After wound closure was complete, Zheng Ren declined a kind offer of an antibiotic infusion and quietly sat at the entrance of the operating theater.
He was waiting.
Waiting for the surgery to end.
Waiting to know whether Fang Lin had survived or passed away.
He had done his best, but…
It was still not enough.
He waited patiently. His bloodshot eyes painted his world in red.
His mind was blank. There was no sorrow or depression. He was just waiting calmly for news.
Death or life.
He was unsure how long had passed when someone sat beside him and said, “Professor Gu was diagnosed with acute myocardial infarction and is receiving treatment right now. He’ll be fine.”
It was Su Yun.
Zheng Ren once hated his voice, but was gradually getting used to it following the improvement of their coordination in surgery.
Zheng Ren frowned and said, “Fang Lin is badly injured and they’re trying to save him now.”
“I know. You did your best.” Su Yun stared unblinkingly at his phone. “The thoracic surgeon has located and sutured the ruptured bronchial artery, and the general surgeon is finishing hepatic wound repair now.”
“Blood pressure?”
“Slightly low, but detectable.”
“How much blood has been transfused?”
“12U of red blood cells and 1000mL plasma.”
“Is the ICU fully prepared to take care of him?”
“Boss, this is Imperial Capital.” Su Yun was not mocking Zheng Ren, which was a rare occasion, possibly due to Zheng Ren’s injuries or the fact that the incident just now had shocked him greatly.
“That’s good.” Zheng Ren slowly shut his eyes.
He believed everything Su Yun said without question.
Even though the sharp-tongued nancy boy did not have entirely good news, he knew that Fang Lin’s chance of survival had exceeded fifty percent.
“Are you badly injured?” asked Su Yun, stealing a peek at the dressing on Zheng Ren’s left shoulder.
“No, it’s just a mild injury.”
“Let’s go back and establish a pet medical center together. I’ll buy a twenty-year-old nuclear magnetic resonance imaging machine, and coupled with various technical means, it’ll be the most professional pet medical center in Sea City.”
“No,” replied Zheng Ren coldly.
“Do you still have hope?” The contempt at the corners of Su Yun’s lips intensified.
“As long as I’m here, there is still hope,” said Zheng Ren calmly.
Su Yun was startled.
Who the hell gave him such a strong confidence?
Before he could ridicule Zheng Ren, he suddenly recalled the scene in the outpatient department.
The needle thoracostomy and the urgent laparotomy for hemostasis had been performed without hesitation.
The varying severity of damage,
The decisions made regardless of cost,
The first-aid measures given just in time…
Without him, Fang Lin would have had no hope for survival. Even though Fang Lin was currently undergoing emergency surgery in the operating theater, he had at least provided medical staff a chance to save a precious life.
‘Have I been burying my head in the sand?’ Su Yun absent-mindedly recalled someone he respected, the same man who had become disabled in the end. In his mind, the man’s feet glowed a bloody red, and then came Zheng Ren walking the border between hell and the human realm.
Su Yun shook his head. It was too artsy for his preference.
“The surgery has ended. His blood pressure has stabilized and they’re transferring him to the ICU now,” he said calmly after reading a message on his phone.
“Ding-dong!” At the same time, an alert rang out in Zheng Ren’s mind, but he did not seem to hear it.
“Okay.” Zheng Ren nodded. “Let’s go.”
“Where?”
“The emergency department, for tetanus toxoid.”
“Hey, do you really know medicine? Clostridium tetani is an anaerobic organism, so it can’t survive in your wound. Besides, you’ve treated a patient with tetanus before, so why are you even speaking such nonsense? You’ve been stabbed in your shoulder, but did you get a brain injury as well? That’s right, I remember you smashed your head onto the rogue just now. I think you should undergo a cranial CT scan,” Su Yun grumbled, as usual.
“I’ll feel more assured after the injection.” Zheng Ren smiled faintly. “There is a small risk of patients with external trauma having their wounds infected with Clostridium tetani, hence the usage of tetanus toxoids. Now that I’m injured, it’s best for me to receive an injection as well.”
“You really care about your own safety.”
“That’s exactly the case.” Zheng Ren nodded in agreement.
Without waiting for Fang Lin to be wheeled out of the operating theater, they went downstairs via the fire escape.
It was pointless to worry further about his safety as they had already known case’s details.
…
…
They did not visit the emergency department or accept the general surgery department’s help. According to Su Yun, he was unfamiliar with the general surgeons.
Su Yun brought Zheng Ren to the thoracic surgery department instead. After establishing an intravenous infusion line, he ran off to search for tetanus toxoid.
The beds in the spacious on-call room were clean, but Zheng Ren did not use them and chose to receive the infusion sitting on a chair.
The shock of his adrenaline rush during resuscitation gradually faded as he stared out of the window.
‘The injury won’t affect my accuracy in future surgeries, right?’ He was beginning to get worried.
Zheng Ren was able to move his left fingers nimbly, and apart from the slight pain in his left shoulder, his overall condition seemed to be satisfactory.
‘Oh yeah!’ He suddenly remembered hearing the System’s notification earlier.
A mission? When had he received a mission?
The System panel at the upper right corner of his vision trumpeted, “Mission Accomplished”.
Huh? Perhaps… The System had used its powers to determine that the resuscitation was successful? Zheng Ren began to ponder what the System was trying to imply without paying attention to its rewards.
If that was the case, it was actually good news.
His mental uneasiness instantly dissipated. A few minutes later, Zheng Ren noticed the rewards.
A multiple-choice question in which he had to choose one of three? Why could he not upgrade all of them at once?
Improving his ability to read X-ray films seemed like a good idea as he would be able to quickly recognize anatomical structures during surgery.
B-scan ultrasonography could be excluded due to its limited functionality at the moment.
Nuclear magnetic resonance imaging…
NMRI…
He recalled that Professor Pei had requested a double contrast-enhanced imaging scan—NMRI and a 64-slice CT scan with image reconstruction—before Zheng Yunxia’s surgery.
This was the lesson learned by his predecessors after numerous failures. As long as conditions permitted, a preoperative double contrast-enhanced imaging had its own benefits.
Zheng Ren was caught in a dilemma between the ability to read X-ray films and nuclear magnetic resonance imaging. After hesitating for a few seconds, he decided to choose NMRI.
When it was selected, a warm current swirled through his body as countless images assaulted his consciousness almost instantaneously.
“…” Surprised, Zheng Ren quickly shut his eyes and focused on enduring the discomfort.
After a long while, a voice reached Zheng Ren’s ears.
“You actually fell asleep sitting up? Damn…”
‘Why haven’t I experienced this before? Is the discomfort due to a complete lack of knowledge in this domain? Still…’
Zheng Ren gave up trying to figure it out.
He now understood all NMRI films he had seen previously.
“I just received a notice about a conference in the research institute this afternoon,” Su Yun suddenly said, “You look awful. Stay here for the drug infusion, I’ll attend the conference later.”
“What conference?”
“…” Su Yun froze for a moment. Had this idiot forgotten his purpose of visiting Imperial Capital?
