Marjie Post

If you are ever in China, you don't want to get sick or hurt in Beijing! I have a student, Dawn, who develop incredible pain at 11 pm the other night; she called herself an ambulance; another student, William, jumped in with her because he knew she should not go to the hospital alone. Turned out, she had kidney stones. William sat next to her bed all night and even paid her bill, about 700 yen (around $116) since she had no money.

William did not call the school until 11:00 the next morning to tell us what was going on. The Chinese staff here told William to come back immediateIy or risk being expelled; so he hopped in a cab and returned just as I was leaving to visit her at lunch time. He jumped back in my cab because he said I would never find her in such a large hospital, especially since I don't speak Chinese! 

When we got there, she was not in her bed and no one working in the hospital knew where she was! They only knew that she had left with her purse right after William left. Turns out, she was trying to find somewhere to buy porridge, the only thing she was allowed to eat. And get this--hospitals here do not feed their patients! Family and friends are supposed to get them food. This hospital, supposedly one of the best in the area, looked like a make-shift triage area from M.A.S.H.--all kinds of personnel walking around, wearing masks, looking busy, but no one helping the patients or even keeping track of where they are! Since William had been ordered to return to school, Dawn figured she was on her own for food and headed out into the streets to find it.