Path of Medicine With a System
chapter-202

In modern society, the power of money was now well known amongst ordinary Chinese people. No matter if a Chinese person was as young as six years old or as old as 80+, they would all know the importance of money. Not to mention, in China, you would have to first pay money in order to receive hospital treatment.

The ski place’s boss had no chance to even try and run. The nomads he had hired were no idiots. They would immediately call the police if the boss tried to run. It would be quite simple to arrest him as he had no proper documents or licenses for the entire ski place.

In a remote place like the mountains, if you were lucky, you might be able to make several years of good money with something like this illicit ski place. You could then use this money to make government connections. Maybe you would be able to elevate your wealth greatly after several years. But, if you were unlucky and an incident occurred, then you would likely lose all of the money you made. The police immediately shut down the ski place and took the boss into custody.

At any Chinese hospital, patients who were able to stay in the ICU department for a long period of time would almost always be one of the following: someone rich, a government leader, or someone injured while doing something for the public good. This was because the ICU department was truly expensive to stay in. The daily cost would typically be more than 10,000 yuan.

Human bodies were complex systems. The collapse of any internal system could easily cause serious problems for the body. Electrophysiology was an important part of the human body which still wasn’t fully understood.

Bayan’s life had been saved. However, the following treatment would still be really important. He would need a medically precise treatment for his recovery in order to prevent many possible negative aftereffects.

The ambulance would take any patient to the emergency department for the necessary treatment to save their life. However, for a patient to go to the ICU department, the patient would need to either pay the hospitalization fee or have a government leader’s approval. The government leader would need to be higher in rank than the hospital superintendent. The ski place boss’s family paid 100,000 yuan to start with for the patient’s medical fees. These medical fees couldn’t be paid for by medical insurance, because this was an accident on the job. The insurance wouldn’t pay for this.

Since it was the weekend, only one doctor, attending physician Huang Wenzhi, was on duty today. Zhang Fan brought the patient to the ICU department and explained the situation to Huang Wenzhi.

For an electrocution patient, it would be critical to maintain their breathing capabilities. Due to having received pulmonary resuscitation, it would be necessary to check that no rib bones had accidentally been broken, and that he didn’t have pneumothorax or pulmonary edema.

Luckily, Bayan was still young. His rib bones were healthy and flexible. None of these possible aftereffects happened to him. However, the troublesome part was that even though his pulse had returned, he was still unable to breathe by himself without assistance.

Lack of oxygen in the body was incredibly dangerous. Just a few minutes of lacking oxygen would cause the brain to die. Bayan was put on a respirator, yet this was only the first step. After ensuring a cycle of oxygen, the doctor would also need to ensure the oxygen cycle’s stability.

Keeping the cycle stable was the prerequisite to all other recovery treatment. Even though the chest compressions that Zhang Fan and the others had performed on the way to the hospital had helped to restore Bayan’s internal cycle and pulse, this wouldn’t be the end. The electrocution had messed up the electrophysiology of Bayan’s body. It was possible that his heart might stop or suffer from heart fibrillations. It would be necessary to strictly check his electrocardiogram, arterial pressure, central venous pressure, and urine.

Medicine could be used to maintain a stable cycle for Bayan. However, it wouldn’t be possible to only rely on medicine. It would be best to stop using medicine as quickly as possible. Just as how humans could be lazy, the organs also had a lazy side to them. If the organs were supported by medicine for a long period of time, they would also become lazy and stop wanting to perform their original functions.

The first place to focus on when the oxygen cycle collapsed would be the brain. Second would be the kidneys. Kidney failure was one of the most common reasons for electrocution recovery to fail. While the heart was part of electrophysiology, the kidney was part of chemical physiology. It would be vital to monitor the acidity and various macromolecules in the kidney.

Many patients and their family members wouldn’t understand why it would be necessary to draw blood and test urine and feces for something like a serious cold. Actually, this would be a preventative mechanism. Many small illnesses would cause some special biochemical reactions which would then lead to a series of bad reactions. The small problems could easily become major problems that would then become fatal.

Zhang Fan helped Huang Wenzhi to deal with Bayan. Although Huang Wenzhi was the only doctor on duty today, there were many nurses. Six ICU department nurses were walking around swiftly while caring for the ICU patients.

“This isn’t bad. The patient’s numbers are normal. There’s also no obvious change in his pupils. It’s lucky that you soon arrived to help him, and that you maintained his internal cycle. Otherwise, this patient definitely would have died,” Huang Wenzhi told Zhang Fan.

“Still, we need to continue observing him and see if he makes it past tonight. It will be bad if ischemia reperfusion injury occurs,” Zhang Fan answered while nodding.

Zhang Fan was quite familiar with the ICU doctors. This was because many of his surgery patients would need to spend one or two days in the ICU department. Zhang Fan would often come to the ICU department to check up on his patients after finishing his current department’s daily work. That was why he was acquainted with the doctors and nurses here.

“Yes, indeed. How about you take my night shift for tonight? I hear that you’re transferring to our ICU department next week?” Huang Wenzhi joked with Zhang Fan. Since the patient Bayan was now in stable condition, both of them were no longer as tense.

“I truly can’t do it tonight. My girlfriend is waiting for me outside. I’ll be troubling you tonight, Brother Huang.”

“I was just joking. No need to take me seriously. When did you get a girlfriend? You moved quite quickly!”

“Alright, Brother Huang. I’ll be leaving this patient to you. I’m leaving now, and I’ll report in to you tomorrow!” Zhang Fan joked, acting as if Huang Wenzhi was the director of the ICU department!

“You little brat, hurry and go already!” Huang Wenzhi returned to the ICU department after watching Zhang Fan walk off.

Work in the ICU department was really boring. You would endlessly need to concentrate on watching numbers on countless monitors. The nurses were also really busy. All of the ICU patients were in severe condition and would need special care. If a patient didn’t have bedsores, but started having bedsores in the ICU department, that would be classified as a medical incident. It would be impossible for the young nurses in this department to get any sleep at all on the night shifts here. It would be common to seem like you aged by two or three years after a single night shift!

Zhang Fan returned to his car and reported to the others on Bayan’s condition. He saw that it seemed like Shao Hua had been crying, so he asked, “What’s the matter?”

“She was so worried about you that she was crying,” Jia Suyue answered instead. If this had been a few months ago, she definitely would have tried to insult Zhang Fan, but she understood Zhang Fan a bit better after being through two incidents with him together now. She now gave face to him, and no longer made fun of him.

Shao Hua’s face reddened because of what Jia Suyue said. Shao Hua was rather embarrassed. Since there were several others here, Zhang Fan couldn’t really say anything. He turned and saw that Jia Suyue’s eyes were also rather red.

“Then how come your eyes are red as well?” Zhang Fan immediately regretted asking this right after he did so. He knew that this was inappropriate to ask! But, there was no helping it now. Instead of waiting for Jia Suyue to reply, he immediately talked to Li Liang instead. “Both of us should go to the emergency department and treat ourselves. Otherwise, frostbite scarring will appear on our ears.”

“I already brought over some iodophor and absorbent cotton. There’s really no other way. Let’s disinfect both of you. Our Yueyue is quite emotional. She was so moved that she started crying when she saw the ambulance,” said Wang Yanan as she started disinfecting Zhang Fan and Li Liang.

She performed some simple disinfection. Although Zhang Fan and Li Liang’s ears really itched, they absolutely couldn’t scratch them right now. Otherwise, the injured ears would scar permanently from the scratching.

Zhang Fan then drove everyone else home. Just as he and Shao Hua were about to return to Shao Hua’s place, they received a phone call from her parents. It turned out that Shao Hua’s aunt’s child was getting married tomorrow. Shao Hua’s parents went over to that neighboring city for today. Since this was something that had been arranged long ago, Shao Hua’s parents didn’t want to trouble Zhang Fan and Shao Hua. That was why Shao Hua’s parents only notified them right before leaving.

Zhang Fan had been really anxious today with all the chest compressions. He then felt great relief after the patient had been successfully stabilized. After these roller coaster emotions were over, he now felt really hungry.

Zhang Fan, who was about to drool, said, “Let’s go eat the big plate of chicken dish! We should also eat some noodles on top with the spicy chicken. I’m starving!”

“Okay! Let’s go, then. I’m also really hungry. Today, when I saw how Li Liang was, I kept thinking that you would be in the same condition. I felt so bad for you, really!” Only now as she rode shotgun did Shao Hua slowly start to confide in Zhang Fan as to why she had been crying.

“There’s no helping it! What else can we do since we met with such an incident?” Zhang Fan replied gently while caressing Shao Hua’s face.

“Why is it that incidents always occur when we’re out together?” Shao Hua held onto Zhang Fan’s hand which caressed her face. She gently tilted her face against Zhang Fan’s hand and enjoyed his warmth.

“It’s not that incidents always occur when we’re out together. It’s because I’m a doctor. If I hadn’t become a doctor, I wouldn’t have gone over there to see what happened or tried to save him. There were several hundred visitors at the ski place today. Believe me, probably more than half of them don’t even know what happened there today.”

“Yeah. But, you need to promise me that you need to take care of yourself in the future while saving others.”

“Yes, I will.” Actually, this was a pure white lie. When saving others, doctors would also be under the effect of adrenaline. At such a time, a doctor would be just like Superman, bravely charging forward. Such adrenaline-charged situations would often happen outside of the hospital.

The doctors wouldn’t feel as much adrenaline when they were actually working at the hospital. Maybe this was because of human nature. When nobody else could help, and only you could save someone, then it would only be natural to become hot-blooded. At the very least, it would bring out the courage in someone. If a doctor was still cowardly when someone else’s life was in danger, then that doctor already lost the most important qualification to be a doctor.

Every day, everywhere, it would be common for people to have medical emergencies on planes or trains. At such a time, as long as the plane or train had a doctor on board, even if the doctor hated their own job, as long as they still had a doctor’s heart, the doctor would definitely still stand up and volunteer to help. At such a time, even if the doctor was already accustomed to seeing death, the doctor would definitely be under the effects of adrenaline. That would be just like trying to arm wrestle with the god of death. Not just anyone could do this! That was why the job of doctor held so much appeal. Doctors would often talk about having a sense of accomplishment. Saving others would be the greatest sense of accomplishment in this job!

Here in the border province, big plate of chicken was one of the renowned dishes. Special spicy peppers were used, in combination with tomatoes which had received plenty of sun. The chef would then cook the chicken rather simply, giving it a delicious flavor.

After eating the chicken, you would then place thick noodles on top of the remaining chicken juices. That would be absolutely delicious.

That still wouldn’t be the end. You should also enjoy a glass of honey-fermented kvass at the end. It would really fill your belly and make you so comfortable. You could then belch ¹ to your pleasure, so satisfied that you wouldn’t even trade your experience for immortality.

The people of the border province were rather honest, and not that good at doing business. There was an old joke about big plate of chicken here, regarding a group of physical education teachers who were still single. They decided to save some money by only ordering one serving of big plate of chicken.

The group of more than 10 physical education teachers ordered only one serving of big plate of chicken, but they asked for more than 30 bowls of noodles in total. This was a specialty of restaurants here in the border province. You could always ask for more noodles, which would always be free. As long as you were shameless enough to keep asking, the restaurant would always keep giving you more free noodles until you were full, for no additional charge no matter how many noodles you asked for.

Zhang Fan and Shao Hua went back home after eating as Zhang Fan’s ears were still leaking water from his frostbite injury. Shao Hua sat down at her home and carefully looked over Zhang Fan’s frozen ears.

She carefully touched his ear, and asked, “Does it hurt?”

“No, but it really itches!” Zhang Fan couldn’t help but embrace Shao Hua as he inhaled his girlfriend’s faint flowery scent.

“Stop messing around. You’re injured.” For once, Shao Hua didn’t resist. If this was a normal time, she would never even give Zhang Fan a chance to act perverted with her.

Zhang Fan felt like he was about to explode down there! He took off his pants, and was about to do something with Shao Hua when his cell phone suddenly rang!

Should he answer his phone or not? After fighting with himself for three seconds, Zhang Fan smiled awkwardly at Shao Hua, put on his pants, and answered his cell phone.

“Zhang Fan, hurry and come! My wife had a miscarriage!” Li Hui was on the other end of the call. He was crying so much that his words were somewhat unclear.

“What happened?” Zhang Fan asked in some confusion. Hearing a man like Li Hui cry like this instantly calmed down Zhang Fan’s libido. Even his erect member started going down!

“I don’t know! I was busy at work today when my wife’s mother called me, saying that my wife was bleeding!” Li Hui spoke rather helplessly. Here in Chasu City, Zhang Fan was his only friend.

Li Hui was at his weakest right now. He called Zhang Fan because he really needed someone to console him. Li Hui had been about to become a father, but now something unexpected occurred!

“Where are you right now?” Zhang Fan asked while finishing putting on his pants. Shao Hua was no longer in a passionate fervor anymore, either. Her face was bright red in embarrassment as she covered herself with her blanket while curiously listening to Zhang Fan’s half of the conversation.

“I’m at the entrance to the gynecology department. I don’t know what I can even do right now. I don’t know!” Li Hui was becoming incoherent.

“Okay! Wait for me. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

Zhang Fan hung up and then awkwardly explained to Shao Hua, “Li Hui said that his wife had a miscarriage. He’s crying so much and really wants me to come over.” Although he was saying this to Shao Hua, Zhang Fan felt so awkward that he didn’t dare to look her in the eyes.

“Then you should hurry and go. Do you need me to come along as well?”

“No, no need! Um, you should rest well, rest well! I’ll be leaving now!” Zhang Fan hurriedly escaped. He really wanted to smash his cell phone to pieces!

Shao Hua laid on the bed as her lips arched upward while watching Zhang Fan panickily run away. Her smile became bigger and bigger, until finally she couldn’t help but laugh out loud!

Women would always be such complex creatures.