伟大的父母

Recently found out about the life story of a renal patient. She was born in China and then adopted by her current Singaporean parents when she was 6 months old. Unbeknownst to her current parents, her biological mother is hepatitis B positive and I guess in the less developed parts of China they still do not regularly vaccinate the infants when they are born to hepatitis B positive mothers.

In the end, this patient developed hepatitis related liver damage and had to take anti-viral medicine to control the hepatitis. A few years later, she started having renal problems and had to start taking immunosuppresants to control further damage to her kidneys.

According to her mother, $300K per year is not even enough to pay for her hospitalisation fees and medicine. Her husband who was already a retiree had to re-enter the workforce. Guess where he is now. In Iraq. A war-torn country, just to support the high medical expenses.

Frankly I felt a modicum of pity for this couple. They had no children of their own, that is why they've adopted the patient. However, little did they know it was not a healthy baby they had adopted. Yet, when my tech asked the patient's mother if she regretted adopting the patient, her answer was "no". To them she is a sweet girl even when she loses her temper at them. They truly loved her as their own.