The story starts three posts down.
"Tomorrow we're going to operate on her again", says Director Qiao.
The 7th of April 8 o'clock. Doctors, nurses and more and more people surround the child's sickbed. Today the child will have her 5th surgery. "If all goes well this will be her last one", says Director Qiao.
Today they want to transplant skin to the burnt parts of her body that have not been treated yet. A doctor shaves her head until she is bareheaded. During the operation they take skin from her head and transplant it to her body. The skin on the head is supplied well with blood and also grows fast. "Later, when her hair is long you will not be able to see the scars at all", says the doctor.
The child is crying softly. Maybe she knows what is going to happen, maybe not. She would cry anyway.
8:36. A nurse pushes her bed into the elevator. The operating room is on the 7th floor, room no. 3. The child is brought into the operating room. Now there are only doctors surrounding the child, plus me. The waiting room in the hallway for family is deserted. With a clip her tiny hands are fixed. A monitor is switched on. The clip looks huge on the child, will her fingers hurt? The heart rate is normal, oxygen saturation in her body is normal, blood pressure is also normal.
"Give her oxygen." The nurse connects an oxygen pipe.
"Anesthesia." The anesthetist applies a general anesthesia.
Two assistant doctors open the bandages on the child's body and apply iodine to the wounds. This must really hurt.
"Did she fall asleep?", I asked. The child's eyes are still open, but they have another expression now.
"She is not sleeping, she is under narcotize."
Her whole body is already narcotized, but her eyes are still open, filled with tears. Slowly her eyes close. The operation starts.
All monitors in the operating resound from the child's heartbeat. Bung, bung bung, bung, it sounds soft, but energetic and very stable. 135 times every minute.
At 9:50 all wounds on the child's body are dealt with. The blood from the transfusion is entering the child's body drop by drop. "To prevent her from losing too much blood, we already transported 75 ml of blood to her last night. Now needs 225 ml more", says Director Qiao. The child is very small, but she doesn't have a lot of blood.
At 10 after 10 Director Qiao starts to remove skin from the child's head. Bung, bung, bung, bung, her pulse is normal. She sleeps quietly like a log. She sees nothing, she knows nothing. I leave the operating room. She is only a one and half year old child. All the things she is exposed to now I don't dare to witness. Dressed in a germ free gown I stand stiffly in the hall way.
(Didn't have time to finish the story yet)
