Is the patient a sick person?

Indigo understood every word and every sentence of the joke, but it took a long time to understand why it was worth a chuckle or two. Why the "sick person" calls the nurse a "honeypie"? By the third time I explained to her why it was so. She said this joke was sick, hence she translated "病人" as a "sick person".

护士 看到 一 病人 在 病房 喝酒，就 走 过去 小声地 对 他 说:“不要 喝酒，小心 肝!”病人 微笑着 说：“那 就 不 喝 了，小 宝贝。”

The nurse saw a patient drinking beer in the hospital room, so she walked over to him and whispered, "Don't drink beer, be careful of your liver!" The sick person chuckled, thinking the nurse had said, "Sweety" and said (hey, what did you expect? he's drunk!), "Then I won't drink it any more, honeypie."