Free Web NovelChapter 1101: Chapter 1101: A Basketful of Difficulties
"To be honest, your question is pretty sharp. I need a sip of water to calm my nerves." Liu Banxia said with a smile.
Sui Wenjing also laughed and gestured for him to go ahead.
Taking advantage of the time to drink water, Liu Banxia was racking his brain to organize his words.
This question was not easy to answer, and he absolutely couldn’t just shoot his mouth off.
"Actually, what you just said isn’t wrong. This really is a social phenomenon. But this phenomenon definitely isn’t limited to our medical field; I think it’s also a broader social issue." After putting down his cup, Liu Banxia said.
"First of all, reports like this attract a lot of viewers. In many people’s minds, doctors are a powerful group, existing specifically to rip people off."
"If there’s something to gawk at, there’s naturally a market, so the media loves to report this kind of thing. If it’s Zhang San having an affair with so-and-so and they get caught in the act, who’s going to watch if you don’t capture some explosive footage?"
"Of course, don’t over-interpret what I’m saying as supporting these improper relationships. That’s a different matter. It’s like the ride-hailing apps that were a hot topic some time ago—everyone said how bad they were, and any little incident became news."
"Then you get public debate and criticism, and after that there’s a reversal: the driver turns out to be innocent. We over-specialize certain industries or groups and lock them into a fixed bias."
"But the problem does exist, and I’ve thought about it too. Maybe it’s because of power transactions, or maybe it’s because people spend long hours working together every day, and it just happens naturally."
"My view is that everyone should keep themselves in check. If it’s a pure relationship, we should welcome it with open arms. After all, for us medical staff, getting married is like being in a hardship category."
"But if other factors are involved, then you need to hit the brakes in time. Otherwise the consequences might really be more than the people involved can bear."
Sui Wenjing nodded. Although Liu Banxia hadn’t rattled off a string of exposés like she’d imagined, this answer was very fair and grounded.
He didn’t deliberately dodge or argue back, but faced and analyzed the issue frankly, and that was enough.
"My heart was pounding just now. Looks like I barely passed, so I need another sip of water." Liu Banxia said with a smile.
"I’ve actually interviewed a lot of guests already, from all walks of life. But I feel your attitude in this second interview is quite different—this time you’re a bit more tense." Sui Wenjing said.
"I can’t afford not to be tense. I don’t know what traps you’ve dug waiting for me to jump in." Liu Banxia said very candidly.
Sui Wenjing laughed. "Then let’s move on to something lighter. What do you think is the hardest part of your work?"
"Hard? There are way too many. I don’t have enough fingers to count them." Liu Banxia said.
"Key departments are always understaffed, and our staffing numbers don’t meet the standards—that’s a difficulty, right? Because that means fewer people doing more work and giving up their rest time."
"Some people will say, ’Don’t you get overtime pay?’ But what I want to tell everyone is, people working in hospitals really don’t care about overtime pay."
"When you first start, you might think it’s good—you can earn more at least. But after you’ve been working a while? When overtime becomes part of your daily routine? What are you going to feel then?"
"And if you calculate overtime pay by the hour, it really isn’t much. It looks like a lot because it builds up day by day. Very often we’re even working for free. It’s not like those high-tech companies."
"I’ve told high school seniors: if you really want to study medicine, you need to be prepared to suffer. There’s even a saying in the martial world: if you hate someone, tell them to study medicine."
"So everyone wants to go to the popular departments, and the tougher, more exhausting ones they try to avoid. Pediatrics, ICU, anesthesiology—these are hard problems to solve, and we’re short of people right now."
"Fortunately we’re an emergency center, so for emergency work we’re not short yet. Otherwise we wouldn’t even be able to handle what’s coming next, and life would be even harder."
"But the most difficult part is still assessing the patient’s condition. Because once we assess, we have to give medical orders. Do we perform an emergency surgery right there, or do we have enough time to push the patient to the operating room?"
"And if we send them to the OR, we also have to consider whether we’ll have enough time to run instrumental examinations. If our judgment is off, the patient could be put in real danger, and we’ll also be in a very awkward position."
"Let’s use an example. We receive a car accident patient. They have blunt trauma to the head and have lost consciousness. The abdomen is distended, the muscles tense, and we suspect internal bleeding or peritonitis."
"Even with the diagnostic equipment we have on admission, we may not be able to tell exactly which organ is damaged. So what do we do?"
"If we perform a laparotomy in the resuscitation room, due to limited conditions—even though it’s called a resuscitation room—it’s not as good as an operating room. And after a successful resuscitation, a lot of problems may still arise."
"If we send the patient to the OR, can they hold out that long? And since the patient has blunt head trauma, meaning a type of impact injury, do we do a brain CT in advance to check for hematoma?"
"Because when we’re resuscitating a patient, we also need our own sequence, tackling the most urgent issues first in order to make treatment effective."
"But if the patient goes for a CT, even an emergency CT, we’ll still lose a lot of time. And for the patient, a few minutes can mean a life."
"Yet not doing a brain CT carries huge risks. Intracranial hemorrhages often show no external signs at the time. If, during surgery, the patient really has intracranial bleeding with a large volume, that’s also life-threatening."
"In many situations, the decision can only be made by the attending doctor on the scene. If the resuscitation succeeds, everyone’s happy. If the outcome isn’t what we hoped for, conflict can arise easily."
"Talking about this brings up a lot, so let me complain a bit. In the emergency department, we really run into all kinds of problems."
"When an emergency surgery is needed, we have no way to give the patient’s family a detailed explanation of all the risks. Because what we’re faced with at that moment is simply the question of ’Save the life or not?’ What other choice is there?"
"To patiently walk family members through every single step, every possible complication—there just isn’t that much time."
"We can only describe the situation on site in the most concise language and let the family decide. But just this point alone can easily become a reason for them to sue us."
"They’ll say we didn’t fulfill our duty to inform, or even in cases where we clearly did inform them, they’ll still sue."
"The reasoning then is even simpler: they’re not medical professionals, so they don’t understand these possible complications. It’s a kind of information asymmetry—they say the doctor didn’t explain in detail every potential risk and its causes."
"Some complications are still medical mysteries even now; all we can do is list out the possibilities. And some complications have never even been statistically recorded. Once something goes wrong, we’re hit with a headful of lawsuits."
"What I’m really trying to say is that I hope we can all show a bit more understanding toward each other. This is an old topic, but every time it comes up there’s some new twist."
"When a patient is sent in, our wish is always the same: to pull them back from the brink. No one wants to see complications, but some complications just happen."
"For example, having a wisdom tooth removed—it’s just pulling a tooth, right? Sounds simple. But with wisdom teeth, there’s a certain probability of developing sepsis as a complication."
"I also hope that when you come for treatment, while keeping a healthy skepticism, you can also give a bit more trust. Because our common goal is the same; we’re all working toward that goal together."
"Listening to what Director Liu just shared has taught me a lot." Sui Wenjing picked up the thread.
"A hospital is a special place. A lot of the time, the moment we mention going to the hospital, our heads hurt. It means something’s wrong with us, and it also means spending money."
"But this special place is also where lives are saved. Many people walk out relaxed and smiling after their illnesses are resolved."
"Thank you, Director Liu, for joining us today. If possible, I’d really like to invite you for a third interview. Maybe it’s because we understand too little about the medical field that there’s so much lack of understanding and misunderstanding."
"Haha, if I have the time, and I don’t have work arranged, and your questions aren’t so sharp, I’d actually dare to come." Liu Banxia joked.
After he finished speaking, the staff on the other side gave a signal: today’s recording was done.
"Thank heavens, it’s finally over." Liu Banxia felt much more relaxed.
"Director Liu, how were my questions today? They really weren’t that sharp." Sui Wenjing said with a smile.
"They were all killing moves, step by step. One careless moment and you get stabbed." Liu Banxia said with a perfectly straight face.
"How could it be that dramatic? We were just chatting. But there were a lot of questions you didn’t answer directly today—you dodged them." Sui Wenjing said.
"It’s not that I don’t dare to talk; I just don’t know how to talk. I’m worried what I say will be maliciously interpreted, and then I’ll be back in the news again." Liu Banxia said.
"I need to get back to the hospital too. Work is busy every day. I also wish your show gets better and better and your ratings keep going up. I’m out, gotta run."
After saying that, Banxia walked out decisively. He wasn’t going to stay—otherwise who knew what else he might end up saying.
