Zheng Ren took his book and returned to the on-call room.
He turned on his phone first and informed the group that Zheng Yunxia had undergone a scan. Her condition had improved and she would have to be hospitalized for the next surgery.
Then, he instructed Chang Yue to contact Manager Feng from Changfeng Microinvasive Surgery for free surgical supplies.
After arranging these triviaities, Zheng Ren found himself a comfortable position and began to read his book.
Something was wrong!
He had not gone for a ward round.
No wonder something was constantly troubling him. The 3D reconstruction of CT scan had simply consumed too much of his energy.
Facepalm…
Zheng Ren put on his shoes, bid farewell to his warm and cozy seat, and went for a ward round.
There was nothing much to see during the night round. The patient who had undergone an appendectomy just now was in a stable condition apart from his constant grumbles about pain.
Zheng Ren gave him some medical advice and instructed a nurse to administer him a bottle of analgesia, presuming his pain would be relieved in half an hour.
Upon reaching the last ward, he suddenly recalled that the occupant was the elderly man who was at the end of his life.
Zheng Ren gently knocked and entered.
There were no other patients in the ward. The old man was lying on the middle bed with the bedside lamp as the only light source in the poorly-lit room.
By the headboard sat the old woman wearing a pair of reading spectacles. Holding the old man's hand in her right, she softly recited the words from a book in her left.
"Xiang Liang asks Xiang Ji to come in. After a while, Xiang Liang gestures to Xiang Ji and says, "It's time to act!". Thus, Xiang Ji pulls out his sword and decapitates the governor of the commandery. Xiang Liang holds the governor's crown in his hand and takes the Chinese official seal with him, causing widespread panic in the crowd of servants and guards. Amidst the chaos, Xiang Ji charges and kills hundreds of people."
"Ahem." Zheng Ren was slightly embarrassed upon realizing that he must have disturbed the old couple's privacy, but his responsibility as a doctor compelled him to interrupt them and ask a few questions.
"Doctor Zheng, you're here." The old woman turned around and saw Zheng Ren; she put down her book, c.a.r.e.s.sed the old man's white hair, stood up and smiled. "Please, sit down, Doctor Zheng."
"That's too polite of you, but I can't sit during a ward round," Zheng Ren said, "What are you reading just now?"
"Records of the Grand Historian: Biography of Xiang Yu," the old woman replied kindly, "My husband loves this chapter. Since he can't read it now, I may as well read it to him several times so that he can relive old memories."
Zheng Ren nodded.
"I'm really sorry for troubling you this time, Doctor Zheng." The old woman rubbed her hands subconsciously. "I do apologize for my negligence for not being able to serve you tea."
"That's too kind of you." Zheng Ren waved his hand vigorously. "Do you mind if we have a chat outside the room?"
The elderly woman looked back at the rosy-cheeked elderly man on the bed and smiled ceremoniously. "There is no need for that.
"We've accepted our fate at this age. He isn't suffering much before departing this life, and I'm grateful to be able to accompany him on his last journey."
"Let me confirm it again: you want me to give a do-not-resuscitate order?" asked Zheng Ren softly.
"Yes, death isn't a big deal anyway." The old woman's tone was gentle but firm.
"Then I shall not disturb you further. Please, carry on." Zheng Ren bowed and left.
An open-minded person deserved respect.
A diagnosis appeared on the System panel in the upper right corner of his vision—multi-organ failure. Zheng Ren suspected that the elderly man was indeed at the end of his life, like a car that had traveled hundreds of thousands of kilometers. Everything failed in the end.
It was good enough to end one's life in peace and quiet.
Chapter 154 - The God of Night Shifts
After Zheng Ren returned to the on-call room, he lay in a comfortable position on the bed and opened a novel app on his cell phone.
Reading novels was one of his few p.l.e.a.s.u.r.es in life.
He devoured one on his phone while chatting leisurely with the "extravagant" group via WeChat.
It turned out that they had gone for dinner after Su Yun had sent Sister Zhao home.
Since Su Yun had refused to hit the bottle with Chang Yue during their meal just now, all of them were still energetic and had decided to play mahjong together at Xie Yiren's house.
These guys… Zheng Ren could even feel the excitement radiating from his phone when the group talked about their plans in WeChat.
However, this excitement was short-lived as Chu Yanzhi began to wail that she had lost all her pocket money in the group.
Losing two to three hundred yuan in a mahjong game that cost only one yuan per session was considered a gamble. Zheng Ren suddenly realized that if someone reported the situation… These emergency doctors could be arrested for gambling, leaving him to perform surgery alone again in the emergency department.
Then, Chang Yue gave a lukewarm response in the WeChat group stating that she was tired and wanted to return home first.
Zheng Ren suspected that she had lost all her pocket money as well.
Who was the winner? Without a single doubt, it had to be Yang Lei.
Yang Lei, who was normally a fly on the wall, had the same aura at the mahjong table as well. The player on his left always forgot to consider the tiles he discarded, and nobody paid him any attention even when he was holding a ready hand.
Chu Yanzhi became particularly active once she left the mahjong table and sent meaningless emojis in the WeChat group from time to time.
When the WeChat group had been created, they had agreed that it would be used only for work-related topics.
However, reality showed how true that supposition turned out to be.
An hour passed as Zheng Ren subsumed himself fully in his novel.
The phone rang as he was in the midst of the updated chapters that he had saved over the past month.
Zheng Ren's heart rate instantly sped up to 110 beats per minute.
Trepidation gnawed at him as he accepted the call.
Fortunately, it was not a major rescue operation but an uncomplicated case of acute cholecystitis. Zheng Ren regretfully turned off the novel app, put on a white coat and went downstairs to the emergency department.
Upon reaching the department, the System gave a clear diagnosis on the upper right corner of his vision—acute cholecystitis.
However, the patient was unable to undergo surgery due to inadequate preoperative fasting, having had dinner only just now.
This was a headache. It was almost nine o'clock, and the patient had to fast for at least six hours before undergoing surgery…
Performing a surgery in the middle of the night?
Zheng Ren took the patient back to the ward. After speaking with her family, they reached an agreement that the patient would undergo laparoscopic cholecystectomy once she had adequately fasted.
The nurses began to perform necessary preoperative preparations while Zheng Ren took out his cell phone and notified the group about this "unfortunate" news.
A howl of anguish dominated the WeChat group as they were reluctant to deal with patients arriving at the latter half of the night.
In addition to their complaints and protests, they blamed Zheng Ren's tough luck in particular.
This was a term commonly used in the medical field.
For example, one must not call a night uneventful during night shifts as there was a 76.34-percent chance that multiple emergency cases would then arrive one after another.
For example, one must take off their socks and not be fully clothed when going to bed. Otherwise, there was a 54.58-percent chance that o
ne's slumber would be disturbed in the middle of the night.
Et cetera.
In fact, no one knew when the myths were created, but the god of night shifts actually existed in the medical world.
Even though the god had no physical form, it existed in the spiritual world of every night shift doctor nationwide.
Every clinician working night shifts would pray for zero cases in the emergency department every single time.
One would rather have dust covering all medicine on the cabinet and hope for a healthy and prosperous life for everyone.
This statement had inadvertently embedded itself into the mindsets of night shift doctors and nurses.
Although it was slightly contrasting with their original intentions…
The complaints and accusations against Zheng Ren's bad luck in the group chat soon ended, and they were now discussing the best course of action to deal with the situation.
In the end, they decided to play mahjong while waiting for the surgery.
After all, Xie Yiren's house was near the hospital. Zheng Ren assumed that the time taken for him to go for a consultation was enough for her to drive back and forth twice.
Su Yun claimed that a sleepless night would not affect his work efficiency and directly asked Yang Lei to return to the hospital.
After the necessary arrangements were made, Zheng Ren asked the patient, who had just arrived, for her detailed medical history.
The thirty-six-year-old female had experienced abdominal pain that very afternoon, but had chosen to ignore it. However, the pain became unbearable while she was in a class reunion party earlier, and so she was sent to the hospital.
'Nothing gets between a foodie and delicious food,' Zheng Ren thought.
However, Xie Yiren's behavior was much more advanced in comparison. Not only did she prefer to order delivery or dine in a restaurant, she would also try to figure out the recipe for every delicious dish she had tasted.
Just as Old Master Q1 used to say, "Know the how and endeavor to know the why."
That girl… The thought of Xie Yiren's cute, furry appearance subconsciously put a warm smile on Zheng Ren's face.
Unfortunately, things did not go as planned.
Everything that had been arranged went to pieces twenty minutes later.
Two patients with acute appendicitis were sent consecutively to the emergency ward. Zheng Ren immediately summoned everyone to prepare for surgery.
It was surely a sleepless night, but not a big deal as everyone had gotten used to it by now.
These patients' conditions were relatively simpler, unlike past major resuscitation events where doctors' blood pressures had almost burst through their heads while patients' blood pressures had dropped to ankle-height.
That was truly a hectic night with countless problems to be dealt with before and after surgery.
The group was disciplined enough to reach the hospital within twenty minutes and began making the necessary preparations for each surgery. The only exception was Yang Lei, who quietly left a WeChat message saying that he would invite everyone over to dinner next time.
Zheng Ren jotted down the main points during history-taking from the patients with acute appendicitis so that Chang Yue could doc.u.ment the cases tomorrow.
He was a little envious of Chang Yue now. How nice it would be to be able to sleep peacefully at night as well.
A hundred thousand words in his novel had been eagerly waiting for him tonight; what a pity…
He had to have suffered brain damage or gotten too confident to think that there was no need to visit the emergency department tonight.
As Zheng Ren counselled the family members about the surgery, the night shift nurses finished preoperative preparations such as preoperative skin preparation, venous cannulation, and urinary catheter and nasogastric tube insertions for the patient with acute cholecystitis.
Su Yun wheeled the patient into the operating theater once preoperative counseling was complete. Zheng Ren then counseled the next patient's family members before going to the operating theater to change his attire and perform the surgery.
When Zheng Ren finally entered the operating theater, Su Yun had already performed most of the surgery and was waiting for him, like a student waiting for his professor, to take a look at it before completing the most crucial part of the surgery.
It took less time for Zheng Ren to finish the surgery than to perform a surgical scrub.
The mission One Tree Does Not A Forest Make seemed to have benefits even without a reward.
'Surgery really can't be done alone,' Zheng Ren thought happily as everyone rested after the successful completion of both appendectomies. Old Master Q () is a popular Hong Kong manhua created by Alfonso Wong.
Chapter 155 - The World’s First Surgical Technique
The busy, sleepy night was soon over.
When Chang Yue came to work looking energetic the next day, Zheng Ren had not yet woken from his slumber.
Upon noticing the notes left by Zheng Ren, she personally took the patient's medical history again to verify each point before starting her busy day.
Indifferent and calm, Zheng Yunxia completed the hospital admission process without repeatedly expressing her gratitude.
In a sense, the interventional radiological treatment for her hepatic carcinoma was the first elective surgery performed in the emergency department.
The general surgery department was slightly unhappy after being informed of the situation, but Old Chief Physician Pan f.o.r.c.i.b.l.y shut them down with a simple, "You do it then if you're so good."
Not all hepatic carcinomas could be treated with surgery.
Like Zheng Yunxia, patients with cancer recurrence after surgery were considered to have contraindications for surgery.
The only suitable treatment for her was catheter embolization. Once the tumor tissue had shrunk, she could undergo radiofrequency ablation therapy.
Since she was the first elective surgical patient, everyone placed a high value on this case and even took the unprecedented act of having a small meeting for preoperative discussion.
Chang Yue explained the patient's condition before placing the imaging films that had been taken before and after the surgery on the radiographic film viewer. The tumor's shrinkage was evident at first glance.
This was undoubtedly exciting news. Although Old Chief Physician Pan had gained some knowledge in interventional radiology through reading, he had never expected the effect of the surgery to be this obvious.
"Chief Physician Pan, I've something else in mind." It was Zheng Ren's turn to speak. Even though he was staring at the films, he was actually focused on a different issue.
"Go ahead." Old Chief Physician Pan looked intently at the two contrasting films with a persistent gleam in his eyes, as if he was thinking about something interesting.
"The operation is expected to begin at half-past eight tomorrow morning. What should we do if there is an emergency case within that time?" asked Zheng Ren.
"Will the Earth stop spinning in your absence?" Old Chief Physician Pan waved his hand and replied, "I can handle both emergency resuscitation and surgery. Haven't you heard of the phrase 'an old ox makes a straight furrow'?"
Zheng Ren smiled.
Su Yun glanced at him contemptuously and thought, 'If this guy wasn't good at surgery, he would have been verbally destroyed.'
Old Chief Physician Pan, who was once a chief physician in charge of a ward specifically for senior officials in the military hospital before his retirement, was an elite powerhouse of diagnosing and treating patients.
Had it not been for the fact that he was getting old, which weakened his physical state and slowed his ability to learn new surgical techniques, the Sea City General Hospital emergency building would have been completely renovated a long time ago.
"Don't worry, I've seen more emergency patients than you have," Old Chief Physician Pan assured Zheng Ren.
Since his words made sense,
Zheng Ren stopped worrying about it and began to explain the procedures he would perform tomorrow.
The surgery plan, especially the part involving the 3D image reconstruction of the 64-slice CT scan, sounded very easy and straightforward.
Old Chief Physician Pan recalled that the first surgery had been completed only after four hours and asked worriedly, "This tumor-feeding artery was located using the 3D reconstruction of the CT scan; what if there is an accident?"
"There won't be any," answered Zheng Ren with a smile.
"There won't?" Old Chief Physician Pan was taken by surprise.
"Yes, because I've done the 3D reconstruction of the CT scan myself, and there is only one abnormally proliferating blood vessel," Zheng Ren said confidently, "Although the newly-grown artery is relatively thin and more difficult to superselect, the chance of success is still high."
Despite the man's 'modesty', Old Chief Physician Pan stared at him doubtfully and thought, 'Since when did this kid learn to do a 3D reconstruction of 64-slice CT scan?'
"Okay." Old Chief Physician Pan remained suspicious, a quality that all competent clinicians had to possess.
Deny nothing and doubt everything. The facts would speak for themselves.
Yang Lei, who was sitting invisibly in the corner of the room, looked shocked as well.
As a clinician, he had often ordered 64-slice CT scans and had seen numerous 3D image reconstruction of CT films, but had never heard of any clinicians who personally performed the imaging tests in the CT room.
Since when had Zheng Ren unknowingly become so proficient at his job?
That was impossible… Yang Lei remained skeptical and decided to observe Zheng Ren's surgery tomorrow.
Although the surgery was alien to him, he could at least read simple films and know if the surgery was successful or not.
Only Chang Yue and Su Yun, who had gone to the CT room with Zheng Ren that day, understood that these were the results of his hard work.
The 3D reconstruction of CT scan had been finished from the surgeon's perspective after almost two hours, and the results were completely different from ordinary 3D image reconstruction of CT films.
The Surgeon's Studio c1-799 Page 80
