Chapter 1348: Worth Celebrating

Chapter 1348: Chapter 1348: Worth Celebrating

"The urine is very dark, increase the adjustment intensity. Now we can safely administer fluid therapy. Everyone, keep it up."

Glancing at the urine bag, Liu Banxia shouted.

The current progression of the patient’s symptoms is in line with everyone’s expectations. Rhabdomyolysis is inevitable, but it’s still unclear whether kidney function has been impaired; we’ll need to wait for lab results to know.

It’s safe to say that the pathways for both internal and external circulation in the patient’s body have been opened, so there’s no need to worry about the patient’s bladder being overextended; treatment can proceed without concern.

We’ve reached a stage of noticeable progress, and since the development of the patient’s symptoms is unavoidable, we face it bravely.

Everyone holding the hammers was even more motivated. At this point, the firefighters who had washed up and eaten returned, taking turns with the others.

For people like Huang Bo, swinging a hammer is indeed strenuous. Even though all these hammers are small, they’re much heavier than a scalpel.

The only one who could still hold on was Liu Banxia, though it was somewhat tiring for him too.

Regardless, he felt confident inside; his task was to lead the team to free the patient from the concrete. The rest of the work would be handled by the hospital’s experts.

The patient’s situation was indeed very complicated and could be considered the toughest case Liu Banxia had encountered since he began practicing medicine.

After more than half an hour of effort, the patient’s other leg was also freed. Inevitably, a fasciotomy with decompression was needed.

The entrapment had lasted too long; although fluids and acid-base balance correction were administered early on, they couldn’t keep up with the quick progression of his physical condition.

"Attention everyone, Liu Yiqing, call Chief Director Li and the others in. We’ll need to rely on them from here on out."

After some more hammering, Liu Banxia spoke up.

Actually, Liu Yiqing didn’t need to call them; everyone was already waiting outside. Now hearing his words, they pushed the equipment in.

"Doctor, am I going to be rescued?" asked the weak patient.

"Soon, but we need to ask you again for your authorization. We can’t reach your family and you can’t recall their contact information," Liu Banxia said.

"Save me, whatever it takes. I’m about to be freed, right?" the patient said, sounding slightly stronger than before.

"When we lift the concrete from your chest, you’ll lose consciousness and go into shock quickly, so we’ll perform a rescue," Liu Banxia said.

"Also, there might be other injuries in your chest and abdominal cavities. We need to check and treat them, so we need your authorization."

The patient nodded.

Truthfully, he didn’t really understand what Liu Banxia was saying; his mind was somewhat dazed now.

"Chief Director Li, let’s perform protective intubation first; it’ll be safer this way," Liu Banxia said.

Li Mingwu nodded, "Clear the space in the emergency room, pre-charge the defibrillator to 200 joules, prepare the adrenaline. After taking an X-ray in the emergency room, go straight to the operating room."

After speaking, Li Mingwu nodded toward Liu Banxia.

"Alright, prepare for intubation, 20 units of etomidate, 100 units of succinylcholine. Get the cardiac monitor ready; once the concrete is removed, connect it immediately," Liu Banxia said.

The nurse promptly prepared the medication, while Xu Yino started intubating the patient.

Everything was ready; they were now waiting for Liu Banxia to break open the concrete on the patient’s chest.

"Huff... huff... huff..."

Liu Banxia took a few deep breaths, then began to hammer away.

Having already done much of the preparatory work, breaking it apart this time wasn’t so difficult.

Once the concrete slabs were removed from the patient’s chest and abdomen, a noticeable sense of relief and joy appeared on the patient’s face. Meanwhile, Liu Banxia also acted quickly, picking up the scalpel beside him and making an incision in the patient’s chest.

The winter clothing the patient was wearing had some concrete infiltration, yet Liu Banxia managed to cut a long slit into it.

And the patient?

Before he could celebrate his rescue, his eyes rolled back, and he lost consciousness on the spot.

"Rip..."

As the sound emerged, Liu Banxia tore open the patient’s winter clothing and used scissors to cut open the clothes beneath.

"One unit of adrenaline, defibrillate, then connect the cardiac monitor."

Liu Banxia stepped aside as he spoke.

His expectations had a slight deviation; he thought the patient could hold on a bit longer before going into shock.

"Clear."

"Zap..."

"Sinus rhythm restored, connect the cardiac monitor, move to the emergency room."

Liu Banxia also let out a sigh of relief; he hadn’t expected the patient to regain sinus rhythm with the first electric shock. That was pretty good.

"Aye... this guy, about the same as working a full day of demolition. Tomorrow the arms will be a bit sore." Watching the patient being wheeled away, Liu Banxia sat directly on the ground.

"Finally finished saving him, let’s take a good shower and have a midnight snack." Chen Xuehai said with a smile.

"Do you think there’s a chance of pulmonary embolism?" Liu Banxia asked.

"Very likely, I heard Chief Director Li and the others discussing it earlier. That’s why we went on stage, to guard against this situation." Said Chen Xuehai.

"The time stuck in the concrete was too long. It would’ve been better if he hadn’t passed out from pain at the scene. If he had called for help initially, the concrete hadn’t solidified yet, and he could’ve been pulled out with no problem."

"It puzzles me, is today’s concrete so potent? Cured so fast?" Liu Banxia said.

"We also learned from the manufacturer that it’s quick-dry concrete, made for paving, as the road needs to be open for traffic tomorrow." Said Chen Xuehai.

"I guess we can only say this person had a bit of bad luck, rolling down the slope right into the pit filled with quick-dry concrete."

"Thankfully you all did a timely search and rescue; otherwise, he wouldn’t have survived. The rescue just now was so dangerous, and even now there’s not much time left for Chief Director Li and his team."

Liu Banxia nodded.

This patient was indeed stuck in the concrete for quite a long time. Now that the external pressure has been fully released, the toxins accumulated inside his body will suddenly spike significantly.

For a normally functioning human body, these toxins produced by bodily functions are metabolized orderly. But for this patient, it had already exceeded his body’s capacity to handle.

"Teacher Liu, shall we go for a midnight snack?" Xu Yino said with a smile.

"No wonder you reminded Manager Zhou earlier; turns out you wanted to eat!" Liu Banxia teased.

"Teacher Liu, do you see what time it is? Swinging a hammer sure drains one’s strength." Xu Yino said seriously.

Liu Banxia glanced at the time, indeed it was late, almost one o’clock in the morning.

He was definitely hungry; especially being the main force in the latter part, he anticipated everyone’s arms would have a reaction the next day.

Upon arriving at the canteen, Manager Zhou was there, dozing off.

"Sorry to disturb you, is there anything to eat?" Liu Banxia asked.

"The other dishes aren’t particularly meaningful to eat, I’ve skewered some meat for you, shall I fry them up?" Zhou Qiang asked.

"Sounds good, sounds good. Got any cola? Let’s indulge ourselves today." Liu Yiqing said happily.

"Alright, let’s go with Qingqing’s request." Xu Yino decided.

As for Liu Banxia’s opinion? Nobody cared what he thought.

They usually paid attention to their diet, and mostly ate at the hospital canteen, which was quite healthy. The configuration today, fried skewers + cola, was indeed a bit excessive.

But now, nobody cared about that. Successfully rescuing the patient was worth celebrating, so they had to enjoy themselves a little.

Zhou Qiang perked up, quite enjoying mingling with Liu Banxia and the others. Tonight he could fry some for himself and join in the fun.

"He’ll be missing out, Su Wenhao is missing such a big event." Xu Yino said.

"In our hospital, such events will definitely be frequent. It might not always be car accidents; could be some fire scenes or something else." Liu Banxia said.

"Everyone performed well today, completing the task successfully is a success. We must continue striving forward. Future situations, you need to control the scene; don’t always call for me when something happens."

"Oh... this car accident was too tragic. Some people truly didn’t have the chance to be saved, and having us decide which patient to give up is quite stressful." Xu Yino sighed.

Upon hearing this, the others nodded in agreement.

Today only Miao Rui didn’t go to the scene, busy in the emergency center, but he could imagine the pressure faced by his four companions at the time.

"There’s nothing that can be done about it. No amount of comforting words or excuses can change the facts." Liu Banxia said.

"Yet when encountering such situations, we really need to face them bravely. We’ve never participated in a rescue mission following natural disasters; that’s when it truly gets distressing."

"All supplies become scarce, maybe patients we can rescue safely under normal circumstances have to be watched helplessly then."

"This profession of ours is exactly like this. Always facing life and death, take it slow and practice; it’s something we must go through."

"It just seems so cruel." Liu Yiqing muttered.

Liu Banxia was quite helpless; like he said, no matter what excuse or reason is found, there will always be some emotional impact inside.

"Oh... now I’m very conflicted about whether to let my child go to medical school." Zhou Qiang sighed.

"Haha, there’s a saying going around the martial world: you hate someone, send them to study medicine." Liu Banxia joked.

Everyone laughed, and the tense atmosphere finally eased a bit.

After all, the successful rescue of this patient was really worth a proper celebration.