Of the three groups of people scheduled to arrive on Wednesday, the first to show up were Dr. Kevin Vega and his patient.
At 9:40 in the morning, the group of four arrived at the Affiliated Hospital.
A little after eleven in the morning, Yan Feifan finished two intraspinal tumor puncture and injection procedures and hurried over to the Little Red House. There, he met Mr. Vega and the patient he had brought with him.
The patient was an American woman with light reddish hair, forty-one years old this year.
She was accompanied by her husband and son.
Yan Feifan exchanged a few words with the patient, advising her to rest well today and tomorrow to get over her jet lag, so she would be in good spirits for her surgery on Friday.
Afterward, he invited Mr. Vega to join him for lunch.
Inside the Little Red House was a small, elegant restaurant.
It provided Western-style meals for the foreign patients treated there and their families.
Of course, Chinese food was also available.
Yan Feifan ordered several Chinese dishes for Mr. Vega that were suited to Western dining habits and palates.
Staple food: Chinese hamburgers—roujiamo;
Main course: Sweet and sour pork tenderloin;
Vegetable salad: Sliced tomatoes with sugar;
Soup: Thick beef soup.
As Mr. Vega ate these simple yet delicious dishes, he nodded frequently and couldn’t stop praising how tasty they were.
"Mr. Yan, Mr. Zhou Yan’s current recovery has not only filled Ms. Caroline with confidence, but it has also greatly boosted my own."
Mr. Vega said with an eager expression, "I hope our collaboration on Friday goes smoothly and we achieve even greater success."
"I hope so too," Yan Feifan agreed.
As for the matter with Sun Le’s younger brother, Yan Feifan couldn’t think of a good way to broach the subject, so he decided to be direct.
"Mr. Vega, there’s something I’d like to ask you for help with."
Vega put down his knife and fork, took a sip of ice water, and said, "Mr. Yan, please tell me the details."
Yan Feifan organized his thoughts and said, "The younger brother of a colleague of mine is a bioengineering major at New York University. His grades are outstanding, and he wants to apply to your alma mater, Stanford University Medical School."
"It’s just that he hasn’t been able to get a strong recommendation..."
Hearing this, Mr. Vega understood what Yan Feifan was asking.
He replied softly, "Right now, it’s summer vacation for university students in the United States. I can arrange for him to come volunteer at the hospital for a while."
"If his university grades are excellent and he performs well at the hospital, I can consider writing him a letter of recommendation."
Yan Feifan knew in his heart that this was a pretty good outcome.
An elite like Vega would certainly be protective of his reputation. To offer a chance to prove oneself was already quite generous.
"Mr. Vega, thank you!"
"I’ll let him know to contact you as soon as possible..."
Having settled Sun Le’s request, Yan Feifan discussed the patient’s surgical plan with Mr. Vega for a little while longer before they finished lunch.
Afterward, Mr. Vega left the Affiliated Hospital and went to rest at the nearby Jinxiu Grand Hotel.
Yan Feifan, on the other hand, went to the director’s office at the plastic surgery center.
Until his own office in the Little Red House was renovated and ready for use, Wang Chuan’s office served as his temporary place for rest and work.
Around one in the afternoon, Yan Feifan received a call from Liu Jin.
"Feifan, several doctors have approached me today, hoping I would persuade you to talk to the family of those twins about agreeing to organ donation."
Yan Feifan couldn’t help but chuckle. "Teacher, they’re certainly well-informed."
"The people haven’t even arrived at the hospital yet, and they’re already setting their sights on them."
Liu Jin sighed over the phone. "It can’t be helped. Each of them has at least ten or twenty patients waiting for an organ transplant."
"You don’t know the half of it. They get that hungry look in their eyes."
"Every time a potential donor appears at the hospital, they’re the first ones to pounce."
Yan Feifan knew that Mr. Liu was telling the truth.
Statistically, over 300,000 patients in China need transplants each year due to end-stage organ failure.
Among them, only a little over 10,000 lucky individuals get the chance to receive an organ transplant each year, making the supply-to-demand ratio 1:30—a massive shortfall.
However, Yan Feifan also knew that this statistical supply-to-demand ratio for organ transplants was severely inflated.
Of the more than 300,000 people needing transplants, many were barred by financial reasons.
An organ transplant costs 300,000 to 500,000 yuan, with post-operative treatment costing another five to six thousand yuan per month.
For many ordinary people, these were astronomical figures.
On the other hand, there was the issue of hospital service capacity.