Healing Doctor

Chapter 568 The Night Watchman

"How so?" the bald host immediately asked.

"If I'm not mistaken, the patient ate hot pot for dinner, and some of the food wasn't chewed properly. After entering the intestines, this food exerted force on the titanium clips that were clamping the blood vessels as the intestines moved, eventually causing the clips to fall off and the clamped artery to bleed."

"I'm just giving a brief overview; that may not be the exact reason. But based on my years of clinical experience, the more dramatic the patient and their family are, and the less compliant they are with the doctor, the more likely something bad will happen."

After Professor Shen finished speaking, Director Bai and Director Liu nodded repeatedly in front of the screen.

The two had similar thoughts, but they hadn't thought of it because of their close relationship with Ji Xiang.

"Indeed, many patients do not follow medical advice, which is really a headache."

"When the four top doctors in the interventional radiology department were still around, there was one incident," Director Bai said casually. "Most of their liver cancer patients also had hepatitis, cirrhosis, and gastric varices."

"The next day, the patient was scheduled for surgery and was advised to eat soft food. However, for some unknown reason, the patient's son made celery and pork dumplings for his father. Celery is very hard and cannot be chewed properly. It directly scratched the vein in the stomach, causing the patient to vomit blood that night. He didn't even have time to wait until the liver cancer became fatal."

"I've also heard Director Zhao mention a case," Director Liu added. "It was also a liver cancer patient with portal vein thrombosis. The patient knew his condition was extremely serious and no longer wanted treatment."

"Later, Director Zhao talked to the patient and decided to try it once or twice, and give up if it didn't work."

"The patient was extremely lucky. Iodized oil had gotten into the portal vein tumor thrombus, and it had already disappeared during the follow-up examination before the third surgery. You could say he was given a second chance at life."

"It is indeed very rare." Director Bai nodded, acknowledging that Director Liu's statement was correct.

"After three surgeries, the patient could be said to have recovered. She was very happy and came to complete the discharge procedures herself on August 15th. However, less than a week after being discharged, she was hospitalized again due to vomiting blood."

"Did you eat nuts?"

"Yeah, she was playing mahjong and eating sunflower seeds. The sunflower seeds scratched a vein in her stomach, causing her to spit out a mouthful of blood all over the mahjong table. Two of the people she was playing mahjong with suffered heart attacks..."

It's all fate. Cancer didn't kill him, but he died because of something else. Where can he go to seek justice?

After a brief chat, Professor Shen began his concluding remarks on the screen.

"The example I gave earlier wasn't off-topic. I've thought about similar things many times, always wishing that all the diseases I see in clinical practice could be avoided, prevented, and cured. Unfortunately, almost 90% of diseases in clinical practice are incurable."

There's a saying that goes, "The world is silent for these sorrowful names, for the centuries of loneliness behind them."

"It may seem like metaphysics, but that's only because our current theoretical foundation is not solid or robust enough to explain many things. In my imagination, Dr. Ji Xiang should have already embarked on the path of pursuing truth."

Professor Shen spoke with increasing literary flair and deep emotion. His words became slightly incoherent, as if he were completely absorbed in his own world.

Many people couldn't understand what he was saying, but the show was still broadcast and wasn't cut.

"Hey, I guess this program touched on Professor Shen's feelings," Director Liu said with a smile and a shake of his head, understanding the situation.

"As a doctor, how can you not have regrets? I tell patients they can't eat raw, cold, or hard foods, but they don't listen. What can I do? It's all fate."

Director Bai said.

"My high school classmate was diagnosed with uterine fibroids. At first, she could have taken medication, but she refused. When the fibroids grew larger and could have been surgically removed, she still refused. Even when they got even bigger and could have been surgically removed, she still refused."

"She's superstitious and believes in folk remedies. I recommended Guang'anmen Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine to her, but she wouldn't go."

Director Liu said with a regretful tone.

"Later, she developed severe anemia, and we wanted to give her a blood transfusion to correct it before proceeding with further treatment, but she still refused."

"Really stubborn," Director Bai said.

"Then one day he went to the bathroom and never came out. I guess it was orthostatic hypotension leading to cardiogenic shock, and he just fainted and died in the bathroom. It was a long time, and when they found him, he was already cold."

"Most of the time, you should respect what the doctor says."

"What's the use of telling me? The patient won't listen. What can you do?" Director Liu said. "I once encountered a patient with osteosarcoma who refused surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy, insisting on acupuncture. Acupuncture is fine, I don't object, but you have to find a reliable one."

"Unable to find a good traditional Chinese medicine doctor, I randomly went to some quack doctor who stuck acupuncture needles directly into the tumor and then into other places. Six months later, a follow-up examination revealed that my entire body was covered with implanted metastases."

"It's all fate, you know."

Director Bai suddenly remembered something.

"Do you remember when there was a major pandemic a few years ago, and you couldn't do strenuous exercise after you tested negative?"

"Remember."

"Dr. Wang from the neurosurgery department resumed running 10 kilometers every day 5 days after having a fever."

"Is that so?!" Director Liu exclaimed in surprise.

"He's so stubborn, he won't listen to anyone. I even made a special phone call to persuade him. At the time, I felt he was bound to have an acute myocarditis attack, but look at Dr. Wang now, he's still alive and kicking."

"Old Bai, the things you mentioned all have happy endings," Director Liu said with a smile. "Is it that the older you get, the softer your heart becomes, and you can't bear to see those tragic things?"

"The older you get, the more numb you become; whether you see them or not doesn't matter anymore. There are countless examples of people not following medical advice, like the slow speed of IV drips," Director Bai said. "I was still making rounds in the wards when I was still in clinical practice."

"You just like using the word 'inspection,' do you think you're a lion?" Director Liu asked with a smile.

"Lion? I'm just a night watchman," Director Bai said. "One day I saw that the IV drip rate of a postoperative patient was too fast, so I slowed it down to about fifty drops per minute and told the patient and his family that they must not go too fast, otherwise there would be some kind of complications."

"The patient and their family had agreed that they understood. But less than an hour later, after a 500ml bottle of fluid was administered, the patient immediately experienced acute left heart failure accompanied by cerebral edema."

"They were in critical condition for a whole day before they came back. I really don't understand, if the IV drip is going to be slow, so be it, why the rush?"

Director Liu listened to Lao Bai reminisce about his clinical experiences back then and laughed heartily.

On the screen, the scene shifted, and the program switched to the hospital ward.

The patient's complexion had improved a lot and he didn't look so pale anymore. Director Zou, dressed in white, stood in front of him.

At this moment, the patient looked like a child who had made a mistake, with an embarrassed expression.

He didn't dare to meet Director Zou's gaze and almost covered his head with the blanket.

(End of this chapter)