五月之水：先天患儿的生命与死亡

“My book is called Water in May, it’s about a 15-year-old Dominican-American living in Washington Heights named Mari Pujols. And she wants more than anything else to have a baby…and so she’s very excited when she finds out that she’s going to have a baby. And then the doctors tell her her baby has only half a heart.”

“我写的书名为五月之水，这是一个关于15岁多米尼加裔美国人的故事，主人公住在华盛顿高地，名字叫马里?普荷斯。她最希望有一个孩子，所以当她发现自己怀孕要生孩子时，非常兴奋。然而医生告诉她，她的宝宝只有一半的心脏。“

Ismee Williams. Dr. Williams is a pediatric cardiologist at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx. And the author of the young adult novel Water in May.

伊斯米?威廉姆斯博士是布朗克斯区莫特佛医院的一名儿科心脏病专家，也是成人小说《五月之水》的作者。

I met Williams May 19th at the first annual Bronx Book Festival at Fordham Plaza in New York City’s northernmost borough. As with so much so-called young-adult fiction, the novel deals with serious issues, including the medical issues surrounding such a heart defect.

5月19日，我在纽约市最北端福特汉姆广场举行的首届年度布朗克斯图书节上遇见了威廉姆斯。与所有的成人小说一样，这部小说反映了严重的社会问题，主要围绕婴儿先天心脏缺陷的医学问题。

“We do surgery for this type of heart problem, which is called hypoplastic left-heart syndrome.”

“我们给这种类型的心脏患儿实施手术，这在医学上称为左心发育不全综合征。”

Forty years ago, 95 percent of infants with the condition died within a month. Now, most of these kids will make it to adulthood—but will also need frequent medical monitoring and care.

四十年前，有95％的患儿在一个月内死亡。现在，大多数孩子都可以顺利成年，但也需要频繁的医疗监测和定期护理。

Anyone buying the book will support a worthwhile cause, too.

购买这本书的人也会赞助一个有意义的事业。

“Forty-thousand kids a year are born with heart defects…I’ve partnered with a group called Colin’s Kids, which raises money for families who are affected by congenital heart disease and are in financial need, and also raises money for research. So five-percent of book sales go directly to them. Because part of my goal for writing the book is also to raise awareness about the number one birth defect, the most common birth defect.”

“每年，有四万名孩子出生时患有心脏病，我与一个名为柯林儿童的基金组织合作，这个组织为那些患有先天性心脏病的家庭提供经济支助，并且还为相关研究筹集资金。因此，图书销售额的百分之五直接属于他们。提高人们对众多先天缺陷患儿的认识也是我写这本书的目标，先天性心脏病是最常见的出生缺陷。”