The plain-looking Zheng Ren actually appeared somewhat stylish when he put on the new suit; as the saying went, "Clothes make the man."
Miao Xiaohua, whose condition had stabilized, was extubated on day two post-op and transferred out of the ICU to the emergency ward on day three.
During this period, Zheng Ren performed around a dozen operations—appendectomies and cholecystectomies. Fortunately, major resuscitation operations that induced hypertension in the staff did not occur.
Manager Feng had provided flight tickets as well. At Su Yun's insistence, Changfeng Microinvasive Surgery had also booked a flight ticket for him as it was normal for two medical practitioners to attend academic conferences and perform research together.
In the early morning on the day of their departure, Xie Yiren personally drove Zheng Ren and Su Yun to the airport.
To Zheng Ren's slight disappointment, Xie Yiren did not give him a warm hug this time. She even smiled and dodged when he extended his arms for a farewell hug.
She must have felt embarrassed to do so in Su Yun's presence.
Zheng Ren redirected his resentment to the sharp-tongued nancy boy.
After their flight tickets were verified, they went through the security check and waited for the airplane.
Sea City Airport was relatively small with all flights scheduled to depart for Imperial Capital and Sorcery Capital. If one wished to visit another city, they would have to transfer to a flight from either of those cities.
"Doctor Zheng, are you going on a trip?" a man greeted enthusiastically as they waited.
Zheng Ren raised his gaze and felt a sense of familiarity, but could not identify the man.
Even so, he was polite enough to stand up, extend his hand and fake a smile.
"I'm going for a meeting in Imperial Capital."
The man, an experienced socializer, was able to discern the truth from Zheng Ren's slightly embarrassed expression. Without feeling awkward, he smiled and explained, "Doctor Zheng, you diagnosed my mother's headache."
"Headache?"
"Dentures…"
Oh! Zheng Ren immediately recognized him after remembering the medical condition. He was the family member whose mother had had an unexplainable headache when Zheng Ren first obtained the System.
Subsequently, Zheng Ren's attitude toward the man softened significantly.
"My name is Cui Heming. I'd highly appreciate your kind guidance in the future," the man said.
They continued chatting for a while. Cui Heming was not disgusted by Zheng Ren's poor communication skill and exchanged phone numbers and WeChat IDs with him.
Just as he was about to leave, Zheng Ren said, "Mr. Cui, have you been stressed out recently?"
Cui Heming was momentarily stunned. Zheng Ren was a doctor, not a fortune teller, right? What did he mean by that?
Was Zheng Ren going to change his destiny next?
"Your blood pressure is high. You should keep it under control." Zheng Ren smiled.
Cui Heming smiled bitterly.
That had been the case recently. The advent of economic winter had tightened liquidity and brought all financial supply chains to the verge of collapse.
Cui Heming had implemented retrenchment to manage his company in Imperial Capital. It was indeed an exhausting and arduous task.
However, he remained optimistic about the current situation. Since winter had arrived, could spring be far behind?
As long as he could pull through, with the experience acc.u.mulated and his social network expanded, his company would certainly welcome explosive growth in the coming spring.
However, his body had truly been in suboptimal health due to recent overwhelming work stress.
He acknowledged Zheng Ren's kind advice and thanked him with a nod and a smile.
"How do you know he had hypertension?" asked Su Yun when Cui Heming walked away.
"I felt it during the handshake," answered Zheng Ren perfunctorily.
"Cheh1, you must have guessed it." Su Yun concluded, ending the short conversation.
Zheng Ren stared at the slowly vanishing Cui Heming. The font on the System panel at the upper right corner of his vision was painted in light red.
It was not serious, but still required treatment.
According to the System, Cui Heming had a stage three essential hypertension with his blood pressure currently at 170/110mmHg.
Cui Heming's elevated blood pressure was presumably caused by chronic overwork. He had never paid any attention to it, nor had he consulted a doctor for check-up and treatment.
The most Zheng Ren could do was to, hopefully, provide a reminder for him to focus on his health.
However, Zheng Ren could not make his advice sound too serious. After all, hypertension was a common disease and the risk of major complications could be minimized as long as it was carefully monitored and controlled.
Twenty minutes before boarding, a couple in their thirties pushed a wheelchair to the boarding gate with a first-aid kit in the man's hand.
Zheng Ren stole a glance at them, and the System panel showed that the old man had an advanced stage of lung cancer with multiorgan metastases.
The couple must have decided to take the old man for a vacation around the globe while ambulation was still possible. Zheng Ren had seen many similar cases throughout his life.
Elderly people had experienced poverty, and the concept of frugality was deeply rooted in their minds. If their children did not strongly insist on bringing them for vacation, barely any of them would be willing to spend more than ten thousand yuan on luxurious entertainment.
However, their mindset had changed following the continuous improvement of the economy.
After conversing with airport staff for a while, the couple presented their doc.u.ments and boarded the airplane at the business class boarding gate.
Bringing medicine and a first aid kit aboard an airplane required formalities, and as for the doc.u.ments required, Zheng Ren had no idea what they entailed since he had never done it before.
He finally got to enjoy his leisure time without needing to worry about emergency resuscitation or patients' recoveries. He even excitedly read his novels when waiting to board.
Su Yun, who was also not in a hurry, absent-mindedly stared at the blue sky outside the window with his black bangs flowing elegantly across his forehead.
Finally, both of them took their suitcases and leisurely boarded the plane to Imperial Capital.
There were not many passengers on the plane. The stewardesses were very beautiful, and Zheng Ren was at ease.
He would not receive any emergency calls, and he did not have to worry about exhausting major rescue operations. He had plenty of idle time right now.
When the airplane was about to take off, Zheng Ren powered off his phone, picked up a pictorial from the seat before him and started reading it.
Meanwhile, Su Yun put on his earphones and asked for a blanket, preparing for a nap.
As the plane rose steadily into the air, Zheng Ren opened his mouth to ease the discomfort in his eardrums.
A few minutes later, a suppressed groan was heard.
The stewardess heard the sound and immediately unfastened her seatbelt without caring about the incline and turbulence caused by takeoff.
Zheng Ren's heart sank as the groan did not sound pretentious. What had happened?
He turned around and saw the ashen-faced Cui Heming clutching his c.h.e.s.t in his seat.
At that moment, the details on the System panel at the upper right corner of his vision had turned from stage three essential hypertension, highlighted in light red, to a dark shade of red, like a glass of wine with a bloody metallic scent.
F*ck… He was in serious trouble! Originating from a Chinese expression, this displays scorn, realization, or a mocking behavior, etc. -Urban Dictionary
Chapter 172 - I Want To Contact The Control Tower
The diagnosis was highlighted in bloody red on the System panel at
the upper right corner of Zheng Ren's vision—type I aortic dissection.
An aortic dissection was defined as a tear in the intimal layer of the aorta that resulted in the propagation of dissection, either proximally or distally, secondary to blood entering the intima-media space.
It was an acute, life-threatening condition with its chance of occurrence ranging between one-one-hundred-thousandth and one-two-hundred-thousandth, commonly seen in patients suffering from hypertension or arteriosclerosis.
Despite its extremely low probability, it was actually not uncommon in a hospital.
Millions of people lived in the city, and dozens would suffer this disease each year, a dreadful condition for all clinicians.
In Sea City, this disease was… incurable.
Even if type I aortic dissection was surgically treated in the provincial capital, the chance of survival remained low as well.
Apart from cardiac transplantation, this was one of the most dangerous surgeries in the cardiothoracic surgery department. In fact, transplanting a heart was not as complicated as surgically treating a case of type I aortic dissection.
Zheng Ren's heart rate instantly skyrocketed to 122 beats per minute. He quickly stood and used the seats to support himself as he moved to Cui Heming's side.
The anxious Cui Heming was sweating profusely, his face chalk-white as he struggled to breathe like a beached fish.
"Quiet, everyone must be quiet," Zheng Ren said in a deep voice, "Calm down, I'm here."
Cui Heming reached out and grabbed Zheng Ren firmly like a drowning man clutching at straws.
"Miss flight attendant, I'm a doctor. Is there a place wide enough for him to lie down?" asked Zheng Ren.
The stewardess became frightened as soon as she saw Cui Heming's condition.
Her mind went blank as she had never seen anyone with such a horrible appearance. Upon hearing Zheng Ren's question, she subconsciously pointed at the first-class cabin in the front and said, "The seats over there can be reclined."
"Can you please prepare an empty chair for him? I'm going to calm him down before transferring him there."
Zheng Ren knew that any sudden movement could aggravate the symptoms of type I aortic dissection.
Any sudden changes in blood pressure could completely rupture the aorta.
Once the aorta ruptured… the patient would die immediately!
"Cui Heming, do you know who I am?" Zheng Ren stared into Cui Heming's eyes and asked seriously.
"You're Doctor Zheng." Cui Heming's lips trembled as beads of sweat trickled down his forehead and temples.
"You don't have to speak. My medical skill is very good, so I need you to trust me, alright?" said Zheng Ren.
This was a psychological suggestion, but anyone who said it was considered to have a sense of responsibility.
Despite his intense discomfort, Zheng Ren's hand seemed to give Cui Heming a sense of security amidst his disorientation.
The helplessness of that night, the compliments the old professor in Imperial Capital had given, the silk banner in his hands, the patients' sincere gratitude outside the emergency building… These were the cornerstones of his sense of security.
He tried his best to nod.
"Please relax, don't be nervous. I'll carry you to the front so that you can lie down." Zheng Ren clenched Cui Heming's hand firmly to reassure him. Then, he said, "Miss flight attendant, may I ask for a stretcher?"
"Yes," the stewardess answered quickly.
There were stretchers on the airplane, but most people had never seen them before.
Nobody hoped to see it, either.
"Su Yun, lend me a hand!" said Zheng Ren, his voice was not loud but determined and commanding.
Su Yun finally removed his earphones and looked to the back.
Puzzled, he still had no clue what was going on, but the authority in Zheng Ren's voice was obvious and the aura of a superior was on full display.
Su Yun immediately assisted the flight attendants in carrying the stretcher to Cui Heming's side without wasting any time asking questions.
"Relax, relax. Breathe normally, and don't take deep breaths," said Zheng Ren softly like a psychologist hypnotizing a patient.
Zheng Ren had self-learned some basics of psychology, which he was subconsciously using.
He just wished that Cui Heming's blood pressure would not elevate from anxiety.
Once the aorta ruptured…
He would be doomed!
Cui Heming's respiratory rate gradually normalized and his contorted face softened slightly, presumably due to Zheng Ren's successful hypnotism or the unlimited Charm he had obtained as the System reward.
The intermittent severe pain was still gnawing continuously at him.
A minute later, Zheng Ren judged that Cui Heming's condition had stabilized and carefully transferred him onto the stretcher.
In the first-class cabin, the flight attendants had already reclined an empty seat.
"What happened?" asked a passenger in the first-class cabin.
Zheng Ren glanced at the passenger. He was the middle-aged man who had wheeled the elderly man with advanced lung cancer to the airplane just now.
"High blood pressure with some minor issues. He's fine," replied Zheng Ren.
That man immediately came to assist after noticing Cui Heming's condition.
One's blood pressure in a supine position was more stable than if one was in a sitting position, which was why Zheng Ren had to move him despite the huge risk.
However, Zheng Ren could only try to make Cui Heming as comfortable as possible due to limited resources on the plane.
"Do you have a sphygmomanometer?" asked Zheng Ren.
The middle-aged woman took out a portable sphygmomanometer from the first-aid kit, which Su Yun immediately took and used to measure Cui Heming's blood pressure.
After transferring Cui Heming to the flattened empty seat, the middle-aged man pulled Zheng Ren aside and asked softly, "He doesn't seem fine. What's your diagnosis?"
"Type I aortic dissection." The words squeezed through Zheng Ren's slightly parted lips.
The middle-aged man immediately put on a stern expression.
"And you are?" asked Zheng Ren, staring at the first-aid kit.
"I'm Xia Hua, a cardiothoracic surgeon from Harbin Medical University Affiliated Second Hospital." Xia Hua extended his hand.
Zheng Ren shook his hand and said, "I'm Zheng Ren from Sea City General Hospital. Do you have medicine?"
"Oral hypertensive drugs only. I don't have an infusion pump or any drugs for intravenous injection." Xia Hua looked helpless.
"That's good enough. Double the dosage for beta-blockers and vasodilators. Do you have any analgesics?" Zheng Ren assumed command of the resuscitation without the slightest hesitation.
Xia Hua was taken aback. Zheng Ren's tone… he sounded like a chief consultant of his department.
However, Zheng Ren looked like he was only in his twenties. Where did he acquire such confidence?
He was unsure if this patient could be rescued even in the cardiothoracic surgery department at Harbin Medical University Affiliated Second Hospital, let alone on an airplane with limited medical resources.
This confidence… was baffling.
Even so, Xia Hua remained silent and took the medicine—metoprolol, nitroglycerin and an analgesic—out of the first-aid kit. Then, he asked for a bottle of water from the stewardess before giving them to Cui Heming.
Su Yun finished measuring the man's blood pressure, he approached Zheng Ren and softly reported the result: "Blood pressure at 195/125mmHg,"
No one made a noise out of worry that the sudden racket could aggravate Cui Heming's condition and elevate his blood pressure.
A chill seeped into Zheng Ren's heart.
That was an extremely high blood pressure. Without any antihypertensive drug injection, Cui Heming could die in the very next second.
Zheng Ren grabbed the arm of the stewardess
, who was about to report the situation to the captain, and said in a calm but demanding voice. "Miss flight attendant, I want to contact the control tower."
Chapter 173 - I’m Zheng Ren, Requesting Assistance
Zheng Ren's words shocked Su Yun.
"You're crazy!" Su Yun growled softly.
It was one thing to save a life on public transportation such as airplanes and trains.
Zheng Ren actually wanted to contact the control tower, and everyone knew what that meant.
"He needs surgery that Sea City can't provide, and it'll be quicker to seek treatment in Imperial Capital than heading to the provincial capital. More importantly, I don't know anyone in the provincial capital," Zheng Ren explained before whispering to the stewardess, "The patient could have a sudden cardiac death at any moment, so I need to speak with the doctors in Imperial Capital."
The stewardess, who had not expected the situation to be so serious, immediately nodded and reported it to the captain.
Zheng Ren glanced at Cui Heming before he quickly returned to his seat and took his medical license and invitation letter for scientific research in Imperial Capital out of his luggage.
Every doctor had to have a medical license before they could attend scientific research and become a fly-in, fly-out surgeon.
Of course, only a copy of his medical license was required to work as a fly-in, fly-out surgeon, which would be kept on record by the medical administration division of the hospital where the patient stayed.
Zheng Ren had to bring his original medical license to attend scientific research in Imperial Capital, a prerequisite that had been agreed to in advance.
The medical license seemed to be the only thing Zheng Ren could use to persuade the captain.
This was a competition.
Against time!
Against luck!
Against fate!
In less than a minute, a square-faced captain in uniform came out of the c.o.c.kpit, and at the same time, Zheng Ren ran back to the scene.
"Captain, my comrade," Zheng Ren said seriously, "This is an emergency and the patient could go into sudden cardiac death at any moment. I request you contact the control tower in Imperial Capital regarding his special condition."
The Surgeon's Studio c1-799 Page 88
