on time. The doctor responded, "You can buy a syringe and do the injections yourself. I'll teach you how. Otherwise, you can ask the school nurse to do it."
Chou was very reluctant to follow the recommendation, and unsure what to do, she discussed the matter with her husband. They decided to buy plane tickets and fly back to Taiwan. When her elder daughter heard that she would have to ask for a leave of absence to return to Taiwan, she cried, because she already had so much homework to do for school. Chou had no choice but to leave her elder daughter behind.
As soon as they arrived in Taiwan, Chou rushed to the dermatology clinic near their home in Neihu, Taipei. The doctor told her she need only lightly apply some ointment, and in three days the problem would be gone. She asked what the six injections were about. He warned her, "You have to have some common sense about using medication. Unless a child's life is in danger, you shouldn't use injections. Injections can produce their effects quickly, but the next time back to the hospital might very well be to see a doctor in the nephrology department." As he said, three days later, her daughter's rash had disappeared.
But with her younger daughter just recovered, it was now the elder one's turn to fall ill. The fifth-grader first developed a rash on both hands, and then a 40oC fever. As her husband was on a business trip, Chou sought a colleague of his for help. This colleague immediately took mother and daughter to the "VIP Clinic" at Huashan Hospital. After examining the girl, the doctor said, "We don't see patients with a fever, nor children, but only rashes," handing over 21 days of oral medication, and two large bottles of medicinal solution. She rushed to the Jiaotong University Affiliated Children's Hospital, a decrepit building without air conditioning. There, a doctor pulled a blackened wooden tongue depressor made from a section of bamboo stem, and stuck it into her daughter's throat. After examining her throat, he performed a blood analysis. Twenty minutes later, the report came out, with a diagnosis of tonsillitis. The doctor gave her a prescription, and after two days of taking the medication, her daughter felt better. However, after applying ointment to the areas reddened by the rash, not only did the condition not improve, but her daughter started to experience pain. Chou took advantage of her daughters' summer vacation to take both of them back to Taiwan. But the rash disappeared on its own without doctors in Taipei doing anything at all.
Though some friends say she is overreacting--why fly back to Taiwan over a minor ailment, especially since health care in China is not that bad?--Chou and her husband just can't get rid of their misgivings. Some time before, a colleague of her husband had been hospitalized in Shenyang due to kidney stones. The treatment process was bizarre. When he was wheeled into the operating room to perform the lithotripsy, there was a group of people standing alongside. Behind three interns were patients waiting to undergo the same lithotripsy procedure, all enjoying the "show." After the procedure, the doctor said he could drink some beer to help flush out the now-fragmented stone. However, a few days later, he experienced intense pain in his abdomen, and sensing that something was wrong, immediately returned to Taiwan to seek medical assistance. The doctor informed him that a kidney stone 4.5 centimeters long remained in his body, also telling him that the procedure used in China was harmful to the kidneys, and had ceased being used in Taiwan 20 years earlier. The colleague counted himself lucky that he had chosen to return to Taiwan.
Though she has complaints, Chou acknowledges that China is a major power with undeniable strengths. She once heard a neighbor whose husband was also working in China talk about her experience when she lost the ability to hear in one ear after a cold. A doctor at Wuguan Hospital treated the condition using a new technique. The treatment worked, and was an eye-opener for Chou's doctors in Taiwan--that counted as one positive experience. Perhaps after living in China a little longer, Chou will be like her neighbor, developing some confidence in China's health care system.
