It was 9:00 p.m. Zheng Ren was once again caught up in a whirlwind of cases. The surgery would likely drag on until midnight.
Zheng Ren grimaced but figured a surgery was better than dealing with the many-faced Lawyer Ge.
What kind of food could cause bowel obstruction? Especially to the point of intussusception? A sticky bean bun?
Zheng Ren turned to the emergency medicine doctor. “It probably wouldn’t have clarified much but if she’s back a second time, we should cover all bases. Don’t be too occupied by arguing with the family.”
After that, he left to change into his work clothes.
The emergency ward was quiet with most of the patients having gone home for the night. Its few remaining patients were in postsurgical care. The hospital had no television and slow Wi-fi. Without any entertainment, patients had no reason to stay awake.
The office lights were still on when Zheng Ren entered the room. Chang Yue was patiently typing out a patient’s record while Professor Rudolph Wagner was reading through a Mandarin coursebook.
Zheng Ren’s arrival was met with a curious look from Chang Yue.
“Chief Zheng, why are you still here? Are you so much of a workaholic that you want to take my shift?” she said, expression deadpan.
It was clearly a joke, though; who wanted to spend the night in the emergency department on-call room?
The men’s on-call room was unkempt and dirty. Their hectic schedules meant that no one was willing to perform housekeeping.
Some of the nurses did help out occasionally, although they could not be blamed for simply letting the room rot.
How was it even comparable to a villa with its own bathtub?
“I went to the emergency department and noticed a patient with bowel obstruction due to intussusception. She’ll need emergency surgery. I’m taking the patient for a scan, so help me prepare the admission papers and the patient record.”
“Admitting patients so soon after your return. You’re a weird one, Chief Zheng,” Chang Yue said impassively.
Grumble as she might, there was still work to be done.
Zheng Ren quickly left to change into his work clothes. On his return, he passed the office and said into the room, “The patient and family have low medical compliance, take caution.”
“Understood,” Chang Yue said. “Lil Fugui, why don’t you go help Chief Zheng?”
Professor Rudolph was already one step behind Zheng Ren. “Enna[1].”
Zheng Ren was speechless.
The professor had only been in town a few days and had already changed his name to Ru Fugui. Now, he was even speaking in a Northeastern accent.
Zheng Ren appreciated the professor’s willingness to adapt to his new surroundings. The distance between them felt smaller with the change in his manner of speaking.
“Boss Zheng—”
“Don’t use that, call me Dr. Zheng or Chief Zheng,” Zheng Ren interjected.
Zheng Ren was self-aware enough to feel undeserving of being called a boss. The title made him uneasy.
Su Yun was the only person whom he could tolerate using it.
“Enna,” the professor carried on in his Northeastern twang, “What’s the problem? You’re back in so late. I would have been resting in my hotel had you not come.”
“There’s a surgery. Are you up for it?” Zheng Ren asked.
“Chief Zheng, the working hours here are truly inhumane.” The professor had taken a Chinese name and picked up the local slang, but was still a Westerner through and through.
“Are up for surgery, I said? If you can’t, I’ll get someone else,” Zheng Ren said dismissively and picked up his pace toward the CT scan room.
“I’ll join the imaging. Don’t you think it’s against the law to allow an interventional surgeon to perform a surgery outside of his—”
“Understood.” Zheng Ren took out his phone and dialled a number.
“How’s the patient?
“Sounds a bit complicated. Thank you for your dedication.
“Nothing. There’s a patient with bowel obstruction, but I think I can handle it alone.
“Really… Alright, preparations here are almost done. You can drop in soon.”
With that, Zheng Ren ended the call.
Su Yun was watching over Yang Lili, whose injuries were severe and her condition still unstable.
Monitoring organ blood flow was a difficult task.
At times, the human body was resilient. Zheng Ren had seen car accident victims, whose bloody bodies had to be dragged out of wreckages, recover in mere days.
However, the human body could sometimes also be tricky to handle. They had to monitor blood circulation throughout the body as prolonged inadequate blood supply could lead to loss of organ function.
Even with modern medicine, not all patients could be saved.
The ICU was akin to the gates of hell. Some patients could leave, but some never did.
Yang Lili’s surgery had been a success but Zheng Ren could not guarantee her survival. He had no power over the afterlife.
Soon, he and the professor arrived at the CT scan room.
There were few patients who needed an emergency scan at night. The bowel obstruction patient was already inside undergoing her CT scan.
The family members said nothing when they saw Zheng Ren in his white coat, followed by a blond-haired, blue-eyed foreigner.
Perhaps there were some perks of having the professor around, Zheng Ren thought.
The professor seemed to make people speechless. He was quite good-looking and gave off a scholarly vibe.
Zheng Ren greeted the doctor in the CT scan room and watched him operate the machine.
Zheng Ren’s presence hinted at the patient’s condition. The CT room doctor made haste as he scanned and processed the images.
The images loaded, slice by slice, on the display. Zheng Ren located the telescoping intestine within the scan.
There were two encircling layers at the target site. The affected part of the intestines were bulging and swollen. The machine differentiated the low-density adipose tissues from the high-density muscles of the intestines.
The damaged blood vessels of the telescoping intestine were dark pools on the image.
“Fecalith intestinal obstruction?” Professor Rudolph offered, pointing at the scan.
“It might not be fecalith. I’m guessing it’s food residue,” Zheng Ren said.
The CT room doctor did not understand the difference between fecaliths and food residue. Were they not different names for the same thing?
Professor Rudolph looked doubtful. “Chief Zheng, when is the surgery? I want to have a look. My hypothesis is that this was caused by fecaliths and not undigested food.”
The CT room doctor was shocked by the fluent Northeastern Mandarin leaving the foreigner’s mouth, his mouth agape as he stared at the blond-haired man.
Anyone who spoke Northeastern Mandarin was regarded as family, be they a national or a foreigner.
Like Fukuhara Ai… Unfortunately, Professor Rudolph was not as cute. He had an intense look about him.
“Chief Zheng, will you need the prints?”
“Yes. Pass it to the family later, please. As for the report, I’ll tell them to collect it tomorrow,” Zheng Ren instructed before leaving the control room to deliver the news to the family.
Upon meeting them, he asked, “Can I speak to the patient’s spouse?”
A man in his fifties stepped forward hesitantly. Worry was etched into the lines of his face as he approached Zheng Ren.
Zheng Ren’s earlier diagnosis had shocked him to his core. He had been fearing the worst throughout the CT examination, praying that his wife would not need surgery.
However, noticing the young doctor’s grave expression, he braced himself for the bad news.
The aggression from earlier had given way to resignation and concern. Logic had kicked in after hearing the doctor’s diagnosis.
“Doctor, I am her husband. Is she okay?”
“The CT scan confirmed the intussusception which led to the intestinal obstruction. We’ll have to perform an emergency surgery. If there are no objections, follow me to the emergency wards to sign the admission papers and we can proceed with the procedure,” Zheng Ren said in a no-nonsense tone.
The man nearly fainted at the news.
Zheng Ren managed to catch him in time and guided him to a bench by the CT scan room.
“Sorry. I have high blood pressure.” There was no more fight in him, only regret and shame. “She was fine yesterday. How did it end up like this?”
“What food did she have yesterday?”
“We were at a gathering yesterday, ate steamboat for dinner, then went to a karaoke bar. It was regular food, nothing special,” the husband mumbled as he tried to recall the events.
The human memory was unreliable.
“Whatever it is, we’ll find out after the surgery.
“Although the intussusception was mild, the situation is now critical as we lost precious time in the morning. Any further delay would likely lead to necrosis and resection would be unavoidable,” Zheng Ren said truthfully, not trying to frighten the family.
However, the truth was itself horrifying.
The family obediently followed his instructions. One person stayed back to wait for the physical scans while the others helped transfer the patient to the emergency ward with Zheng Ren.
[1] 嗯呐 – Northeastern slang for ‘yes’.
