Hospitals really are troubled without a thoracic surgery department!
Or rather, the lack of any department can be quite problematic.
At this moment, Xiao He encountered just such a problem!
Old Yang was a long-term patient of Xiao He's as well as a fellow villager, having been under Xiao He's care for over a decade. In 2007, due to his spouse experiencing rectal bleeding, they came for a colonoscopy, and at the urging of his son, Little Yang, Old Yang—out of curiosity—also underwent a gastroscopy.
But what they didn't expect was the discovery of a polyp during the check-up, which after a pathological examination, turned out to be gastric cancer!
This was a huge blow to an already impoverished family.
Once diagnosed, treatment was necessary. The family went all in, spending over a hundred thousand in the capital for surgery, and the constant medication further strained Old Yang's finances to the brink of collapse.