Harry Potter and The Third Party

Chapter 6: The Muggle Hospital

Cho looked up at her father through teary eyes, with a sad expression that had become all too common for her.

Pao M. Chang was a dark, athletic man, who usually had a cheery attitude in even the worst situations. He had always been the cheery spirit in the family. Cho envied her father's positive outlook on life. She could never seem to come up with the optimism that he had had come naturally.

Mr. Chang had, until recently, been a lawyer for goblin affairs. He had run a successful practice on the outskirts of Motherwell, Scotland, until moving to London when his wife's condition worsened, and she was put into Wellington Hospital. The healers at St. Mungo's had reached the limits of which magic could be of help.

Now, Mr. Chang was working at Gringotts as an accountant in their Diagon Alley branch. He had landed the job thanks to the help of some of his goblin clients, who had been very grateful for his services in the past in a court case that had returned a large portion of goblin mining rights in the hills of Northern Wales.

But now, Mr. Chang was tired. Not from physical fatigue, but from having to watch the woman he had loved for twenty-four years go through an agonizing illness that no magic could cure. Now he was placing his hopes in science, Muggle science. He was hoping that the technological magic of their machines, and potions that they called drugs, could save the woman that meant more to him than life itself. Both he and Cho would gladly trade places with her to alleviate her pain, but that kind of magic didn't exist when it came to this disease.

Cho and her father walked down the main hallway to a dark brown wooden door with a frosted glass window that had letters painted on it, reading Dr. Claude Gardiah, MD Oncology.

Cho's father rapped on the door and a voice beckoned the two of them inside. They entered a small office with paintings of French countryside and several plaques and awards on the walls. A large wooden mahogany desk took up most of the room, and three black leather chairs surrounded it. Two of the chairs in front of the desk were empty, but in the third chair behind the desk sat an elderly gentleman in a lab coat, a stethoscope hanging around his neck. With a smile, he motioned Cho and her father to sit down.

Dr. Gardiah was one of the world's leading oncologists, and had been taking care of Cho's mother since she had been admitted to Wellington Hospital in midsummer. It had been Dr. Gardiah who had recommended Cho become a volunteer, since she was spending so much time at the hospital, not liking to be too far from her mother for any length of time. The doctor would even mentor Cho when he had a little time, answering many questions about the ingredients of the drugs, effects of the treatments, and purposes of the high-tech equipment in the hospital. The doctor thought Cho was a very bright young girl, very keen to learn, and very hard working. Dr. Gardiah was sorry to see Cho in despair so much of the time, but given the circumstances, it was understandable.

Still, he was proud of the way she was able to turn those emotions off, at least outwardly, to take care of her patients. Cho would put on a caring smile, and make sure the people she was attending received everything they needed. She was actually the most liked volunteer in the hospital. Dr. Gardiah had also observed that Cho was a dutiful daughter, always by her mother's side when she could be. Her father had made her take weekends off to go out and be a normal teenager and have fun. In addition, Cho was attending driving school. But every minute she had free, she spent at her mother's side.

The doctor rose from his seat and leaned over the desk to shake Mr. Chang's hand. "Mr. Chang, how have you been holding up?" he asked.

"Oh, as well as can be expected, doctor. Chi is sleeping. She said she already talked to you in private. We would have preferred to be with her when you told her, but she insisted she wanted to hear the news from you, by herself. And now it's our turn," said Mr. Chang nervously.

"Yes, of course. You see, most of my patients like to hear any news, positive or negative, by themselves first. That way they can have time to recover from the shock, and explain to their family after they have calmed down. But Mrs. Chang was very insistent that I explain it to you, instead of her, as she was in a lot of pain, and wanted to rest as soon as possible. Before I begin, I wanted to ask Miss Chang, did you take the final test this morning?"

Cho raised her head. "Yes, I passed this time. Mrs. Younger said I should receive my card in about a week, just before I go back to school."

Dr. Gardiah beamed. "Good, you passed this time! I knew you would. You've been doing a great job since you've started as a volunteer here. I'm very proud of you."

Cho's face turned a bright shade of red, and she looked away. "Th... thank you, Dr. Gardiah. I'm very grateful to have had the chance to help out," Cho replied.

"Yes, we've been glad to have you. Again, well done." Dr. Gardiah paused for a minute, and his face became grim. "Well, now to some bad news, I'm afraid. As you said, Mrs. Chang wanted to be alone when I gave her my findings. Well, after we performed the core needle biopsy, which draws a small piece of tissue, as opposed to just cells, we found that her tumours are invasive and they have spread. In addition, although the chemotherapy has shrunk the cancer cells somewhat, before she arrived here, the cancer had already spread beyond the breast.

"I don't know what type of treatment they had given her at--St. Mungo's, was it? But there should have been some treatments she needed that don't seem to have been administered. Nowadays, we can catch Breast Cancer a lot earlier than in the past. Ordinarily, we would have performed a lumpectomy, which as you know, Miss Chang, is a breast conserving therapy, which involves removing the cancer from the breast along with a rim of normal tissue, and then removing the auxiliary lymph nodes. The auxiliary lymph nodes are located right at the edge of the breast, under the arm. Then we follow up with radiation therapy to the remainder of the breast.

"But, Mr. Chang, your wife's condition is so advanced that this is no longer an option. So as the cancer has spread throughout the breast, I'm afraid that we must perform a radical mastectomy. What we're actually going to do is a modified radical mastectomy, where we remove the entire breast, including the nipple and lower lymph nodes under the arm."

"What?" Cho shot up out of her seat. "You can't do that! There must be something else! Daddy, tell him to do something else!" Cho looked at her father pleadingly, awash with fresh tears.

"Cho, yo mei yo li mao!" her father shouted in anger, and he glared at her with dagger eyes.

Cho let out a whimper, and sat down, subdued and ashamed. She broke into uncontrollable silent sobs. Cho knew exactly what the procedure involved, as she had devoured every Muggle medical manual she could get her hands on, hoping to find a cure that Muggles had come up with. It seemed every treatment that the Muggles had was being used on her mum, but Cho was also trying to get a better understanding of the disease so she could come up with a cure on her own, so her mother could stop suffering and be healthy again. She knew that if she spent enough time studying, she could come up with a cure. She used to do so well in potions, and now she had to find a cure, soon, but the Muggle doctors wanted to start cutting off parts of her mother's body. Cho knew that the doctors at Wellington hospital were kind people, particularly Dr. Gardiah, but the idea seemed so savage to her.

"Please excuse my daughter's rude outburst, Dr. Gardiah, I am embarrassed. Please continue," said Mr. Chang.

"It's fine, Mr. Chang. You've all been under tremendous stress lately. It's understandable. As the cancer has reached stage B, I'm afraid that a radical mastectomy is unavoidable. And then we will continue with the chemotherapy, and radiation treatment."

After a brief pause Mr. Chang spoke. "Please excuse me, doctor, but the chemotherapy... my wife Chi says it hurts so much. She says it's like putting "Drano" in her veins. Are there no other potions - I mean drugs, you can use?"

The doctor gave a sad sigh. "Well Mr. Chang, she's not too far wrong. Chemotherapy is highly toxic, and although it does a good job at attacking cancer cells, it also attacks healthy tissue. We have to have someone constantly monitor the patient while administering it, because if it gets to the exposed skin, it eats through the flesh like acid. But the chemotherapy helps to shrink the size of the tumors and it is the best drug we have for that. If she's in very serious pain now, I'll authorize an increase in the dosage of morphine in her IV unit, to make her more comfortable."

Mr. Chang nodded. "Doctor, my daughter's outburst was disrespectful, but I... also have to wonder if there is not something else that can be done. I mean, some alternative. There are so many highly technical machines and drugs here. Surely some allow you to not have to cut into her," he said in an almost pleading voice.

Dr. Gardiah looked down. "Mr. Chang, if we are going to save her life, this is the only way. But she can still live a long, healthy, happy life, if we can get all the cancer with this mastectomy. And when she's ready to leave the hospital we can fit her with a very good prosthetic breast as well, if she wishes.

"She will feel a certain sense of loss for a while--it happens to all patients. But once we solve this case, there is no reason that she can't continue just as she was before the cancer. A while after the treatment, if we get all of it, she can go hiking, sailing, or whatever other activities she liked to do.

"If either of you two have any questions, now is a good time to ask, as I'll have her prepped for surgery on Monday."

Cho, who was still racked with silent sobs, now looked up at her father pleadingly. Her tears were flowing quickly down her cheeks. Mr. Chang understood that Cho was desperate to ask about alternatives to the doctor's treatment, and he knew that it would be an effort in vain. But perhaps she needed to hear it from an expert.

"All right, Cho, ask any questions you have now," her father said.

Cho rubbed her bloodshot, puffy eyes, and began to speak as tears still ran down her face. Her words were hesitant and she choked on many of them. "Dr. Gardiah....I'm sorry...f...f...for my outburst earlier. I... I... was reading about... her... hormonal therapy... and... and it said... it said that it could block... the effects of hormones on the tumor cells... causing... causing them to d... die. We... could... give her... more..."

Dr. Gardiah interrupted Cho in a gentle voice. "Miss Chang, we are already giving your mother hormonal treatment. You know that. You ask me in detail very often."

Cho wiped away more tears with the sleeve of her shirt. "I...I...know, but, but... if we gave her more!" Cho pleaded.

"Miss Chang, I'm afraid it doesn't work that way. I'm sorry, but this mastectomy will save her life," the doctor said compassionately.

"But... but I was reading about how... how... doctors in Canada were wo... working with lasers to get rid of the... tumours, and I thought that if...if we...." Cho struggled to get out the words.

Dr. Gardiah sighed again, and nodded his head. "Yes Miss Chang, I went to the seminar about it last year in Calgary, Alberta. But that's for cancer stages 0 and 1. It doesn't work when the cancer has spread this much. Stage III, or B, is just too advanced. But really, Miss Chang, we have pursued every option available to us, and have come to the conclusion that this is the only acceptable solution.

"Now, I know how you feel, but I also know that you've been studying Breast Cancer since your mum was admitted here. You know from your studies that we have to do this, don't you?"

Cho looked up at the doctor one more time, and nodded. "Yes... yes... I... I know. But I've... I was trying to find a cure. I know I can. I just need more time. I've been trying..." She trailed off.

"That's good, Miss Chang, but it takes several years of medical training to get a good understanding of what to try and do as far as research goes. Every doctor here, including myself, is trying to find a cure, and we have the help of doctors all over the world. One day we will find one, and maybe if you're a doctor in a few years, you'll play an intricate part in it. But until then, stop trying to take this burden on. It's enough that you are there for your mother. I've seen you by her side almost every night, and it's enough that you do that for her.

"Are there any other questions you have for me now? I don't mean to rush you, but I've a very important meeting to go to in fifteen minutes."

Mr. Chang said, "Well doctor, what time should we be back on Monday?"

Dr. Gardiah stretched his arms, and yawned. "Excuse me. A bit tired. You should both be here at about nine in the morning. I'll be prepping her for surgery at ten, and performing the surgery at noon."

Mr. Chang gave a wan smile, stood up, and shook the doctor's hand. "Thank you, doctor. Thank you for everything. If you'll excuse us, we have to go and say goodbye to Chi for the weekend."

As the two of them walked out of the office, Cho turned to the doctor. "Sir, I... I'm sorry about before; I'm just really scared."

Dr. Gardiah gave a nod. "Miss Chang, at this hospital we have a very high recovery rate. I've seen patients even worse off than your mother make a full recovery. Just have hope."

Cho nodded one more time. "I... I will, thanks, doctor. Thank you."

Cho and her father now stood by her mother in her hospital room. Chi was not the only patient that occupied it. Another woman in her mid-sixties was visiting with family behind a closed curtain. Cho could hear them talking about how the woman was going home in a few days. The lumpectomy she had had rid her of all the cancer, and all her follow up tests came negative. She was going to go home soon with her son, and husband, and their mood was happy.

Cho was envious. She wished that they could be like that family, that her mother could make a full recovery from her Breast Cancer.

"Breast Cancer," Cho thought. What a horrible thing. It was a name that Cho feared worse than the name of any Dark Lord. It was the material of her nightmares to constantly have the image of her mum suffering. It was one of the few diseases that had the same name in the wizarding and Muggle world.

But why did the healers at St. Mungo's not employ some of the Muggle techniques if magic did not work against this disease? Why had they not had her mother transferred to the Muggle hospital earlier? Because the thought of someone cutting on another person to help them get well was so foreign to the wizarding community? Possibly, but Cho wasn't sure. She was learning a lot of things as a volunteer in the hospital that the wizarding world didn't have, like first aid. Well, she had learned a similar temporary patch spell that was all well and good, but you needed your wand, and what if for some reason you didn't have your wand with you? Why not learn some Muggle first aid, just in case?

It didn't make any sense to Cho. She looked down at her unconscious mother lying in her hospital bed, hooked up to an IV that would every so often drip morphine to keep pain from her. Unfortunately, the morphine also put her mum to sleep often, or made her groggy, just like a lot of the charms used at St. Mungo's to lessen the pain.

Cho thought her mother a beautiful, strong-willed person. Cho reflected on vivid memories of her mother teaching her how to swim, and going on hiking trips during the summer holidays, and even going to the goblin cart races with her parents. Her mum had always been so active and full of life back then, and now as Cho looked at her, her mum's beautiful dark skin was a pasty yellow. The long, raven black hair that used to cover her mum's head was now gone, lost to the chemotherapy.

But Chi Chang was still beautiful to her daughter, who wanted more than anything in the world for her to get better. Cho watched her father talk softly into her unconscious mum's ear. He then kissed her on the forehead, and walked to the door with a sad look in his eyes. The men in the Chang family did not cry in front of anyone, but Cho knew he wanted to.

Cho gave her mother a tight hug, not ever wanting to let go for fear of losing her. But she let go after a minute, knowing it was time to leave. "I love you, mama. We'll be back on Monday. The doctors are going to cure you. We'll go and see the Tornadoes play again next year." Cho kissed her mum on the cheek.

Cho and her father walked out of the room and made their way to the lift and from there to the car park, and they got in the van that her uncle had lent them. Then they started on their way home, down the narrow London streets.

"Dad, I was thinking. Maybe... maybe I should stay here this year. I mean, I need to be close to mum, and I know you'll both need me. I'll work really hard and-"

Her father let out an exhausted sigh. "No, Cho, that's not going to help. Look, your mum wants you to finish school. It's important to her that you graduate. Now look, I... I know you want to help, but believe me; your mother is in the best medical care in the country, and in fact in the world, Muggle or wizarding. You've been right by her side all summer, and she's very proud of you, such a dutiful daughter, how could she not be? I'm also very proud of you, Cho. But this is your last year of school, and your marks have to improve. I don't want to get another note from Professor Flitwick. He and I both know what high marks you're capable of getting."

Cho put her head on the cold window of the vehicle. The last year at Hogwarts, she thought... and not a clue what she wanted to do afterwards. She could go to the Healers' school in St. Mungo's South Wing for Advanced Magical Healing Training, or she could go to a Muggle university to study to be a doctor. Cho used to have dreams of playing Quidditch for the Tornadoes in the league, or even for Scotland in the World Cup, but those dreams were crushed when she kept losing her concentration last year, and lost the Cup because she couldn't get Harry Potter out of her head. She vowed never to play again. All she ever did with it was let people down who depended on her.

Yeah, she thought. I can just see myself playing for the Tornadoes now. Not catching the snitch, and losing every game for them. I don't belong anywhere near a Quidditch Pitch.

Her father made a right turn onto Nelson Road. "Almost there," he said. "Home and tea."