leukemia mom

She abandoned her son in her divorce, choosing the house instead. Eleven years later, she was diagnosed with leukemia, and when no bone marrow donor could be found, she remembered the child she had abandoned. Her 16-year-old son asked, "Why?" She pressured the media, the school, and even her ex-husband's superiors. Her son finally said, "It's not that I didn't want to donate, it's that my dad disagreed."

In 2000, in Changsha, Hunan, Chen Bin was five years old when his parents divorced. Wang Huifang relinquished custody of her son, choosing the house—a 320-square-meter duplex and a 90-square-meter apartment in a good school district. She rented one and lived comfortably in the other. Five-year-old Chen Bin lived with his father, Chen Zhijian, who was often away on business trips, so he was often cared for by his uncle. During summer and winter vacations, he would visit his maternal grandparents, and Wang Huifang rarely saw him. In eleven years, mother and son had only met a handful of times.

Chen Zhijian never remarried, dedicating himself entirely to caring for his son.

In 2015, Wang Huifang was diagnosed with leukemia. She found a private hospital in Beijing online and went there alone for treatment. After months of chemotherapy, her body was almost completely destroyed, and the doctor suggested a bone marrow match. All her relatives had tried, but none were a match. Only then did she remember her son, whom she hadn't cared for much of in 11 years.

In 2016, she called Chen Zhijian, saying she wanted to see Chen Bin. Chen Zhijian brought his son to the hospital to visit her. Wang Huifang lay in her hospital bed, bald and emaciated. Chen Zhijian left 20,000 RMB (approximately 90,000 NTD) on the bedside table, said nothing, and left with his son.

However, without Chen Zhijian's consent, Wang Huifang's family took Chen Bin directly to the hospital for a blood test for a bone marrow match. The results came back—a match.

Wang Huifang wanted Chen Bin to go to Beijing immediately for surgery. But Chen Bin was only 16 years old and needed his father's signature. Chen Zhijian objected for two reasons:

First, he had checked the Beijing hospital—Wang Huifang had found it in a QQ patient support group, not a public hospital. He worried about the quality and safety of medical care at private hospitals, and his son was only 16; he couldn't afford to take the risk.

Secondly, he requested that Wang Huifang be transferred to Xiangya Hospital in Hunan—a top-tier public hospital. This way, if there were any risks during the surgery, he could be close to his son and receive timely assistance in case of any complications.

But Wang Huifang refused. She said her body couldn't withstand the long journey and insisted on staying in Beijing. Both sides were sticking to their own arguments, resulting in a stalemate.

Wang Huifang's family began using various means to pressure them into submission. They called Chen Zhijian's superiors to pressure him, accusing him of "obstructing his son from saving his mother." They hired media to ambush Chen Bin at the school gate, making the story news. Reporters, cameras, and microphones surrounded a 16-year-old boy. Wang Huifang even recorded a video and sent it to Chen Bin, saying, "If you let your own mother die, even if you get into a prestigious university, you're a failure."

Chen Bin stood in front of the camera and said one sentence: "It's not that I don't want to donate, it's that my father disagrees."

Chen Zhijian maintained only one condition: transfer to Xiangya Hospital, and he would sign the papers. Wang Huifang ultimately refused.

Later, a reporter mediated and proposed a compromise: Chen Bin would extract bone marrow at Xiangya Hospital and then airlift it to Beijing for Wang Huifang's transplant. Chen Zhijian agreed. However, bone marrow transportation is risky, requiring strict temperature control and timeliness, and ultimately this plan couldn't be implemented.

The report didn't mention what happened to Wang Huifang afterward. It didn't say whether she received another bone marrow donor, nor whether she was eventually transferred to another hospital. It only stated that Chen Zhijian and his son ultimately didn't sign the consent form, and Wang Huifang's family left disappointed.

When Chen Bin was 5, his mother chose a house. When he was 16, his mother came back to him, not because she missed him, but because she needed his bone marrow. He said, "Why should I?" That wasn't an angry outburst; it was the answer he had pondered for 11 years.

He donated, she survived, and then what? Would she become a good mother? He didn't dare gamble. He couldn't afford to gamble. He called out "Mom" when he was 5, but she didn't hear him. She was busy moving into that duplex. Later, when she wanted to hear it again, he could no longer call out. It wasn't that he didn't want to, it was that he couldn't. Those two words were taken with her suitcase when he was five. She took the house, he took those two words. She only remembered those two words when she was lying in a hospital bed. She wanted to hear them. He couldn't. Not because he didn't have them, but because he didn't know how. He hadn't spoken them in so long. He tried to open his mouth, his lips moved, but no sound came out.

She waited until her death for that "Mom." but her son had never even called out any "mom" to her - even when she died.