Healing Doctor

Chapter 482 The Most Dangerous Situation

"Teacher Zhai, that can't be right," Zhao Mengmeng asked, puzzled.

"It's quite possible," Zhai Yuhan said. "The chances of encountering similar patients in clinical practice are not high, but you can still run into them over time. There's an old saying, 'If you walk by the river long enough, you're bound to get your shoes wet,' which is roughly the idea."

"This..." Zhao Mengmeng still had an incredulous expression on her face.

To children living in an ivory tower, the world is clean, beautiful, and vibrant, just as the propaganda portrays it.

Having experienced being brutally beaten down by society, Zhai Yuhan no longer harbors such thoughts.

"In the emergency room, some people always complain of various discomforts, faking their symptoms very convincingly, and want to be prescribed Demerol. I didn't experience this myself a few years ago, but I've heard of people even trying to snatch Demerol from the emergency room."

"..." Zhao Mengmeng was speechless.

"That's the simplest one. There are also more difficult ones. For example, if a pregnant woman discovers a stillbirth during a prenatal checkup, she might conceal her medical history and go to the emergency room for an IV drip, later claiming it was caused by the IV medication." Zhai Yuhan sounded a bit disgusted when she talked about these things, but she still brought them up.

It's obvious that Zhao Mengmeng needs clinical experience. She's been working very diligently lately, and Zhai Yuhan wants her to understand the dangers of clinical practice, so she's trying to create a comprehensive medical environment for her.

Otherwise, given Zhao Mengmeng's understanding of the world, if she suddenly barged in, she would probably quickly be rubbed off by society.

It's really hard to say what will happen then.

This can be considered a small gain for Zhao Mengmeng from participating in the program.

"This...this is too much," Zhao Mengmeng stammered.

"There are even more outrageous things," Ji Xiang said. "I heard from Teacher Meng in the emergency department that in the years before the crackdown on organized crime, human traffickers would abduct sick children and, if they couldn't sell them, they would just take them to the hospital to extort money."

"Extortion?! How?"

"While holding the child and taking advantage of a busy moment, I mentioned some symptoms, pretending the child was asleep. Then I refused a physical examination, saying that the child had finally fallen asleep and I didn't want to disturb them, just wanting to sleep quietly for a while, as long as I could get an injection."

The doctors and nurses are busy and don't have time to check. If we give the child an injection as they request, they'll soon say the child died from an injection given at the hospital.

"!!!" Zhao Mengmeng's face turned pale, deathly pale.

What Ji Xiang said sent chills down her spine; Zhao Mengmeng found it hard to believe that such a person existed.

In an instant, she was completely immersed in the experience.

If I were to encounter a similar situation in clinical practice, I estimate that something bad would most likely happen.

Shortly after the injection, the child was found to be "dead"... The doctor could not escape responsibility no matter what.

Zhao Mengmeng was terrified; tears welled up in her eyes, and she was on the verge of crying.

"Similar things happen a lot, Mengmeng, be careful in the future." Zhai Yuhan gave Ji Xiang a deep look and instructed Zhao Mengmeng.

Zhao Mengmeng was a little confused and nodded blankly.

"Dr. Xiao Ji, what's the most dangerous situation you've encountered in your clinical practice?" Zhai Yuhan asked.

"I've only been doing my residency training for less than six months," Ji Xiang shrugged. "I haven't encountered anything like this before; I've only heard about it."

Zhai Yuhan was speechless when she saw Ji Xiang speaking such shameless words with a righteous expression.

"There are fewer medical disputes now, and I haven't seen any particularly unreasonable patients or their families. But I heard from Dr. Meng in the emergency department that there are a few types of patients he's particularly wary of, and if we exclude pediatrics, the ones he least wants to take on are patients with rib fractures."

"A rib fracture?! It's just a hemopneumothorax, what's there to be afraid of? Just do a closed drainage procedure, and if you can drain more than 200ml of dark red bloody fluid within an hour, you can go on stage." Zhai Yuhan said with a hint of disdain.

She has now changed her opinion of Ji Xiang, but she still subconsciously thinks that the doctor Meng that Ji Xiang mentioned is a junior doctor at the prefecture-level city level.

"Professor Meng said that in his 20 years of work, he has encountered 8 patients with rib fractures combined with aortic dissection," Ji Xiang said.

Zhao Mengmeng didn't understand what Ji Xiang meant, but Zhai Yuhan understood immediately.

Aortic dissection is extremely dangerous. Although it may be confused with other diseases, severe tearing pain in the chest and back is always a clue to its danger.

However, if a rib fracture is accompanied by aortic dissection, the pain from the fracture will mask the symptoms, and the pain from the aortic dissection itself will be mistaken for fracture pain.

Once the patient takes painkillers or receives an intramuscular injection, they will fall into a deep sleep. Even if they do not die suddenly in their sleep, their blood pressure will rise the moment they wake up and sit up, which could very likely cause a sudden rupture of the aortic dissection and death in the ward.

At that time...

Upon hearing Ji Xiang's description of the situation, Zhai Yuhan immediately thought of the patient's family's incomprehension. The patient had clearly walked in, was alert and articulate, so how could he have died?

This is different from someone trying to stage an accident with a dead child. What Ji Xiang is talking about is a pure medical condition, one that the doctor who treated him didn't even recognize.

To be honest, if this kind of case were handled by the Medical Dispute Mediation Committee, it would at least be considered a liability accident.

Even the patient's family members didn't understand or cooperate, leaving the body in the ward and refusing to remove it no matter what...

Zhai Yuhan was sweating profusely, her palms were damp.

"This is the most dangerous situation. There may be other situations, such as carotid endarterectomy syndrome, which has a probability of one in 50,000, or delayed cerebral hemorrhage, etc. But considering all factors, Professor Meng still thinks that rib fracture combined with aortic dissection is the most dangerous."

"Dr. Xiao Ji, how did you handle that Ms. Meng? Does your hospital do emergency 64-slice CT scans at night?" Zhai Yuhan asked.

"Teacher Meng said he's not liked by patients, nor by the doctors in the ward." Ji Xiang smiled slightly as he spoke of Meng Qingfei, and said he missed him a little since he hadn't accompanied Meng Qingfei on duty for a few days.

"How so?"

"Whenever a patient has a rib fracture, other doctors would just do a chest X-ray, but Dr. Meng always insists on a chest CT scan. He always jokes that he's the kind of incompetent doctor who can't diagnose without machines."

"But a chest CT scan might not show it," Zhai Yuhan immediately pointed out the flaw in Ji Xiang's words.

"What Professor Meng means is that as long as there's any doubt, he'll definitely consult the thoracic surgery resident," Ji Xiang said. "He's a bit too cautious, but I think Professor Meng is just terrified."

"Is he... like a bird startled by the mere twang of a bow?"

When Ji Xiang mentioned the phrase "a bird startled by the twang of a bow," Zhai Yuhan smiled bitterly.

As the chief resident, she knew very well what it meant to be easily frightened, like a patient with gallbladder torsion. If you encountered one, you could only say it was bad luck.

"Professor Meng often said that doctors must be careful and cautious, as if walking on thin ice. He also said..."

Ji Xiang spoke fluently and at length.

Originally, Zhai Yuhan was supposed to teach Ji Xiang and Zhao Mengmeng, but after a few rounds of discussion, it turned into Ji Xiang teaching them.

(End of this chapter)