Run DMC/Hospital Chaos

First, allow me to share a photo with you.  

On Mondays and Thursdays I teach a class of 12 three year olds, and this week one came in wearing a Run DMC t-shirt.  I don’t know if anyone back home will think this is at all funny, but I died laughing.  In China English writing is a trendy fashion just because of the way it looks.  Often people will go to the market and buy clothes and not even read what they say, even my friends who speak great English do this.  I know this kid’s parents and there is absolutely no chance that they know who Run DMC is, and what’s further funny is how did this get onto a child size shirt in China? Random.

Now, allow me to share a story with you.

This week my dear friend, Alan, got super sick and had to go to the hospital.  We sent him to  the hospital that we always go to where they give foreigners, “VIP treatment”.  Once there, they hooked him up to a drip and started giving him fluids.  I don’t exactly know what happened but they told him to hold some kind of pump and then the nurse left the room.  Alan pushed the pump and all of a sudden his blood started going up the tube.  The nurse came back into the room, saw his blood going up the tube, screamed, and then her first reaction was to run over to his hand and ripe the IV out. Instantly all this blood shot out, spraying the floors and walls like a scene from a horror movie.  Within seconds his hand had swelled up to an alarming size.  An older nurse came in and saw the chaos and started laughing.  She instructed the younger one to mop up the mess (which she did with towels and no disinfectant) and then told Alan not to worry, the swelling in his hand would go down in 1-3 days!

For what it’s worth I told this story to like six of my Chinese friends over lunch and they were as horrified with the hospital as I was, though maybe not surprised.  In true Chinese fashion they started brainstorming how they could help poor Alan, “I know the number of a better hospital I can take him there.” “You should’ve called me to go with you!”

Oh, my dear China.