Chapter 2151: Chapter 2151: What’s Going On
The child is lying on the sofa.
Mother Xie appears very calm with a trace of professionalism.
Tan Kelin seems to understand where his student’s overly detached cold thinking comes from at times.
Turning around, it’s important to examine the patient first.
This examination was astonishing, feeling abruptly like a scene shifting to two different worlds.
How so? It’s clear that the child’s mother is not flustered when meeting the doctor, nor does she appear scared. The child’s sister is a medical student, so she is even less likely to be afraid. But what’s happening with this child? His whole body is trembling incessantly, shaking like leaves in an autumn breeze, his small nostrils breathing rapidly, face turning pale, and hands and feet icy cold.
For a moment, if you weren’t paying attention, you’d think the illness within this child is severe enough to be on the verge of shock.
"Is he afraid of the doctor?"
Upon hearing this slightly stern question from the new doctor, Sun Rongfang said, "My son is a bit afraid of seeing doctors."
This is not a bit, it’s a panic disorder, a classic case of white coat syndrome.
Sun Rongfang had to admit that her son is afraid of hospitals and seeing doctors. This possibly has to do with the environmental factors of the Xie Family. Grandpa Xie and Grandma Xie are interested in taking care of grandsons, not granddaughters.
When her daughter was young, she didn’t stay with her paternal grandparents but instead stayed with her maternal grandfather. Her son, on the other hand, stayed with his paternal grandparents.
Grandpa Sun believes in science and doesn’t shun hospitals and doctors. Grandpa Xie and Grandma Xie are different; they believe going to the hospital is bad luck.
It’s normal for people to die in hospitals because when people get sick, they go to the hospital for treatment, and some diseases can’t be cured so they die. Grandpa Xie and Grandma Xie only see and hear the side of hospitals where people die, ignoring the side where hospitals cure diseases, thinking that not going to the hospital means you won’t die, showing an extreme rejection of hospitals.
Back when her daughter chose to study medicine, the members of the Old Xie Family didn’t like it and were fiercely opposed, partly for this reason. Other people think having a great doctor in the family is impressive. The Old Xie Family doesn’t think so and sneers at this.
Instead of going to the hospital, they prefer burning incense and praying to Buddha for peace. Whenever a family member falls ill, Grandpa Xie and Grandma Xie first seek out fortune tellers to discuss Feng Shui rather than going to a doctor.
What if the illness becomes severe, wouldn’t they need treatment? The Old Xie Family would seek out private doctors like them who burn incense and pray to Buddha. These types of doctors can treat minor ailments. For serious illnesses, Sun Rongfang recalls the time when Xie Family’s elder aunt fell ill. Domestic medical technology at the time was relatively poor, but tumor surgery wasn’t impossible. The Old Xie Family, perhaps to save money, didn’t send this elder aunt to the hospital for treatment, so she languished at home until her death.
Sun Rongfang only learned about this years later from the old neighbors of the Old Xie Family, which scared her terribly, and she insisted on taking her son back to raise herself no matter what.
The low cultural level, stubbornness, and superstition are vividly evident in the two elders of the Old Xie Family. Sun Rongfang fears that her husband might be brainwashed by such elders. After all, many people in the Old Xie Family, including the daughters-in-law married into the family, have been severely brainwashed by these two elderly people. They would say that letting hospitals and doctors treat illnesses will only worsen the condition.
Now, hearing the Capital’s great doctor mention it, Sun Rongfang suddenly understood. While it’s understandable for people to have a fear of hospitals and doctors due to a reverence for death, excessive fear is a disease. The Old Xie Family collectively suffers from severe white coat syndrome, a psychiatric disorder. If Grandpa Xie and Grandma Xie were to go to the hospital for treatment, they’d surely be like young Xie Youtian now, shaking on the bed non-stop.
