Twilight years dogged by medical woes
My family life plunged into chaos a month ago when my father suddenly collapsed and went into a coma on the day he and my mother came to visit us in Beijing.
He was diagnosed as having suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and was placed under intensive care in two top hospitals. After undergoing sophisticated medical procedures that included sending a platinum coil through a blood vessel to pack and seal off a leaking artery in the brain, he finally woke up last week to his anxious, weeping family, and the somber reality of ailing retirees' healthcare woes.
My parents, both in their 70s, belong to the millions of senior citizens who visit their children in cities with warmer climate or public central heating systems during the Spring Festival holidays. They usually stay with us for several months until the chilly, damp weather retreated from their town on the Yangtze River.
