Chapter 428: Understaffed
Gao Shaojie immediately started running.
As a doctor, his reactions were similar to the emergency department’s.
A large wave of adrenalin washed over him as the crackling sounds of high-energy phosphoric acid bonds in his body felt like they were ringing in his ears.
He quickly ran to the elevator. Seeing that the stretcher had just entered it, he followed suit.
Entering the narrow and cramped s.p.a.ce in the elevator, the smell of blood became stronger, to a point that it became hard to breathe.
Gao Shaojie glanced at the ECG monitor on the stretcher trolley. The blood pressure…could not be measured. Their heart rate was 160 beats per minute, with a blood oxygen saturation of 80%.
Gao Shaojie evaluated with his own knowledge that the patient was probably undergoing hemorrhagic shock.
The technician… Was he squeezing the patient’s liver to try and reduce the bleeding? There was not much blood left, right?
Su Yun knelt over the stretcher. His black hair was stained with a few drops of blood, but he was still determined in his actions.
“Boss, are you going to perform a hybrid surgery?” Su Yun was very calm while bent over the stretcher, not panicking at all.
“The liver is bruised and broken.” Zheng Ren was also calm. He replied, “We need to accurately determine the location of the bleeding and try to save some of the liver.”
Gao Shaojie was stunned.
The person was practically dead already. Could he still be saved?
“The operating theater has a chest drain, right?” Zheng Ren asked.
“Yes,” Su Yun casually answered. This was because the elevator had already reached the operating theater on the third floor.
Gao Shaojie helped to pull the stretcher trolley out of the elevator as they ran toward the operating theater.
Although he was “running”, his speed was not particularly fast.
After all, there was still a person kneeling over the stretcher to stop the bleeding. What if he accidentally threw the technician off balance?
The technician was young. It would not be a problem for him if he fell. However, he was holding the patient’s hepatic portal in his hand.
If he exerted too much force, the hepatic portal would be torn and the patient would be done for.
“Chief Physician Pan, it’s an emergency case. John Doe, ruptured liver. Blood pressure can’t be determined. I’m going into surgery.” Zheng Ren finished his last call before walking into the operating theater.
Xie Yi was not around this time, and there was only a circulating nurse busying themself inside.
The surgery below was probably not finished yet.
After carrying the patient onto the operating table, the circulating nurse walked over with the afterimages.
Su Yun pinched the liver door. Seeing Zheng Ren begin to wash his hands, change into his lead ap.r.o.n, start disinfecting himself, he said with a smile, “Boss, are you still not used to this?”
Zheng Ren ignored him and sterilized as quickly as possible.
“What kind of surgery are we doing?” Su Yun saw that Zheng Ren was ignoring him but he was bored. As such, he stopped smiling and finally questioned him seriously.
“We’re gonna open up the abdomen and figure out what the problem is. At the same time, get an interventional radiography to locate the blood vessels,” Zheng Ren told him.
Half a bottle of Iodophor was more than enough to soak ten pieces of gauze to sterilize them. Zheng Ren then began to spread out the surgical drape.
He purposely left the right femoral artery for the interventional radiography.
“Boss, you’re really fearless. There are only two of us. How many surgical methods do you want to perform? You shouldn’t overwork me like this.” Su Yun’s tone made one want to smash the disinfected curved plate over his head.
“It’s okay. I can do it,” Zheng Ren said. “Even if I can’t, I still have to. The liver is already rotting so I can only perform a hepatectomy.”
After laying down the sheet, Zheng Ren washed his hands again. He put on the surgical gown and went straight to the stage.
He did not let the circulating nurse come up. Instead, he stood in the first a.s.sistant’s position. He was the scrub nurse. He used the hemostatic forceps to clamp the blade and place it on the knife’s hilt.
He disinfected it and wiped it clean. He followed the previous wound and made a 15cm surgical incision.
Zheng Ren then used the disinfected tourniquet to make a leather jacket. It wrapped around the patient’s hepatic portal, allowing Su Yun to free his hand.
Su Yun then went to sterilize so he could scrub in.
Gao Shaojie came over to take a look and was shocked.
The right lobe of the patient’s liver was almost nonexistent. It was so fragmented that it could not be pieced together.
The liver’s left lobe was also partially ruptured.
If it was only the liver’s right lobe that was ruptured, then it would have just been fine to just cut it out.
However, even the left lobe had external injuries. Could it be that they would cut everything out?
“Su Yun, hurry up. I want to do an angiogram,” Zheng Ren roared.
Although Su Yun was about to fly up, Zheng Ren still despised him.
“Director Zheng, can I help with the operation?” Gao Shaojie volunteered his services.
There was only the two of them in Sea City General Hospital. They had both an emergency and interventional surgery to do. There was also another surgery downstairs that was being finished up, so they were extremely busy.
It did not feel appropriate to just stand here and watch.
Although he did not file a report with the medical department and did not have an invitation so this was against the rules, Gao Shaojie still wanted to help.
“You’re…” Zheng Ren hesitated.
This guy had already forgotten who Gao Shaojie was.
Gao Shaojie was speechless. In Zheng Ren’s heart, he was just a minor character…
No, he was not even considered a supporting actor. He was just an extra.
The kind of actor who brought his own boxed lunch.
“Chief Zheng, you’re too forgetful.” Gao Shaojie smiled awkwardly. “I’m Gao Shaojie, the a.s.sociate director of the Department of Interventional Medicine at the Affiliated Hospital of the Medical University.”
“Oh, I hope you don’t mind me troubling you then.” Zheng Ren ignored all formalities and immediately agreed.
It would have been great if Professor Rudolf Wagner was here. Unfortunately, this patient came at a very bad time. Not only was it already after hours, but he was also rus.h.i.+ng to perform a radiofrequency ablation.
Zheng Ren was also very helpless.
As for this doctor who called himself the a.s.sociate director of the Department of Interventional Medicine at the Affiliated Hospital of the University of Medicine, he did not care whether he was a doctor or not. If he did not perform the surgery well, he could just kick him off the operating stage.
Whether he was good or not could be determined by a single puncture.
The patient’s blood pressure was almost at zero now. If he wanted to successfully immobilize the artery sheath, it was not a feat that any ordinary doctor could pull.
“The lead ap.r.o.n is over there. Go and put it on yourself. Be quick about it!” Zheng Ren did not bother with formality and started barking out orders.
Su Yun brushed his hands but was not wearing a surgical gown. Instead, he went straight to placing a closed drain into the chest cavity between the 6th and 7th ribs of the patient’s right chest wall.
A gurgling sound followed as air was drawn out, combined with black and red blood.
“Yanran, go out first after the anesthesia is done,” Zheng Ren said.
Chu Yanran shook her head and said, “take some thread occasionally. There’s no problem.”
The anesthesia had already been completed. The double-lumen tube had been inserted long ago, but the patient’s blood pressure and heart rate were still quite problematic. As an anesthetist, she did not dare leave.
Zheng Ren did not insist and said, “Go and put on a lead ap.r.o.n then.”
“Okay.” Chu Yanran went next door to get a lead ap.r.o.n to put on.
The lead ap.r.o.n was very loose as it draped over her body. It swayed, making others feel like her small body would collapse at any moment.
“Accelerate the blood flow! Get the nurses from the emergency department to wait for the blood flow. Quickly!” Zheng Ren roared.
The circulating nurse was already so busy as she covered her head and turned around. She put in the stomach tube and urethral tube, and prepared a sterile bag and chest drain for Su Yun. Just as she was about to prepare a negative pressure suction, she heard Zheng Ren’s order and quickly set out to complete it.
Every one of them was very important. However, it was clear that there was not enough manpower.
w.a.n.g Qiang followed Gao Shaojie and put on the lead ap.r.o.n. He originally thought that he would be Gao Shaojie’s a.s.sistant.
Seeing that the circulating nurse was extremely busy, he said, “Leave this to me. If there’s anything I don’t understand, I’ll ask you. You go and stimulate the blood!”
“Who are you?”
“I’m w.a.n.g Qiang, the Secondary Hospital’s interventional department deputy director.”