Free Web NovelChapter 116: Chapter 114: Transformation
A blind puncture.
The needle, at a 30-degree angle to the abdominal wall, pointed directly toward the left shoulder.
He felt the needle break through.
Jiang He slightly withdrew the stylet.
Dark red, non-clotting blood flowed from the hub of the needle.
Jiang He steadied the needle, attached a syringe, and began to aspirate slowly.
Fifty milliliters.
One hundred milliliters.
As the blood was gradually drawn from the pericardial sac, the heart regained room to beat.
The woman’s breathing visibly stabilized, and a trace of color returned to her cyanotic lips.
"Connect the drainage tube, secure it, and check her blood pressure every fifteen minutes." Jiang He pulled off his gloves and tossed them into the yellow medical waste bin.
"Understood," the nurse replied, deftly handling the follow-up procedures.
11:36 PM.
Another batch of gurneys had filled the hall.
The torrential rain outside seemed poised to drown the entire city. Ambulances battled the fierce winds, continuously delivering patients covered in mud and blood to the outpatient hall.
Jiang He was in the middle of treating a patient.
Just then, Chen Hao brought over a bottle of mineral water. "Old Jiang, have some water."
After finishing the diagnosis, Jiang He found a moment to spare and took a large gulp.
As he drank, Chen Hao explained, "There was a massive landslide on a winding section of the Ring City Expressway. It hit a long-distance overnight bus directly, and the cars behind it couldn’t stop in time."
A nurse added, "Affiliated Hospital No. 1 is closest to the accident site, so the first wave of critical patients was sent to us. The Municipal Health Bureau just issued a strict order that we must do everything possible to save them."
"Haven’t they pulled in people from other hospitals?" Jiang He asked.
"They have. Emergency teams from the Provincial People’s Hospital, City Hospital No. 2, and the Armed Police General Hospital are all on their way. Firefighters and armed police have also deployed heavy equipment to the scene for extrication. But the rain is too heavy tonight. Multiple roads are flooded, and all the main routes to Affiliated Hospital No. 1 are blocked. The traffic police are clearing them, but the support teams won’t arrive for at least another half hour."
Half an hour.
Jiang He frowned.
The gears of the state were already turning at maximum speed.
But in that thirty-minute gap, the emergency department of Affiliated Hospital No. 1 was the only line of defense for these critically injured patients.
’I have to save more people.’
Jiang He said, "Go get a wheelchair."
"Are you going to use it?"
"It’s not for me."
Jiang He raised his hand and pointed to a middle-aged man who had just been helped through the entrance.
The man’s face was deathly pale, and blood was seeping through his trousers.
Chen Hao’s expression changed.
He immediately ran to get the wheelchair and help the man.
Jiang He didn’t pause either.
Dragging his right leg, he walked toward another red-tag area in the center of the hall.
On a gurney lay a young man, his right mid-thigh severely deformed.
His pant leg was completely soaked in blood.
Blood dripped from the edge of the gurney onto the floor. DRIP... DRIP...
Xu Chen was standing nearby.
His face was pale, and he was forcing himself to try and do something.
’But... it’s so hard.’
’This is so much harder than I ever imagined...’
Finally, Jiang He arrived.
He took the scissors from a nurse’s hand and cut open the young man’s pant leg along the side seam.
A quick diagnosis.
Open diaphyseal femur fracture.
"It hurts! Doctor, it hurts!" the young man cried out, his forehead beaded with sweat from the pain.
Jiang He remained perfectly calm and felt for the man’s dorsalis pedis artery.
He couldn’t find it.
The top of the foot was ice-cold.
Jiang He made an instant assessment and turned to give a nurse orders:
"Apply a dressing to the base of the thigh and put on a tourniquet. Record the time. A major blood vessel is severed. If we can’t restore circulation to this leg within six hours, it will have to be amputated."
The moment the young man heard the word "amputated," he broke down completely, struggling desperately to sit up.
"I... I don’t want an amputation! I’m not even married yet, Doctor... I can’t lose my leg! Please, save me..."
Jiang He forcefully pressed down on his shoulders, holding him to the gurney.
"Calm down. Lie still and cooperate with the treatment. You might still have a chance. Do you understand?"
The young man was stunned into submission by Jiang He’s powerful presence.
He bit his lip hard, tears streaming down his face.
But he finally stopped struggling violently, only gasping for breath.
Jiang He turned his head and looked at Xu Chen, who was standing a few steps away in a daze.
"Don’t just stand there. Get sterile dressings, apply a pressure bandage, and immobilize it in place. When you’re done, bring over the portable X-ray machine."
As if waking from a dream, Xu Chen’s Adam’s apple bobbed. He stammered, "O-Okay... Right. I’ll get the bandage now."
He ran to get the dressings. Though his hands were still trembling slightly, his mind at least started working again.
He took a deep breath and, following Jiang He’s instructions, began to apply the bandage, clumsily but earnestly.
11:42 PM.
Jiang He stood before the seventh critical patient.
The pain in his ankle was getting worse. He had to shift most of his weight onto his left leg to keep his hands steady while he worked.
Before him lay a heavyset, middle-aged man with crush injuries from the accident.
His blood pressure was steadily dropping. The non-invasive monitor now read 70/40.
Jiang He held a portable ultrasound probe in one hand, quickly scanning the patient’s abdomen.
But the image on the screen was nothing but static and blurry shadows.
The patient’s subcutaneous emphysema was too severe. Combined with the low resolution of this machine from ’08, the ultrasound waves couldn’t penetrate the gas under the skin.
He slid the probe over the hepatorenal and splenorenal recesses, trying several views, but he couldn’t see anything clearly.
Jiang He’s brows furrowed.
’I’m not a god. I don’t have X-ray vision.’
This obsolete equipment and the patient’s complex injuries had brought his diagnosis to a complete halt.
Jiang He said, "I can’t see anything. We can’t move him for a CT scan. With this blood pressure, he’d go into arrest on the way."
A nurse beside him asked anxiously, "What do we do? His heart rate is climbing. He must be bleeding internally."
Just then, a nurse from the next bed shouted, "Dr. Jiang! The patient in bed three with the flail chest is desatting! The ventilator can’t keep up!"
