Healing Doctor

Chapter 514 Theatrical Rescue

Zhai Yuhan was also watching the program on her phone.

"Dr. Xiao Ji, you did a really good job with the interventional surgery, really good." Zhai Yuhan gradually accepted the young intern in front of her.

Ji Xiang is highly skilled; even Director Li Ming of the Interventional Radiology Department was so kind and approachable. What am I compared to him?

Moreover, Ji Xiang's level of interventional surgery is an objective fact, and in the spirit of seeking truth from facts, Zhai Yuhan has to accept it.

"It's alright." Ji Xiang was also watching the program on his phone. He changed the subject, not mentioning his own level of skill, "The animation company that Director Fan found is really capable. They produced this level of content in 48 hours. It's really amazing."

"Is this your suggestion?" Zhai Yuhan asked.

"I was just saying it offhand, otherwise Director Fan would always be asking me all sorts of questions." Ji Xiang smiled. "Besides, some popular science content would be much more effective if it were broadcast on variety shows. My dad used to say that education should be entertaining, but I don't really like that. I always think about educating people, which isn't quite right."

"But when it comes to myself, it's a different story."

"You?!" Zhai Yuhan was stunned.

"When I was on duty with Dr. Meng in the emergency department, he told me about several cases, including elderly people and children, all of whom had foreign objects in their trachea and didn't know how to treat them at home. By the time the ambulance arrived, they were already cold."

Ji Xiang sighed, "I always thought it would be great to start a science popularization account, but that's difficult, and not many people follow it. Now, thanks to this variety show, it seems like I can do a lot of things."

"..."

Zhai Yuhan had never seen a similar scene before.

However, this kind of thing is easy to imagine.

A child who suffocated to death was brought to the hospital with no heartbeat or breathing. The patient's parents were so weak that they could not stand up and collapsed to the ground.

"If everyone knew the Heimlich maneuver, even if their technique wasn't perfect, they could save many lives every year. I happened to have a patient whose staple had fallen into their right main bronchus, and that's when I thought of this."

"Is this considered meddling in other people's business?"

"Pretty much." Ji Xiang smiled nonchalantly. "The main thing is to keep Professor Meng quiet in the emergency room and reduce unnecessary resuscitations."

"Useless rescue? What does that mean?" Zhao Mengmeng asked, puzzled.

"The patient was brought in by an ambulance, and the family couldn't accept it. Although the doctors and nurses knew the patient was already dead, they had to try to resuscitate him. It was basically a performance-style resuscitation, meant to comfort the family."

Ji Xiang said helplessly.

Zhai Yuhan was already used to Ji Xiang's grasp of small clinical details, while Zhao Mengmeng seemed more like the kind of intern required by the program, with a naive and innocent look on her face.

"Oh, is that so? How could it be a performance?" Zhao Mengmeng asked in confusion.

"Losing a loved one is very difficult for the family to accept in a short time," Ji Xiang sighed. "So we just go through the motions of resuscitation. Teacher Meng said that if you encounter a patient with late-stage cancer who is extremely emaciated, you must press very gently."

Why?

"If you use even a little force, a piece of your rib will snap and break. It will be difficult to dress you after you get to the funeral home. One side will be low and the other high, making it very difficult during the funeral procession. I've never seen it before. I just took what Teacher Meng said as fact." Ji Xiang reiterated at the end.

"But is it absolutely necessary to not try to save him?"

"We need to take into account the feelings of the patients' families," Ji Xiang added.

He saw that Zhao Mengmeng really didn't understand, which was normal, since she had never been exposed to clinical practice before.

"However, I heard a piece of gossip from Teacher Meng. Apparently, an old man was brought in already dead. He said he was watching TV at home, laughed, and then went silent."

"You're so lucky," Zhai Yuhan exclaimed.

Zhao Mengmeng didn't know why Zhai Yuhan said that; in her mind, being alive was a blessing.

"Seeing that the patient's family was very agitated, Teacher Meng began to pretend to perform CPR. Surprisingly, the chest compressions, which weren't even applied forcefully, had an effect; after three minutes, the patient took a deep breath and actually survived!"

"Fuck!" Zhai Yuhan cursed.

"It's alive?"

"Yes, he's alive. The old man glared at Teacher Meng and said, 'You're hurting me, be gentle.'"

"..."

"..."

Zhai Yuhan, like Zhao Mengmeng, looked at Ji Xiang with a completely bewildered expression, unsure whether the matter was true or false. Was Ji Xiang just making things up, or was it actually true?

"After the old man finished speaking, he lay down and passed away peacefully. Teacher Meng was startled, and he became even more cautious after that." Ji Xiang talked about gossip with great enthusiasm.

Zhao Zhe continued, "I once encountered a patient with late-stage kidney cancer, which had metastasized to multiple organs and caused multiple organ failure. When he came to the hospital, he was already in critical condition, breathing with his jaw down."

Jaw-down breathing is a medical term, a relatively dangerous sign, commonly seen in critically ill patients and those nearing death. Zhao Mengmeng understood this term.

"The patient's family brought him here to avoid him dying at home, so they brought him to the hospital..."

"Teacher Zhao, what does it mean to avoid dying at home?" Zhao Mengmeng continued to ask.

This question caught Zhao Zhe off guard.

It's such a simple clinical fact, why doesn't Zhao Mengmeng understand it?

"Mengmeng, don't interrupt, let Dr. Zhao continue," Zhai Yuhan said.

"Ahem, after the patient was admitted to the hospital, I called all the patient's family members to the doctor's office and explained the situation to them. This kind of patient is fundamentally different from the kind of patient that Dr. Xiao Ji mentioned who suddenly passed away. The family has already accepted it, but they just want an explanation."

Zhao Mengmeng wanted to ask what the explanation was, but she only moved her lips without asking.

She felt that she and the three people in front of her were not even in the same dimension.

"I spoke for about ten minutes, and the family's three sons and two daughters signed and put their fingerprints on the document, refusing resuscitation. Later, all treatment was stopped, not even sugar and saline solution was given, and they just waited for the old man to run out of breath so they could send him away."

"But the old woman endured it for a full seven days. Suddenly one day she woke up, talked to her children, washed her face, and had her daughter wipe her body. Finally, she drank a bowl of millet porridge, and after finishing it, she lay down and passed away."

"Uh, 7 days, and they didn't give you any sugar-salt water?!" Zhai Yuhan asked in surprise.

"Yeah, even a normal person can't survive seven days without food and water, let alone teeth. Yet an elderly person with terminal cancer woke up and was able to talk to their family," Zhao Zhe said. "That's why you can't predict what will happen next in clinical practice. My friend always says I speak unclearly, which is really annoying."

"That's normal. As doctors, who can be 100% certain?" Zhai Yuhan replied matter-of-factly.

"Doctor, my stomach hurts..."

(End of this chapter)