Chapter 137: You Never Know Which Comes First, Tomorrow Or Accident
The main purpose of the blood collection was to determine the patient’s blood type for subsequent transfusion.
Blood transfusion was the best method to treat hemorrhagic shock.
“A large amount of fluid is seen in the hepatic fossa with minimal fluid accumulation noted in the Morison’s pouch. The suspected cause is hepatic rupture leading to intraperitoneal hemorrhage,” the doctor reported the ultrasonographic findings.
“What surgery are you going to do?” asked Old Chief Physician Pan.
“Interventional radiology for hemostasis,” Zheng Ren replied, “Notify the operating theater to prepare corresponding equipment.”
The nurse had connected the intravenous infusion drip at this time. Then, she threw a pack of dextran and an ECG monitor to the stretcher trolley, which Zheng Ren quickly escorted to the operating theater.
“Chief Physician Pan, I’ll leave the preoperative counseling to you.” Zheng Ren disappeared around the corner in a flash.
Old Chief Physician Pan wore a stern expression, fully aware of the patient’s critical condition.
An undetectable diastolic pressure was equivalent to decreased intravascular volume due to rapid blood loss. The mortality risk remained high even with surgical intervention.
Zheng Ren rushed to the emergency operating theater to perform the surgery. In the meantime, Old Chief Physician Pan began to direct the medical staff to preserve and mark the patient’s clothes under video surveillance as evidence.
These were not meaningless.
Countless unidentified patients were admitted to the hospital each year. After they were successfully rescued, they found out… No one knew if this was the truth, but they claimed that they lost their belongings and demanded compensation from the medical personnel. It was a common trend in the current world.
Therefore, emergency rescue was often delayed by these trivial matters, and as to whether anyone perished because of this, nobody knew.
Fortunately, this patient was in a critical state and required immediate surgical intervention, and Old Chief Physician Pan, who had not gotten off work, could help Zheng Ren deal with this issue. If this incident happened in the middle of the night, the legal procedure of preoperative counseling alone would take too much time and probably cost the patient his life.
Sometimes, apart from the doctors’ expertise, fate was another important factor to ensure a patient’s survival.
A cell phone, fully accessible without a password lock as the patient was an elderly man, was found among his belongings.
Old Chief Physician Pan searched through the recent contact history and called a number with an ID named Darling.
“This is the Sea City General Hospital emergency department.
“Are you Tang Guoqing’s family member? Please come to Sea City General Hospital emergency department immediately. Your father has severe intra-abdominal bleeding and requires urgent surgical treatment.
“The patient has gone to the operating theater, but there are some procedures that need to be done.
“His condition is very serious, so I can’t guarantee the success of surgical treatment.”
Old Chief Physician Pan calmly and objectively explained the situation to the family member before putting the phone into a clean yellow biohazard bag, which was then sealed by a nurse.
Even though the family member had been informed about the situation, the patient still had to undergo surgery without waiting for his family to sign on the preoperative informed consent documents.
Soon, a staff from the medical administration division arrived at the emergency department. Old Chief Physician Pan then urged him to begin recording the situation and authorize that the emergency surgery was greenlighted.
Old Chief Physician Pan speculated that the emergency surgery had begun at this moment, which was considered a minor violation of rules, but negligible when a life was at stake.
Approximately ten minutes later, a woman with a pair of rimless spectacles in her late-twenties hurried into the emergency department.
She was bare-footed. Perhaps she had thrown her high heels somewhere along the way as it had impeded her movement speed.
“Nurse, I’m Tang Guoqing’s daughter. Where is my father? How is he? What happened to him?” asked the woman anxiously.
Tears had made wet tracks down her chalky-white face and ruined her beautiful makeup, but she cared none of it and bombarded a nurse with questions.
Her voice was loud, impatient and impolite.
The nurse, who had been working in the emergency department for a long time, empathized with the family members and patiently replied without expressing any resentment, “The chief is in the office. Please speak with him.”
Acknowledging the nurse’s instructions, the woman hurried to Old Chief Physician Pan’s office, knocked on the door and entered the room without waiting for a response.
She was in such a hurry that her left shoulder accidentally knocked on the door frame with a loud bang.
Paying no attention to the pain in her left shoulder, she quickly asked, “Chief, my father…”
Her breathing was ragged, and the words that managed to escape her mouth sounded sharp and cold. The remaining words vanished into the air, leaving the sentence hanging and unfinished.
“You must be Tang Guoqing’s family member, yes?” asked Old Chief Physician Pan.
The woman nodded, trying but failing to speak. Tears spilled down her cheeks along with her head movement, messing up the already ruined makeup even further.
“Your father was sent here via an ambulance. According to the witness, he had been strolling around in Central Park and immediately collapsed after leaning heavily against a tree.” Old Chief Physician Pan had already grasped all available information in a short time. That way, at least the family members would understand that the incident was self-induced rather than a direct result of external trauma or a traffic collision.
“His blood pressure was very low at the time of arrival. His systolic pressure was 50mmHg and diastolic pressure was undetectable, that was why I’ve decided to send your father to the operating theater for emergency surgery. We’re trying our best to save him now.”
Old Chief Physician Pan’s honest and serious expression made the woman’s heart sink instantly. Tears burst forth like water from a dam and streamed down her cheeks.
“Now is not the time to cry,” Old Chief Physician Pan immediately stopped her and said, “I want to explain the surgery to you. Although I’ve been given authorization to proceed with the surgery, I still have to talk to you about it.”
The woman nodded.
“Are you the patient’s daughter? Please show me anything that can prove your identity,” asked Old Chief Physician Pan.
The woman looked through her handbag and took out an exquisite card case that contained her identity card, work card and press pass, and the name Tang Xiu entered his eyes.
“A lead editor in a newspaper office?” Old Chief Physician Pan nodded and began explaining the surgery to her.
Tears of fear blurred Tang Xiu’s vision.
She felt that the entire world was painted in grey after Old Chief Physician Pan finished the explanation.
The patient’s condition was extremely serious and the chance of survival was only ten percent, perhaps even lower than the predicted percentage.
Even if the patient was successfully pulled back from the brink of death, the chance of recovery in the ICU remained low as well.
When she first read through Wei Feng’s article, she also agreed that the hospital should not perform surgery in the family members’ absence.
If it was not for the fact that she had received tremendous pressure that had coerced her to change her mind, she definitely would have published Wei Feng’s article to correct this “unethical trend” in the medical world.
Now that Tang Xiu was going through the same situation herself, all she could feel was confusion and despair.
“Since emergency care was given in a timely manner, there is still hope. I’ll take you to the operating theater now. You’ll wait outside and inform your family in the meantime.” Old Chief Physician Pan comforted her.
Timely manner? Tang Xiu was grateful to the kind-hearted citizen for his prompt action instead of turning a blind eye. Although he just let her father remain on the ground, at least he had called 120 on time.
The doctors in Sea City General Hospital had begun the rescue even in the family members’ absence.
This undoubtedly reduced further blood loss and increased her father’s chance of survival.
Her logical sense told her that her father would depart this life if the doctors had to wait for her arrival.
This was contrary to her initial belief, but…
At this moment, she completely forgot that the family members had the fundamental right to be informed and decide.
It was extremely difficult for people to feel empathy when they had not experienced the same situation themselves.
The difference between the onlookers and the family members’ perspective was worlds apart, so huge that it was beyond Tang Xiu’s imagination.
She absent-mindedly followed Old Chief Physician Pan. Her ability to think was completely lost.
Her father had been fine all day, but how did he end up in Sea City General Hospital with a life-threatening condition? Unexpected events really could happen at any time.
‘You never know which comes first, tomorrow or accident.’
She was scared that when she arrived at the operating theater, the surgeon would come out and apologize that they had tried their best.
She was scared that the stretcher trolley would be covered with a white sheet with her father’s pale, cold face underneath it.
She was scared that her father would suddenly draw his last breath, and she would not be able to bid her last farewell.
She was scared that the ill-intentioned fate would make the nightmare come true
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