preface
On the morning of November 20, 2013, Lao Liu, a transportation worker at the Hefei Funeral Home, sent the body to the morgue as usual. Behold
As he prepared to leave the morgue, he heard two faint baby cries.
Being able to serve the funeral home "this bowl of rice", Lao Liu is naturally bold. Corpses, deaths, he had long been accustomed to.
But there was a baby crying in the morgue, which was the first time it had been seen. Old Liu couldn't help but be frightened and his scalp was tingling, and his forehead was full of fine cold sweat.
"I guess it's hallucinations." Old Liu walked quickly out of the "ghost place" of the morgue, comforting himself that it was just an illusion.
At about 10 a.m., Lao Liu transported another corpse to the morgue, and with a palpitation in his heart, he looked around, thinking that he had just been frightened before, and he did not expect to hear a clearer baby crying than the last time.
"The nurse sent 3 dead babies in the morning, it won't be..."
Although he was almost frightened, Lao Liu still, holding his breath, walked to the place where the dead baby was placed, and opened the three packages one by one with his hands.
The first dead baby did not respond, the second dead baby "slept" very peacefully, and when the third package was about to be opened, Lao Liu closed his eyes in fright, and when he opened his eyes, he took a few steps back in fright, and cried out: "My mother." ”
I saw a bruised baby boy waving his small hands weakly, his mouth slightly open, and his feet fluttering a few times from time to time.
The soulless old Liu screamed in fright in an instant, fixed his mind, and quickly ran to the leader of the museum to report this strange thing. Soon, first responders and police officers rushed to the scene.
The police examined the death certificate issued by the Department of Neonatal Medicine of Anhui Provincial Hospital to the baby boy and found that the baby boy had been declared "ineffective and dead" on November 18, two days ago.
Why is a dead baby sent to a funeral home for cremation "resurrected"? Is it a hospital misdiagnosis or is there something else hidden? How will his parents react to his "resurrection"?
As the investigation deepens, the tragic fate of the baby boy is revealed little by little.
Why his fate is a tragedy begins with his congenital illness.
Newborn babies are abandoned due to illness
"Babies with neonatal pneumonia, congenital bilateral posterior nostril atresia, and brain injury in preterm infants."
On October 28, 2013, a couple surnamed Li from a county in northern Anhui Province transferred their premature baby to Anhui Provincial Children's Hospital, and the results of the hospital's review made them deeply desperate.
Due to the child's critical condition, there have been several episodes of respiratory and cardiac arrest during treatment. On November 18, this little poor boy who had just been born for more than 40 days suddenly became bruised, and his heartbeat and breathing stopped again.
The doctors immediately rescued him, but the little poor lost his vital signs, so the tube bed doctor issued a death certificate.
But no one could have imagined that the child was just "suspended", and that he had regained his breathing and "resurrected" that night.
Originally, according to the regulations, the body of the deceased in the hospital due to ineffective rescue should be immediately sent to the funeral home for cremation, why was this poor child sent to the morgue on the morning of the 20th?
It turned out that the staff responsible for sending such remains to the funeral home on the 18th day temporarily placed the children's remains in an idle ward because they were "in an emergency and could not leave".
The weather in November was already chilly, but fortunately the temperature in the ward was relatively warm, so that the baby who survived that night would not freeze to death.
On the morning of the 20th, the staff took the poor child to the funeral home along with the bodies of two other babies. Then there's the scene at the beginning of this article.
This poor child, who was born only 40 days ago, has been suffering from illness since he fell to the ground;
Because of his serious illness and "suspended death", after being misjudged by doctors to die, he struggled for dozens of hours without being fed and caring for.
Out of his survival instinct and tenacious will, he tried his best to make a few cries at the critical moment when he was about to be cremated, saving his life.
However, even if the baby boy's will to survive is so tenacious, he can never escape the fate of tragedy. Because his biological parents had given up on him a week earlier.
After the baby was transferred to Anhui Provincial Children's Hospital for treatment, the doctor continued to take anti-infection symptomatic supportive treatment, and in just two weeks, this treatment alone cost all his parents' savings.
On November 12, his father consulted a Shanghai expert and learned that the child's illness was a "bottomless pit" and made a helpless and cruel decision: to abandon treatment.
On the same day, after the husband and wife surnamed Li signed the agreement of "entrusting full authority", they settled all the expenses and left the hospital with tears.
"In a similar situation, most parents will continue treatment or take their children home. Like this kind of parents insist on giving up, our approach is to continue to treat, can be cured to send children's welfare homes, and can not be cured until the end of life. ”
Hospitals are also commonplace for seriously ill children to be abandoned by their parents, and in the spirit of humanitarianism and the benevolence of doctors, after 12 November, hospitals continue to feed and treat children.
Deterioration of his condition and unfortunate death
Only 40 days old, the biological flesh and blood, after the fake death was mistakenly judged to die, in the case of hunger and cold, alone in the ward, morgue for dozens of hours, and finally miraculously survived.
Hearing such "good news", as biological parents, how did they react? Is it sadness or joy or sorrow?
When the police contacted the baby's parents, they got this reply: "If the treatment is not good, we have no money to treat, do not go to visit, leave it to the hospital." ”
As the old saying goes, "If you don't die, you will be blessed." But this sentence was not fulfilled in this poor child.
On November 22, the third day of the "resurrection", perhaps without the protection of parents and relatives, or the life has really come to an end, the baby who has been tormented since birth did not continue the miracle.
"Pulmonary hemorrhage and multi-organ failure, ineffective rescue, pronounced death."
This time, the death certificate signed by the doctor was no longer questioned, and the little poor body was once again sent to the funeral home, pushed into the crematorium, and left the world that he had not yet seen properly.
"This is a mistake in the management of our hospital, and if the examination is more careful, the child can suffer less."
After the child's death, the nurses responsible for transporting the remains, the bed control doctors and others were punished accordingly, and those who should be expelled were dismissed, and those who had their licenses revoked were revoked, all of which paid the price for their negligence.
Is it guilty to abandon a sick child?
After the relevant responsible personnel of the hospital were punished, public opinion pointed the spearhead at the parents of the children, denouncing their cruelty and irresponsibility, and calling for legal sanctions.
So, does this pair of young parents constitute the sin of abandonment in the whole thing? Is there legal liability?
Because they signed an agreement with the hospital to renounce treatment, giving the child full authority to the hospital, rather than illegally abandoning it without the hospital's knowledge, they did not constitute the crime of abandonment.
However, the punishment of the law can be avoided, and the public opinion condemnation caused by the ethical and moral "illegality" cannot be avoided.
"If we hadn't saved him in the first place, we would have abandoned him and deserved to be scolded for the rest of our lives."
"We were cured, and all the 100,000 pieces of savings were spent, but there was really no way out, we couldn't save it, so we gave up."
In the face of the media and public opinion's questioning and accusations, the poor parents of the little poor tearfully asked the public to forgive them, "Those who have to give up only when they have to give up, people's hearts are made of meat, and we are more heartbroken than anyone." ”
It is understood that the father of the child was the first to know about the resurrection of the child, and he was also the only one in the family who knew.
He said: "Hide it from the family, especially his mother, this matter is undoubtedly sprinkled with salt on the wound." ”
Indeed, the little poor parents are different from some parents who have abandoned their children just after they have found faults, they have given everything they have to save their children, and finally made compromises in despair and helplessness.
If there is enough financial strength, if the child's chance of recovery and survival is greater, I think they should not sign the waiver agreement.
Without suffering from others, do not persuade others to be good. We bystanders have no right to judge and condemn their choices.
The accusations of outsiders will one day disappear, and the self-condemnation they generate as a result may always haunt their hearts.
But then again, whether from the legal or moral level, giving up treatment and depriving children of their right to live is illegal and reasonable.
Parents should have a feeling of licking.
Although the little poor parents have exhausted their family wealth in order to save their children, no matter how much they are involuntary, they should not refuse to visit after the miraculous survival of their children.
Even if there is no hope for the baby to be rescued, the companionship and waiting at the end of life is also an indispensable love, and it is the warmth that the baby should enjoy in the world.
With high costs and hopeless treatment, they chose to give up as a helpless move; but refusing to visit and responding indifferently was obviously a moralistic and cold-blooded move.
How to avoid a recurrence of tragedy?
"We can't deliberately kill children, this year alone, our hospital has treated 39 abandoned children with such serious diseases, and advanced nearly one million medical expenses, living expenses and other expenses..."
In the face of public questioning and condemnation, the president of Anhui Provincial Children's Hospital felt very aggrieved, she said that the hospital will treat many seriously ill children abandoned by their parents every year, and will not deliberately do the evil deeds that everyone guesses.
"Some parents can't afford medical expenses, some worry about the sequelae when they grow up, and they can't afford maintenance... Left at the door of the hospital, in the ward, or directly signed an agreement to abandon treatment. ”
"The hospital can't help it, they're here with us 'throwing baggage', we can only do our best."
Another pediatrician also said that the hospital has never ignored the seriously ill children, he said: "For example, there is a child with bone marrow hematopoietic disorder, the parents gave up, our hospital volunteered to treat for more than 5 months, follow-up bone marrow transplantation needs more than 300,000 yuan, the hospital bears a part, the rest rely on medical insurance and social fundraising." ”
Although some hospital scandals sometimes break out, it is not uncommon for seriously ill children to be abandoned and hospitals to treat them at their own expense, after all, the vast majority of doctors have a benevolent heart and are full of compassion.
Why do the tragedies of abandoned children who are seriously ill occur so often? The unaffordable high cost of medical care may be the main reason.
When parents are unable to treat these babies with serious diseases, especially congenital diseases, society should lend a helping hand to them.
It is gratifying that in recent years, the medical insurance system has been continuously improved, and the pressure on the treatment of seriously ill children is gradually being alleviated. For example, Anhui Province has launched a pilot project to help children with serious illnesses since 2010, and rural children under the age of 14 with leukemia and congenital heart disease can be reimbursed up to 90% of their medical expenses.
At the same time, the low cost of abandonment is also one of the main reasons for condoning the abandonment of seriously ill children.
Therefore, the cost of parents abandoning minor children should be increased, and the crime of abandonment must be strictly implemented in judicial practice.
When parents do have to abandon their minor children because they cannot afford treatment, the society also works together to help these families and build a reliable "safety net" for the treatment and growth of the children.
Whether healthy or not, whether born in wedlock or out of wedlock, or having an unplanned birth, all children have the dignity of life, and no one, including the parents who gave them life, has the right to deprive them of their right to have children.
Every tiny life should enjoy the warmth of the world and the dignity of being a human being.
May the tragedy of the abandonment of the child not be repeated.