The two brothers are visiting their mother in the hospital ward. Zhou Jianwen, a 17-year-old boy from Huachi in Yongning Street, Pukou District, Nanjing, has a 16-year-old brother, Zhou Jianwu, and a 10-year-old sister. A month ago, misfortune struck their family of five: their father died of lung cancer, and half a month later, their mother disappeared on her way to buy groceries. It wasn't until a few days ago that the three children, who had been searching for five days, saw a police notice seeking relatives and learned that their mother was in the hospital, severely injured and unconscious. In the face of unexpected calamity, Zhou Jianwen, 17, and his brother said through tears that the family must not break apart; they would support this unfortunate family and also ensure their younger sister could attend university.
After a car accident, the woman fell into a deep coma without any identification. On the noon of June 23, the Jiangbei People's Hospital received a middle-aged woman who was in a deep coma due to a car accident. Her head was injured, her pupils dilated, but there were no items on her that could identify her, preventing the police from contacting her family. Within five days, medical staff and patients' families took turns caring for this unknown woman.
Yesterday, Director Jiang of the hospital's neurosurgery department said that if the patient's family was not found soon, the patient might have no hope left. The hospital eventually made the difficult decision to perform a risky craniotomy for the woman. The surgery lasted two hours, clearing the hematoma under the dura mater, allowing her to temporarily escape life-threatening danger. After the operation, the woman was sent to the intensive care unit, but no one came to visit her. She relied entirely on the care of the medical staff. "She can only maintain nutrition through intravenous fluids and remains unconscious. Her excretion relies on catheterization," the neurosurgery medical staff said. The surgery and medical expenses amounted to more than 30,000 yuan, yet the woman showed no signs of waking up. During the five days she was hospitalized, her family did not arrive, so the police posted notices seeking her family.
The three children searched for their mother for five days before discovering the notice. On the noon of June 23, inside a civilian house under the overpass at Huachi in Yongning Street, Pukou, the three children waited in vain for their mother to return for lunch, none of them touching their chopsticks. Since June 8, when their father passed away, their mother became the sole pillar of the family. Now, three hours had passed since she went to the market to buy vegetables, causing great anxiety among the children.
"It's too strange. My brother and I followed the route our mother took several times but couldn't find her," Zhou Jianwen said in the hospital yesterday. "A soy sauce vendor said that around 9 o'clock in the morning, my mother rode her electric tricycle home."
For the next four days, he and his brother set out early each day to search. Their family is from Anhui and works in Nanjing with no relatives here. Zhou Jianwen borrowed 300 yuan from his employer at the mine as travel expenses, searching everywhere his mother might have gone, but found no clues.
On June 27, just as they were preparing to search in their hometown in Anhui, Zhou Jianwu heard from a neighbor that the traffic police had posted a notice on the street seeking the family of an injured woman in a car accident. The brothers immediately rushed over and indeed found a notice on a utility pole: "At around 9 o'clock in the morning on June 23, a woman riding an electric tricycle had a car accident nearby, suffering severe head injuries and is currently being treated at Jiangbei People's Hospital. The woman is about 50 years old, wearing a floral shirt and black vest, with no identification documents on her." Zhou Jianwu felt like being hit by five thunderbolts; these characteristics all matched, so he immediately took his brother and sister by bus to Jiangbei People's Hospital.
According to a nurse in the neurosurgery department of Jiangbei People's Hospital, the three children cried loudly when they saw their mother wrapped in bandages and hooked up to a ventilator, unable to wake up. There were no other adults around, which surprised everyone. "When we asked why no adults had come, we didn't expect a slightly taller child to step forward and say he was the oldest," the nurse said.
The two brothers resolved to support the family. Zhou Jianwen is only 17 years old. Due to family poverty, he dropped out of school after elementary school and came with his parents to Pukou to grow vegetables and raise pigs. Last year, his father was diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer, losing an important labor force in the family. Jianwen worked as a mason on construction sites, earning 40 yuan per day, using the money for his father's treatment and his sister's schooling. He never spent a penny on himself and had never eaten at KFC. Earlier this year, he was introduced to work at a stone mine, earning 1,600 yuan per month with meals included. However, this job was very heavy, requiring him to carry stones, leaving his hands full of calluses.
On June 8, Zhou Jianwen's father passed away. He told reporters that his father instructed him on his deathbed: his sister was still young, his mother was getting older, and the future of the family now depended on him. His younger sister excelled academically, and he must ensure she could attend university.
A family member of another patient in the neurosurgery department said these three children were pitiful. Seeing them quietly wiping away tears was heart-wrenching. They hadn't changed clothes for several days. Everyone felt sorry for them, some bringing clothes from home for them to change into, and a doctor, seeing family members giving them steamed buns to eat, secretly slipped them 100 yuan to buy something better.
Neighbors reported that the second son stopped attending school after the first year of junior high. After his father's illness worsened, he managed the household, feeding seven fattened pigs twice daily, and making breakfast for his younger sister, while his mother and older brother mainly earned money outside. On June 8, Jianwu was accompanying his father to the hospital in Anhui when his father collapsed just after getting off the car and never woke up. At 16, he witnessed his father passing away on the street and later contacted the local funeral home to transport his father's body back to Nanjing.
Planning to sell two pigs to treat their mother's injuries, Jianwen and Jianwu learned from the traffic police that on the morning of June 23, their mother had overturned her electric tricycle at a crossroads in Huachi Camp, hitting her head and sustaining serious injuries. This was considered a single-party accident, meaning the medical expenses would have to be borne by the injured party herself.
A neurosurgeon said that the patient currently lacks self-awareness, although temporarily out of immediate danger, further observation is needed. She may lose functionality or even become a vegetable. Optimistically, she could be discharged in two months, with costs estimated between 80,000 to 100,000 yuan. The Zhou brothers said they planned to sell two pigs first, which could fetch around 3,500 yuan. How to get through the current difficulties and what to do next? "Even if mom doesn't wake up, the family cannot fall apart. No matter how hard it gets, we will persevere. We, the two men of the family, will ensure our sister becomes a college student," Zhou Jianwen said resolutely.
By Ren Guoxiong (Text/Photography)