Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
“Doctor! Doctor!” the man on the gurney yelled loudly.
His shoulder was bandaged, and blood was seeping out of the gauze. Two bottles of fluid hung from the IV stand beside him. His upper body was covered with dirt and mud, and his hands and face were full of scratches. He cut a sorry figure.
However, none of the doctors or nurses who passed by paid him any attention.
Everyone in the Emergency Medical Center was extremely busy right now.
Even though there was already a considerable number of doctors and nurses from other departments who rushed over after receiving the news, there were simply too many patients. Yun Hua City’s best Emergency Department was that of Yun Hua Hospital, and the newly upgraded Emergency Medical Center were filled with patients right now. More than half of them were in critical condition, while the rest of them sustained minor injuries.
And at this time of the year, one single patient in critical condition required a large amount of medical attention.
Hence, it was no surprise no one paid any attention to those with minor injuries.
The man with a bandaged shoulder furrowed his eyebrows. He whipped out his phone and secretly glanced at it before putting it down. He then raised his voice and yelled, “Ouch… I can’t take it anymore. I’m gonna die! Ouch, it really hurts. My chest feels really tight, it really hurts…”
“I’ll go over,” said Lu Wenbin to the attending physician in front of him while he installed a fracture fixation on a patient who had a fracture.
The attending physician nodded a little.
Since chest tightness was a critical sign, those in the Emergency Department must respond immediately to patients who exhibited that symptom.
Certain patients took advantage of this fact and said that they were experiencing chest tightness so that the doctors would pay them attention. Their symptoms would then disappear in the blink of an eye once a doctor went over.
But no matter how skeptical Lu Wenbin was, he was obligated to go over and take a look.
Lu Wenbin took off his gloves and shook the dust off his clothes. He then whipped out a bottle of alcohol-based hand sanitizer while he was at it before going to the corner of the treatment room.
The man with a bandage on his shoulder had a crew cut, wide eyes, a wide nose, thick lips, chubby cheeks, and a round face. He started moaning when he saw Lu Wenbin who was clad in a large white coat walking over. “Doctor, please help me…”
“You were able to shout pretty loudly just now.” Lu Wenbin only needed one glance before he had a firm grasp on the situation.
Of course, a mere glance was not enough for the doctor to determine the state the patient was in.
Doctors basically always started by diagnosing patients through visual inspection. It was just like how ancient Chinese medicine practitioners always went by this order: look, listen, inquire, and finally, pulse.
Experienced doctors were able to gather plenty of information just by looking at the patient’s breathing rate, nails, lips, and other parts of the body.
Meanwhile, the man with the bandaged shoulder chuckled a few times and said nonchalantly, “I had no choice but to yell loudly. Or else, you guys wouldn’t be able to hear it, would you? It was pretty tiring, shouting like that.”
Lu Wenbin sighed in resignation. “Then, how does your chest feel right now?”
The other party thought for a moment and said, “It’s still a bit tight and kind of painful.”
“I’ll take a look.” Lu Wenbin took out his stethoscope.
“This is useless.” The patient who was lying on the bed rolled over agilely. He did not want to be auscultated.
“Erm… what’s useful, then?” Lu Wenbin asked softly. Lu Wenbin was not a newbie, and it was not the first time he had encountered such a strange situation.
The man with the bandaged shoulder looked around and said in a similarly hushed tone, “Can I ask you something first? Our medical bills this time would be paid by the government, right?”
“Your insurance company or the construction company you’re working for might be footing the bill. I’m not sure of the details…”
“Whatever it is, someone else will be paying for it, right?”
Lu Wenbin hesitated for a few seconds. He then nodded and said, “That’s usually the case.”
“Then, can you give me a full body examination?”
“Huh?”
“Thing like chest X-Ray, CT scan, and electrocardiography. I want a blood test too. Basically, get everything checked.” The patient chuckled a few times and said, “You guys will get a profit, and I would get to have my body checked. It wouldn’t be a problem, would it?”
Now that his prediction had come true, Lu Wenbin felt kind of relieved for some reason.
“I’ll listen to your breaths first.” Lu Wenbin was still slightly worried. Even though the patient was obviously lying, he had chosen to lie about the fact that he was experiencing chest tightness. Hence, Lu Wenbin had no choice but to emphasize on that.
The patients was not against it either. He placed his hands on both his sides and let Lu Wenbin auscultate him. “If you don’t fulfill your promise toward me, don’t blame me if I make a scene.”
“Got it.” Lu Wenbin’s expression did not change at all. Things like chest X-rays did not bring much profit to the hospital at all. Besides, with the patient’s current condition, he would need the full-body examination anyway.
The doctors would at least need an electrocardiogram of the patient, and procedures like blood tests and a CT scan were also mandatory in his case.
Of course, Lu Wenbin would not tell the patient all of this right now so that the patient would not feel like he did not take enough advantage of the system.
“There are no problems with your heart.” Lu Wenbin put down his stethoscope.
“Hey doctor!” The patient who lay on the gurney immediately raised his voice.
Lu Wenbin nodded and said, “Your lungs are most certainly fine.”
“Remember what you promised me…”
Lu Wenbin shook his head. He was too lazy to argue with the patient. “I’ll order a full body examination for you, but it’ll have to be carried out a little later. We are too busy right now.”
“You can’t do this! What if I get a heart attack and die?!” the patient yelled loudly, worried that the injury would adversely affect him if he did not have his injuries treated soon.
At this moment, Ling Ran just finished carrying out a surgery. The moment he heard the phrase “heart attack”, he immediately walked over.
Lu Wenbin knew Ling Ran extremely well and could tell what he was thinking about just by looking at his movements. He quickly said, “There are no blockages in his heart.”
“I might get a heart attack!” the patient roared.
“You won’t.” Lu Wenbin comforted the patient in a soft voice.
“I’ll get a heart attack if I continue shouting like this!”
“You…” Lu Wenbin suddenly felt diffident. ‘What if this guys really shouts to the point that he dies from a heart attack…’
Lu Wenbin shifted his gaze toward Ling Ran.
However, at that moment, Ling Ran attention was already drawn by a gurney that was just pushed into the treatment room. A paramedic was kneeling on the gurney and pressing on the patient’s chest as he counted. Meanwhile, the paramedic who pushed the gurney yelled in a flustered tone, “Patient has been in cardiac arrest for five minutes, cyanosis throughout the body, both pupils are dilated, no aortic pulsation, no autonomous respiration…”
Everyone in the resuscitation room suddenly went silent.
Even though cardiac arrest merely meant that the heart had stopped working, five minutes was considered quite long. Cyanosis throughout the body meant that the patient’s entire blood circulation lacked oxygen, and if the patient’s pupils were completely dilated, it meant that there was no longer pupillary light reflex. It was one of the signs of brain death.
It could be said that such a patient was in an utmost critical condition. There was even the possibility that he could no longer be rescued.
As all the doctors present were treating a patient, they hesitated on whether they should go over for a little while.
Ling Ran did not even think about it. He immediately ran toward the patient.
“Defibrillator!” Ling Ran’s voice was so loud that everyone could hear it.
When the paramedic saw that a doctor was here, after finishing his current set of external chest compressions, he immediately made way for Ling Ran.
Two nurses swiftly placed paddles on the patient’s chest and connected the defibrillator to the source of electricity.
“150 joules. Clear!” Ling Ran shouted and pressed the defibrillator button with his thumb.
The patient showed no reaction.
Ling Ran straightaway knelt on the gurney without looking at anything. He pressed the patient’s chest with the defibrillator and ordered, “Venous injection of sixteen minims of epinephrine.”
Defibrillators were not miracle tools.
It was quite normal for a doctor to fail in his efforts to resuscitate a patient with a defibrillator. At this moment, the only thing a doctor could do was cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).
Ling Ran got into the correct position and tried his best to think of the best way to perform CPR on the patient based on the patient’s current condition.
In the field of medicine, it was often said that for every minute the heart stopped beating, the patient’s chance of survival would drop by 10%. This could only be remedied with CPR that was performed really well.
In modern medicine, high-quality CPR was the key to pulling many patients back from Death’s door.
This was why even though the paramedics around him were trained in that, Ling Ran was not willing to let them do it. Instead, he started giving them orders.
“Sixteen minims of atropine and 811 minims of lidocaine.” Ling Ran then turned as he compressed the patient’s chest. “Open the respiratory tract.”
Doctor Zhou ran over and cut open the patient’s trachea in one slash, performing a quick tracheostomy for the patient.
It would be relatively harder for patients to recover from tracheostomies that was carried out in such a hasty manner, but the prerequisite was that the patient managed to survive.
“One, two, three…” Ling Ran quickly counted as he skillfully performed compressions on the patient’s chest.
For every thirty compressions, he had to give the patient artificial respiration twice. It was just an extremely ordinary procedure, but he had to repeat the same process again and again…
He saw the patient’s face when he lowered his head.
It was that of a young man, but there were some wrinkles on his face.
He was probably a little over thirty years old. His skin was rough, as if he spent half his time in the wild. He probably never took care of his skin.
There were no major external wounds, and there was no internal bleeding either. He had no idea why the patient went into cardiac arrest.
Ling Ran slowly adjusted his breathing so that he had the stamina to continue compressing the patient’s chest.
The standard maneuvers for CPR was simple, but it took forever and seemed endless.
“One, two, three…” Ling Ran counted until thirty before stopping to perform artificial respiration twice. When he continued again, he was still as energetic as ever.
The paramedic who performed CPR on the patient for five minutes before the patient arrived at the hospital was already very tired. He panted as he stood beside the gurney and looked at Ling Ran.
From his perspective, the maneuvers of the doctor on the gurney was extremely spot-on, and his strength was even as he compressed the patient’s chest. There seemed to be a subtle rhythm behind his movements.
However, CPR could only do so much.
Three minutes passed by.
Five minutes.
Ten minutes.
The combination of epinephrine, atropine, and lidocaine was already injected twice, and they had already defibrillated the patient thrice.
However, the patient’s condition was worsening. His entire body was so purple that he did not seem like he could be brought back to life anymore.
“Is Old Hu dead?” The patient with the bandaged shoulder behind Lu Wenbin had already gotten out of bed and was watching Ling Ran as he tried to save the patient.
“Watch your mouth.” Lu Wenbin turned and said sternly, “If you don’t return to your bed now, we won’t perform a full body examination on you.”
“Do you think that I’m scared of you?” Even though the patient with the bandaged shoulder said so, he turned and went to his hospital bed. He climbed on it, covered himself with the blanket and leaned against the pillow. He looked like a burrito.
Lu Wenbin then turned toward Ling Ran again. A voice then rose. “Old Hu’s family members are here.”
“Hmm?” Lu Wenbin looked over. A plump woman dashed into the area.
“Old Hu!” a woman shouted.
“Old Hu! That’s my Old Hu, let me go over!” She was shouting so loudly that her voice was hoarse.
Three bodyguards went over to stop her, and a nurse explained to her, “Don’t go over. The doctors are resuscitating him right now, and if you go over, it’ll make the situation worse.”
“Old Hu…” The woman struggled a few times before she stood still. She yelled, “Don’t close the curtains. If you guys don’t close the curtains, I won’t go over.”
The nurse who was about to close the curtains and separate the patient from the woman looked subconsciously at the head nurse.
The head nurse shook her head slowly.
The nurse then lowered her head and left.
As she promised, the plump woman stood behind the glass door that separated her from the resuscitation room and looked at the situation inside through the glass door. Her voice was a little lower compared to just now. “Doctor, my son is only nine years old. He can’t lose his father. Orphans get bullied a lot…”
The bodyguards beside her could not take it anymore and lowered their heads. They knew what it meant when a CPR was required for a patient.
Ling Ran did not care about his surroundings at all inside the resuscitation room. He counted mechanically, “One, two, three…”
