Chapter 471: Missing Signature
“Who are you looking for?” Zhong Min was the closest to the door and asked.
“Hello, the emergency department asked us to come up for Chief Zheng’s consultation,” the man said. “My wife’s been diagnosed acute appendicitis and said that she needs to be hospitalized for surgery.”
“Oh, Chief Zheng?” Zhong Min’s name was Zheng Ren.
Zheng Ren raised his head and took a glance. The System’s panel on the upper right side of his vision indicated that the woman’s diagnosis was acute appendicitis.
He would accept the couple then. Although Zheng Ren did not want to do any work at the moment, the patient had already walked through the door. He had no choice but to accept them.
“Hello, follow me for a physical examination first. Once I’ve cleared the diagnosis, we will go through the hospitalization procedures. What kind of examinations have you already gone through in the emergency department? Please let me have a look at some of the test results,” Zheng Ren said as he put down his cup and stood up.
He brought the patient and her husband to the treatment room to carry out the patient’s physical examination.
The symptoms of the patient’s acute appendicitis were typical, but not severe. The right lower abdomen had obvious tenderness. There was no rebound pain or muscle tension.
In the out-patient clinic’s information, the blood test results also matched Zheng Ren and the System’s judgment.
It was Zhong Min’s turn to take in the patient. She gave the patient the hospitalization form, and the patient’s husband paid for the hospitalization procedures. This was to prepare for the operation.
Since the patient was only fasting for three hours, there was no rush. They had to wait.
If it were not for the emergency room, it would have been safer to just drink water.
Soon, the patient’s husband completed the admission procedure. After Zhong Min gave the medical advice, she began to give the pre-operation details.
The patient and her husband were both very intelligent and polite. They clearly understood the progressive condition of her appendicitis and the various operation complications.
The entire process of communication was very smooth. Zheng Ren suddenly thought that it would be great if all patients were like this.
When he signed the form, the man took out a pen from his bag. His penmanship was flawless.
He was a really cultured person. Everyone in the office, except for the professor and Little Oliver, were all very impressed.
Professor Rudolf Wagner was completely engrossed in studying every frame of the 64-slice CT scan with 3D-image reconstruction images.
As an assistant, Little Oliver was not as perfect as Su Yun. He spent most of his time looking around curiously, trying to understand the ancient mysteries of the East.
The professor attached great importance to tomorrow’s surgery. One could even say that he was desperate.
After all, had he not come all the way to China just for the surgery tomorrow despite his status?
The TIPS surgery was merely an added benefit.
After the patient signed the form, he went back to the ward to prepare for the surgery. He prepared the skin, implanted the needles, and so on. Zhong Min wrote down the medical record. There was a lot of written work to be done.
It might be an appendicitis, but Zheng Ren only needed five to ten minutes to actually do the surgery. However, the paperwork would take at least a few hours.
However, Zheng Ren could completely ignored this fact now. He refused Professor Rudolf Wagner’s invitation to discuss the case further.
He found a window with sunlight, held a glass of water, and sat quietly under the sun, enjoying a brief moment of silence.
God knows what else would happen in the afternoon and evening!
He could not stand being so tense all the time. Zheng Ren felt that it was especially necessary for him to empty his mind properly.
In the office, everyone was busy. Zheng Ren rested quietly for a while before going to the ICU to take a look at the patient post-operation.
The patient was in a somewhat stable condition. It was already a miracle that he could survive after such a serious injury.
Su Yun sat by the patient’s bed as usual, recording all kinds of data, adjusting the order of infusion and rehydration, and the application of various drugs.
His fringe rested on his forehead. It was pressed down by his sterile cap that was soaked with sweat.
The patient’s parents squatted near the ICU entrance. They were still speechless. The man put his arm around the woman, praying in grief.
Zheng Ren did not comfort them. Instead, he left silently.
At this moment, what they needed was not the comfort of strangers. What they needed was for their child to be able to walk out of the ICU. At least, he was able to make sure the child would survive as he called out to his parents when exiting the operating theatre.
Zheng Ren was silent the entire way. He could not make himself feel any better about the situation.
He walked very quickly. He wanted to return to the office in the emergency ward and bask in the winter sun again to dispel the unhappiness in his heart.
However, when he returned to the ward, he saw Zhong Min nervously flipping through the medical records.
“Where is it? Where is it?” Zhong Min mumbled as she flipped through the medical records.
“Hmm? What’s wrong, Zhong Min?” Zheng Ren asked curiously.
Zhong Min came from the Internal Medicine Department. Just like Chang Yue, she was much better at writing medical records than people from the surgery department.
However, the two of them were also very different.
Chang Yue was good at communicating with people, while Zhong Min was not very willing to talk. She was more meticulous with her work.
“Chief Zheng, the pre-operation signature is missing! ” Zhong Min said anxiously.
However, the patient had not been sent to the operating table yet and this had not been discovered after the surgery. There was still room to remedy the situation.
“Haven’t you been sitting here all this time? How did you lose it?” Zheng Ren was also very curious.
“The paper is still there. It’s the signature on it that’s gone.” Zhong Min took out the piece of paper from the stack of cases and handed it to Zheng Ren.
There was Zhong Min’s signature and time stamp on it. Zheng Ren did not have the time to sign it. Usually, the higher-level doctors would only sign it before they were discharged. Otherwise, it would waste a lot of time just to sign forms every day.
However, there was no patient’s signature or consent to the surgery on this pre-operation statement!
Zheng Ren frowned and flipped through it again and again. He could vaguely see scratches on the paper with a hard pen, but there was no handwriting.
He took the pre-operation statement and held it underneath the sunlight to read it.
This time, he could clearly see the consent for surgery and the patient’s family members’ dragon-like signatures.
There was a problem with the pen!
Zheng Ren instantly realized what had happened.
“Chief Zheng…” Zhong Min was timid and almost scared to tears.
In fact, it was not a big deal. However, if he met a pretentious person and asked him to sign it again, there might be a dispute.
Zheng Ren comforted Zhong Min and said, “It’s okay. It’s the patient’s family member’s pen that has a problem. I’ll go and talk to him.”
“Chief Zheng, will you be getting into trouble?” Zhong Min’s tears started to fall.
“Nope. She’s not even on the operating table yet so what problem could there be?” Zheng Ren said with a smile, “Don’t worry. If anything happens, I’ll take care of it. If I can’t then we still have Chief Physician Pan upstairs.”
At the mention of Chief Physician Pan, Zhong Min finally felt a little relieved.
Zheng Ren sat down at his desk and asked Zhong Min to go and find the patient’s husband.
This kind of thing was about being mindful. If Zheng Ren went to look for the patient himself, he would feel threatened.
Soon, Zhong Min brought the patient’s family member to the office.
The patient also bent down and held her right lower abdomen as she followed them.
Zheng Ren smiled and asked them to sit down.
“The signature that you signed just now has disappeared.” Zheng Ren tapped on the pre-operation instructions with his finger. He maintained a gentle smile on his face. “It’s the pen that you used just now. Is there something funny going on with it?”