“Breaking news!
A tragic accident left four dead and multiple people critically injured on Highway 625 at 6:00 p.m.
tonight.
Investigators state that the deadly crash occurred when the automated systems of two vehicles simultaneously malfunctioned, causing a high-speed collision.
The passengers in both cars are currently in critical condition…”
“A family of five happened to be crossing under the green light when the accident occurred and was implicated, resulting in casualties.
Both elderly grandparents and parents were pronounced dead on arrival, leaving a sole survivor, a three-year-old child, who is currently under emergency rescue…”
In a state hospital in Blue Lake City, the entire on-duty trauma surgeons, pediatricians, and neurosurgeons were mobilized in full force when patients after patients from a vehicular accident nearby were rolled into the operating rooms.
The hospital director had just finished instructing the staff to bring the dead-on-arrival victims to the morgue when a hospital staff from the administrative office came to him.
After hearing the report, the hospital director’s face became solemn.
“You mean the child doesn’t have any other family members?”
“I just got the feedback from the social workers and the law enforcement.
They checked the identity of the patients, out of the six survivors, five were inside the two cars that collided and barely survived due to the security measures of the vehicles, and the last one is an only child of a family out on a trip.
From grandparents to parents, they all died while trying to save the child, that’s why the child survived.
They are the only family members on the record related to the child.
We did not find any extended relatives.”
The hospital staff recalled the scene recorded in the public surveillance camera.
It was too tragic.
Both vehicles were on autopilot and still ramming against each other, pretty much grinding the victims’ bodies to mush.
The child was covered by their bodies in a protective stance.
If the law enforcement missed by a minute, the child probably would not survive as well.
The hospital director fell silent for a while before symbolically saying, “Then, ask the social workers to work with the law enforcement and continue searching for the child’s extended family members.
For now, we will exercise our obligation to provide immediate care for the child.”
The hospital staff from the administrative office knew it was pointless, but still nodded and left.
Three days later, there was still no news of the child’s family members.
The child was truly declared orphaned now, and the administrative office sent a request to the hospital director to coordinate with the social welfare services for guardianship issues.
The hospital director did not immediately approve the request.
Instead, he paced back and forth inside his office.
Finally, he took a deep breath and dialed a number on his phone.
“There’s a child here, currently in coma, orphaned, and has no extended family members on record.
I remembered you mentioned you wanted to adopt…”
….
…
Everything was a blur.
It was as if she was immersed in water.
She could vaguely see shifting shadows and hear faint sounds rolling underwater, until the very space she was in drummed in resonance before receding to silence, like waves coming and going.
Her sluggish mind could not make sense of anything.
Sometimes she seemed to be hearing crying, sometimes she seemed to see people looking over her, sometimes the sun seemed to be overhead.
But most of the time, she seemed to be sinking underwater.
She had long given up struggling and continued sinking further.
The water enveloping her was an array of beautiful deep blue shades, a very familiar color…
“…Intercranial pressure is stable.
The clot is gone, and CT is now clean.
Obviously, all vitals are solid, including the pupil response, but there are still no signs of waking.”
“Except the EEG is abnormally active, it’s literally a storm.
I’m surprised there are no seizures, but at this rate, there might be one soon.”
“About that, we really have no idea why her brain activity is abnormally high, even after several tests.
That’s why the director already signed an emergency transfer waiver, they will be transferring the patient to a private institution.
I heard they have a dedicated pediatric neuro-ICU there with high end monitoring.
Well, aren’t they rich.”
“…Do you mean that luxury sanatorium we often cooperate with?” The doctor who was writing on a record paused his pen, raised his head, and looked at the small patient on the bed.
A three year old child was covered in bruises and bandages, with various apparatuses attached to the tiny body.
An orphan who clearly had no one to rely on.
In this hospital, at least there was the government’s social service welfare to cover all the expenses, but a private sanatorium had no such perks.
He could not help but be suspicious.
He thought of various dark rumors of hospitals preying on the poor and lonely patients to conduct illegal experiments and organ trafficking…
“Yes, it’s that sanatorium.” His colleague took a glance at him and immediately understood his worries.
“What are you thinking?” he laughed.
“Our hospital is funded by the state, do you think with the government’s strict monitoring, the director can do those illegal things?
He will be discovered in a heartbeat.
Also, that sanatorium is really high end, their hospital has an even higher level of configuration than ours, and many doctors there are either still single or childless in their thirties and forties, so they have always been supportive of children-friendly outreach services.”
Seeing that he still looked a little doubtful, his colleague shook his head.
“Anyways, aside from the equipment issues, I heard the director sent the patient to that sanatorium because he knew a pair of resident doctors there who had been married for a long time and are still childless.
Apparently, they’re interested in adopting the child.”
“But the patient has been in a coma for almost a week now.
Who knew if…” The doctor’s words trailed off.
His colleague shrugged.
“That’s up to them.
They’re rich anyways and used to performing similar outreach services.
If the patient really stays in a coma, then staying in that sanatorium can provide her better care.”
….
….
Time flowed ruthlessly, and seasons shifted while the world continued to turn in place, carrying with it countless people living their own lives.
Five years later.
Unlike the usual peace and tranquility, today, the Holy Tree Sanatorium was a little livelier than usual.
It was indeed great news.
Five years ago, against all odds, a pair of married veteran resident doctors in the sanatorium decisively adopted an orphaned child who had been in constant coma, never giving up on the child’s treatment, and continuously brought the child to various medical institutions in any chance they got.
The sanatorium was also thoughtful, considering that the doctors had dedicated their service to their cause for decades, actually allowed the couple to freely use the accumulated unused leave from all the years of service.
After a small celebratory party in the sanatorium’s dining hall, the couple headed directly to the elevator exclusive to higher level personnel access to the clinical laboratory area.
The elevator began to move down, and upon reaching the B8 level, it opened to reveal a pristine white interior.
After entering the sanatorium’s laboratory, the couple’s pace became faster.
They hurriedly walked past several areas before finally reaching their adoptive child’s location.
In fact, unknown to most people in the sanatorium, this was not the first time that the child had woken up.
During these five long years, the child had regained consciousness several times for brief periods, and each one was longer than the last.
The couple could still remember the first time that the child woke up.
They were in the middle of a surgical operation for the implantation of a newly developed brain computer interface or BCI, in hopes of awakening the child by directly connecting to the neural network of the child’s brain.
Everyone was shocked and terrified at the sight of a deathly still comatose patient suddenly opening her eyes, because they even administered anesthesia as a precautionary measure to avoid causing unnecessary pain.
But only seconds later, the child returned to the original unconscious state.
After a few more similar situations, the couple soon noticed a pattern–
Whenever a surgery was being performed, the child would regain consciousness for a short while.
The couple then became more proactive in coordinating with various clinical tests conducted by the organization.
The child did not fail their expectations.
The responses were becoming more active and the period of lucidity also extended.
Three months ago, the core laboratory announced an update in neurotechnology that utilized the latest product being developed in the Neural-Link Project, resulting in a groundbreaking innovation–the neural interface.
The neural interface would essentially make the traditional BCI obsolete, because the neural interface no longer needed regular maintenance and would constantly learn to transform itself alongside the neural development of the person’s own brain.
And it came with the greatest feature–the ability to integrate with the ultimate research product of the nanoassistive biotechnology–the nanofluid system.
The nanofluid injected in a human’s body originally worked with sets of pre-programmed commands, but with the introduction of the neural-interface that smoothly connected to the central nervous system, the nanofluid network could receive real-time and more complicated command signals based on the person’s actual body conditions.
This was simply phenomenal!
Literally out of a science fiction movie!
Humans could finally combat diseases holistically from a nano-molecular level, and in theory, gradually alter the genetic blueprint inside the human cells to a more optimal state.
Eventually, these genetic improvements would reflect on the person’s physiology and also be passed on to the next generation, eventually achieving the long-term mission of the organization.
And their child would be the first beneficiary of this new era!
Due to the highly confidential nature of the clinical trial, their precious child had to be sent to the distant core laboratory of the organization again, even staying there for an extended period of time.
Despite being high level researchers of the laboratory and veteran doctors of the Holy Tree Sanatorium, the couple still did not have enough credentials to join the team performing the series of clinical trials.
They could only receive real-time updates on the condition of the child.
After discovering that the child had awakened shortly after the start of the surgical procedure, the couple felt distressed and pity for their child.
How scared the child must have been to see unfamiliar faces during the surgery!
If only they were by his side…
Fortunately, only waves after waves of good news arrived.
The child was in good health and did not cry.
Although the integrated experimental trials did not show obvious changes yet, just the fact that the child regained consciousness and had not fainted again was something to celebrate about.
After over two months of observation, there were no signs of rejection at all.