Chapter 114 - 113: Do not go gentle into that good night
Chapter 114: Chapter 113: Do not go gentle into that good night
Jiang He made to leave.
Chen Hao and the other two stopped what they were doing.
Outside, the rain poured down in sheets.
On one side were the three men who had just run back from the downpour, soaked to the bone and a complete mess. On the other was Jiang He, his ankle still wrapped in a bandage, putting on his jacket and preparing to plunge headfirst into the raging storm.
The contrast was too stark.
Chen Hao asked anxiously, "Old Jiang, where are you going in a storm like this?"
"Affiliated Hospital No. 1," Jiang He said succinctly. "There’s been a pile-up on the Ring City Expressway. Mass casualties. All the on-call surgeons have been mobilized, and they’re short-staffed."
Chen Hao protested, "But Old Jiang, you’re a patient yourself! Your foot hurts just touching the ground. How are you going to get there?"
Jiang He pushed the door open, his voice calm. "I have to go."
The preliminary review for the early screening project had just been approved, but there was still a lull before the budget and site were finalized.
Staying in the dorm meant, at most, flipping through some books or logging into Dingxiang Garden to reply to a couple of posts.
He already felt restless, and now this had happened.
Whether it was out of a sense of duty or to further solidify the influence he’d just started to build at Affiliated Hospital No. 1, he had to go.
After a moment’s hesitation, Chen Hao cursed under his breath and pulled his sneakers back on.
"Let’s go. I’ll go with you!"
Li Zijian and Wang Bo glanced at each other, dropped their towels, and said, "We’ll go too!"
"You two stay here." Jiang He turned his head, cutting them off.
"The ER is in complete chaos right now. More people will just get in the way. Chen Hao, you come with me. You can carry me, and we’ll get there faster."
Chen Hao tied his shoelaces tightly, wiped the rain from his face, and stepped forward to support Jiang He’s arm. "Let’s go."
...
...
Affiliated Hospital No. 1, Emergency Department lobby.
At this moment, it was hell on earth.
"Move! Move! Gurney coming through!"
"Get the defibrillator over here! Hurry!"
"Bed one’s heart rate is dropping! IV push, one milligram of epinephrine!"
"Family members wait outside! Wait outside!"
Gurneys, their rubber wheels racing across the floor, left gruesome, bright red trails of blood in their wake.
Xu Chen stood by the emergency triage desk, his mind a complete blank.
It was his first day of rotation here.
’The hospital in my memory wasn’t like this...’
’It was about doing rounds in quiet, tidy wards, methodically analyzing lab results from case files, and eloquently discussing the latest review articles and cutting-edge developments in front of my attending physician.’
’I’d look impossibly handsome in my white coat.’
’I’d flirt with the young nurses, brag about my uncle who’s an attending physician, maybe learn a thing or two about acting cool like Jiang He. Life would be great.’
But just now...
A middle-aged man with a blood-covered face was pushed in front of him.
The man’s left arm had been sliced open by a sharp piece of metal, a gash over ten centimeters long. Skin and flesh were peeled back, and blood was dripping from his fingertips.
The man was trembling all over in pain, groaning loudly.
Xu Chen was stunned for several seconds.
Finally, prompted by a nurse, he snapped out of it. His mind went blank, and he mechanically began the standard textbook procedure for debridement and suturing, starting with questions.
"What’s your name? Any past medical history? Any drug allergies? When were you injured?"
The man was in too much pain to understand what he was asking. He just cried out, "It hurts so much, Doctor... Help me... I think my arm’s gonna fall off, it hurts so much..."
Xu Chen’s heart tightened. He turned and ordered, "Quick, get me povidone-iodine, hydrogen peroxide, and saline! Prep a debridement kit! Lidocaine for local anesthesia!"
He took the cotton balls from the nurse with slightly stiff movements and began cleaning the blood around the wound.
Just then, Zhao Yumin came over and yanked Xu Chen away.
"What are you dawdling for!"
Xu Chen stumbled, nearly falling over. He was bewildered. "Teacher Zhao, I’m debriding the wound. This patient’s injury needs..."
"Debride my ass!" Zhao Yumin pointed at the middle-aged man’s arm. "This is a minor injury! The artery isn’t ruptured; he’s not going to die! Go look over there!"
Xu Chen followed Zhao Yumin’s finger and looked.
Beside a gurney in the resuscitation room, a young girl was lying there, her chest visibly collapsed. Her breathing was rapid and shallow, and her lips were already cyanotic.
"Flail chest! When mass casualties arrive, the first thing you do is triage! Black, red, yellow, green! Stop wasting time here! Get your ass over to the red tags and help!"
Xu Chen’s face went pale from being yelled at. He quickly dropped his forceps and ran to the young girl’s bedside.
The girl’s chest wall showed paradoxical movement with her faint breaths.
Xu Chen’s hand hovered in mid-air, his fingertips trembling uncontrollably.
The textbook was very clear: flail chest combined with a Tension Pneumothorax required immediate needle thoracentesis for decompression, followed by a closed chest tube drain if necessary.
He understood all the theory.
’But where do I insert the needle? Second intercostal space, midclavicular line?’
The girl’s chest was covered in mud and blood, obscuring all anatomical landmarks.
He didn’t dare to make a move.
’What if I get it wrong? What if I puncture her lung or a major blood vessel? Who would be responsible for the massive bleeding?’
That core review article he was so proud of in the *Chinese Journal of General Surgery* was of no help to him now.
In that world of black and white text, he was a golden boy, a future star praised by his teachers.
But in this chaotic scene of life-or-death rescue, he was just a helpless rookie.
A senior resident beside him shoved him aside, grabbed a large-bore needle, found the right spot, and plunged it in with a PFFT.
Pushed to the side, Xu Chen stared blankly at his own blood-stained hands as an overwhelming sense of powerlessness and panic washed over him.
He wasn’t cut out for this place.
The pace of the ER was too fast, so fast it left no time for thought.
Every second of hesitation could mean the loss of a life.
"Where are the surgeons! Haven’t general and thoracic surgery come down yet!" someone shouted from the end of the hallway.
"They’re all in surgery! The ORs are full! The backup operating rooms on the second floor of the ER are full too! There’s no one to spare!" the head nurse responded.
While performing CPR on another unconscious patient, Zhao Yumin roared into his walkie-talkie, "Call in the second line! Get all the attendings who are off-duty at home back here! Now!"
The storm raged on.
The automatic glass doors of the emergency department were stuck halfway open, either from a power outage or a malfunction.
A fierce wind carrying icy rain poured through the gap, making the plastic triage signs in the foyer CLATTER loudly.
A bolt of lightning split the night sky, illuminating the entire emergency entrance in a ghastly white light.
Chen Hao was bent over, his hands desperately supporting the person on his back.
Sprinting through the downpour with a heavy load had long since exhausted all his strength.
His legs felt as heavy as lead. Gritting his teeth, he used the last of his strength to walk into the emergency lobby.
"Old Jiang... we’re here."
Chen Hao’s legs gave out, and he sank to one knee, lowering the person from his back.
Jiang He said softly, "Thank you for your hard work."
By now, there wasn’t a dry spot on Jiang He.
His jacket clung to his body, his hair was completely soaked, and water dripped heavily onto the floor. DRIP. DRIP.
Looking around, the entire emergency lobby was still in a state of utter chaos.
Gurneys crashed into each other, monitors blared wildly, and medical staff ran and shouted amidst the blood and grime.
However.
Standing in the center of this inferno, Jiang He was surprisingly calm.
His gaze pierced through the chaos, calmly surveying the entire triage area.
This calmness came from a deep-seated confidence.
The confidence of a top surgeon, forged in a previous life through countless days and nights, honed by innumerable critical rescue surgeries.
How much could a top-tier surgeon accomplish in the midst of such chaos?
The monitors in the resuscitation room were still screaming madly.
Jiang He unwrapped the bandage from his foot.
He prepared to—
Go all out.
Tonight in the Affiliated Hospital No. 1 emergency room, there would be no peaceful night, only a battle to the death!