“This is Dr. Chen Chi-Li,” Tse said. He then introduced ChiLi to Marissa, Tristan, and Bentley.
Chi-Li bowed. Then he smiled, revealing large, yellow teeth.
He spoke quickly in guttural Cantonese.
“He welcomes you to his clinic,” Tse said.
“He thinks it is an honor to have an American and an Australian doctor visit. He asks if you would care to see his facility.”
“What about the transportation?” Tristan asked.
“The clinic has a van,” Tse said.
“The van will take us to Shigi.
From Shigi he said that we can take a bus to Forshan, then a train to Guangzhou.”
“How much will he charge for the van?” Tristan asked.
“There will be no charge,” Tse said.
“We will go with several patients being sent to the district hospital.”
“Fine,” Tristan said.
“Let’s see the bugger’s clinic.”
With Chi-Li and Tse leading, the group toured the clinic. The rooms were essentially bare except for crude furniture here and there. The procedure room was especially stark, with a rusted steel table, a porcelain sink, and one ancient glass cabinet full of instruments.
Seeing that Marissa seemed interested in the instrument cabinet,
Chi-Li went over and opened the door for her.
Marissa winced when she looked into a tin of non disposable needles that had become dull from overuse. It made her realize how much she took for granted in her office and at the Boston Memorial. As her eyes wandered to the upper shelf, she saw packages of vaccines, including a cholera vaccine made in the United States. Then she noticed some vials of BCG. She remembered
Tse’s having mentioned their use in tuberculosis inoculations.
Marissa was curious about BCG, particularly since it had never been proven to be effective in the United States. She reached into the cabinet and lifted one of the vials. Reading the label, she discovered it had been made in France.
“Ask Chi-Li if he sees much tuberculosis,” Marissa asked as she replaced the BCG vial. She glanced at the other contents of the cabinet while Tse spoke with the man.
“He sees about the same as I,” Tse reported.
Marissa closed the cabinet door.
“Ask him if he ever sees TB as a female problem,” she asked. She watched Chi-Li’s face as Tse translated. There was always the chance she could hit on something unexpected. But Chi-Li’s expression reflected a negative response to the question. Tse translated that Chi-Li had seen nothing of the kind.
Leaving the procedure room, they walked into an examining room. A female patient was sitting on a chair in the corner. She stood and bowed as the group entered.
Marissa bowed back, sorry to have intruded. Suddenly Marissa stopped. In the center of the room was a relatively modern examining table, complete with stainless steel stirrups.
Seeing the table brought back all the unpleasant procedures she’d endured over the last year in the course of her fertility treatments. She was surprised to see such a modern piece of equipment at the clinic; nearly everything else she’d seen was quite dated and rudimentary.
Stepping over to the table, Marissa absently fingered one of the stirrups.
“How did this examining table get here?” she asked.
“The same way all the other equipment got here,” Tse said.
“Most of the rural health clinics have such a table.”
Marissa nodded as if she understood. But she didn’t. Of all the pieces of modern equipment to be sent to rural clinics, it seemed strange for them to choose an examining table with stirrups. But having read of the bureaucratic mismanagement problems of
Communist governments, she assumed this was just another case in point.
“We use such a table frequently,” Tse said.
“Birth control has been gi vena high priority by the government.”
“I see,” Marissa said. She was about to walk on when she looked back at the table. She was puzzled.
“What type of birth control do you favor?” she asked.
“Intrauterine devices?”
“No,” Tse said.
“Diaphragms?” Marissa asked, even though she knew they couldn’t use diaphragms since they were too expensive and not effective enough. Yet why a table equipped for internal exams?
“We use sterilization,” Tse said.
“After one child the woman is often sterilized. Sometimes we perform sterilization even before the woman has a child if there is a request or if the woman should not have a child.”