Chapter 110: A Means Between Light And Darkness
Zheng Ren took out his cell phone and called the emergency department.
Soon, a paramedic rushed over with a stretcher trolley, almost out of breath.
Zheng Ren leaned closer to the paramedic and said softly, “Everything is fine.”
“A troublemaker?” guessed the paramedic, an experienced man, as he scanned the area.
“Yes.” After the brief conversation, they quickly transferred the rogue to the stretcher trolley and hurried to the emergency department.
Upon arrival at the emergency department, Zheng Ren pushed the stretcher trolley directly into an empty treatment room instead of the observation unit, closed the door and said, “The patient has lost consciousness. It’s a serious condition and we’re in big trouble now.”
The young traffic officer’s face was chalk-white.
Due to a lack of experience, he could not grasp the meaning behind Zheng Ren’s words.
“Prepare for resuscitation!” yelled Zheng Ren furiously while repeatedly blinking his eyes, trying to give the traffic officer a hint.
After that, he left the room, looked for the night shift nurse and gave her a few instructions in a low voice.
The nurse smiled with a gleam in her eyes. “Chief Zheng, you look so honest, how did you even come up with such an evil plan?”
“A troublemaker has been drunk driving, isn’t that enough?” replied Zheng Ren with a grin.
Drunken driving and brawls were the most annoying issues ever encountered in hospitals.
Zheng Ren had no issue with alcohol, but when people started losing control of themselves after getting drunk, it could inadvertently lead to tragedy.
For example, a student due for a college entrance examination the next day had been struck by a drunk driver during a walk and was reduced to a vegetative state. In another case, a husband had taken his pregnant wife for a stroll, but a drunk driver had brought all of them to heaven…
Thus, Zheng Ren hated such people the most.
He was a good man, but not a doormat. He had his own judgment, and at certain breaking points, he would break the rules and furtively seek revenge.
Just like now.
After collecting the right medication, the nurse went to the treatment room and started injecting them into the drunk rogue’s veins.
Then, she hung up a bottle of solution and maximized the infusion rate.
“He should be fine if he regains consciousness. Otherwise, we’ll have to resuscitate him.” It was pure nonsense, but Zheng Ren maintained his serious tone.
The young traffic officer was completely drenched in a cold sweat as if a war was raging within his mind. His imagination was going wild with the fear of getting suspended for this incident.
“He… He should be… be fine, right?” the officer stuttered in fright.
Zheng Ren patted his shoulder to signify that everything was fine.
However, the young traffic officer still could not understand Zheng Ren’s actions. His mind had gone blank from the start.
“Doctor, please make sure he is alright,” he said pitifully, “I didn’t even touch him.”
“It depends on the effects of the drug.” Zheng Ren’s expression remained at ease despite his solemn tone. “Drugs with special effects have been administered. If the patient wakes up, everything will be fine. Otherwise, I’ll have to admit him to the hospital.”
After that, Zheng Ren turned around and left without looking at the drunk ruffian, who was pretending to be unconscious.
Sitting on a hard, red plastic bench at the door, he explained his current situation in the group chat and inquired about the CT result.
Zheng Yunxia had finished a contrast-enhanced CT scan, and everyone was discussing where they would have dinner at the moment.
Zheng Ren was speechless; everyone always left him behind when going out for a meal. Even though he disliked eating out and hectic environments, he could not help but feel that the whole world had abandoned him.
It was deeply depressing.
Xie Yiren seemed to detect Zheng Ren’s dejection from the other side of the phone and volunteered to bring food for him.
Chang Yue mentioned in the group chat that she had gone for another ward round and all patients were stable, and so he could take his time returning to the emergency department.
The group chat became silent afterward.
‘They must have gone for dinner.’ Zheng Ren helplessly turned off the phone.
‘Well, they might as well go. Youngsters prefer a lively environment anyway,’ he thought, reverting to an old-fashioned mindset for a moment.
Approximately five minutes later, the door of the treatment room was suddenly flung open and a man, smelling strongly of alcohol and stumbling unsteadily, ran out like a scalded cat.
In the background, the young traffic officer stared dumbfoundedly at the scene before him.
He was confused out of his mind. The ruffian had just revealed that he had been pretending to be dead the whole time, but had thrown off his guise without a care in the world. What the hell was going on?
Had the doctor administered a drug that could trigger the patient’s conscience?
Instinctively, the traffic officer followed the man.
“The washroom is on the left!” shouted Zheng Ren as a reminder.
“…” The officer staggered.
A few minutes later, the rogue returned dejectedly, dropping all pretenses; there was no point in continuing the charade now that the cat was out of the bag.
An older traffic officer had arrived on the scene in the meantime. After inquiring about the situation, he scolded the drunken man for his idiocy before instructing the younger officer to deal with subsequent procedures such as blood sample collection. Justice was served in the end.
“Brother, thank you so much for everything,” said the senior traffic officer. He spoke in a slightly imposing manner, but Zheng Ren liked it.
“Don’t worry about it. It’s my job anyway.”
“Care for a smoke?”
“Let’s go.”
They were instantly greeted by an icy breeze upon stepping out of the building. Wrapping his white coat tightly around himself, Zheng Ren accepted a cigarette from the senior officer and took a deep drag.
It was not easy being a doctor or a police officer.
If either one of them started making complaints about the job, their list would be long enough to reach the end of the world.
They chatted casually and exchanged contact numbers. After realizing that Zheng Ren was dressed lightly, the senior traffic officer stubbed out his cigarette and threw it into an ashtray on the dustbin before bidding farewell to Zheng Ren.
Zheng Ren took this opportunity to take a walk around the emergency department. The weather was getting colder, and the general surgery division thus enjoyed this leisure time relatively free of drunken brawls in the middle of the night. However, the internal medicine division had its hands full due to the rapid rise in intracranial hemorrhages and myocardial infarctions.
Places as cold as alpine regions were certainly unsuitable for human habitation, but patients in the southern coastal regions would find their ailments easier to deal with.
Zheng Ren returned to the emergency ward after finishing his ward round.
He greeted the night shift nurses, the only ones left in the nurses’ station, before returning to his office and continuing his book.
Half an hour later, he received a call from the senior traffic officer.
He thanked Zheng Ren again on the phone. Had Zheng Ren not risked his neck by violating several rules of the hospital, their issue would have been extremely troublesome to deal with.
Zheng Ren chatted politely for a while before hanging up.
Earlier, he had ordered an intravenous injection of furosemide and a bottle of mannitol for the ruffian.
These drugs were standard treatment for intracranial hemorrhage, but when administered together, diuresis was further intensified which drastically increased urine output.
This resulted in an extremely full bladder.
However, Zheng Ren had also encountered a shameless b*stard who would rather hold his urine and risk incontinence.
After repeated examination to confirm that he was physically alright, urinary catheterization had been performed for the b*stard every one to two hours.
Few people could pretend to be comatose while enduring the agonizing pain of urinary retention just to save some money.
It was good that everything was settled. Zheng Ren shook his head and threw the incident to the back of his mind.
This interlude was merely a small part of his daily life in the emergency department, which ultimately became insignificant overall.
The real issues lay in various peculiar rescue operations that rapidly increased his adrenaline level and instantly broke the high-energy phosphate bonds in all his adenosine triphosphate.
It was a peaceful night. Two hours later, Zheng Ren went for another ward round before the patients went to sleep and made some necessary arrangements before finishing his Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery book.
Incidentally, Su Yun returned to the emergency ward at this time, having eaten his fill.