Twenty minutes later, Liu Zhi arrived at the hospital.
The on-duty nurse in the emergency room called her over.
"Dr. Liu, the logistics department put your white coat here."
Liu Zhi accepted the gift and thanked him.
Dr. Ding, who had been looking forward to getting off work, beamed with joy when he saw her, "You're finally here! I'm off work!"
Liu Zhi took off his coat and draped it over the back of the chair, then put on his white lab coat over his sweater and buttoned it up.
The hospital was so warm that Liu Zhi's cheeks flushed after sitting for a while. Afraid of dozing off, she took out a cup of coffee from her drawer, made herself a shot, and slowly sipped it.
The first half of the night was unusually quiet; Liu Zhi sat for over an hour but no one came.
The department got busy in the latter half of the night. Two drunk men who had been fighting came in. One was knocked unconscious and brought in to have his brain checked. The other had a piece of glass stuck in his head. They cleaned the wound and treated it.
Fortunately, the person who was knocked unconscious was examined and no major problems were found, so there was no need for a major overhaul.
It was already 3 a.m. when she finished her work, and Liu Zhi felt a little tired. She propped her head up and dozed off for a while, but Nurse Jiang came to wake her up again.
"Dr. Liu, Dr. Zhang is calling you. Can you come and help?" Nurse Jiang's voice was clearly flustered. "A child may have developed a brain problem due to a high fever."
Liu Zhi put down the glass, pulled out a disinfectant wipe, and wiped her fingers as she ran.
At that moment, Dr. Zhang was explaining something to an elderly woman, who was very agitated and her face turned bright red.
"Isn't it normal for a child to have a fever? Why is the child hospitalized?" The old lady raised her voice, refusing to let the nurse take the child away.
"Your child has alcohol poisoning and needs detoxification," Dr. Zhang patiently explained to her. "A brain CT scan was just performed, and the child may have suffered brain damage!"
"No, we just came to get a fever-reducing injection, why do we need to do both tests and medication?" The old lady looked up at Dr. Zhang, her eyes full of distrust.
"Children have thin skin, and using alcohol to cool them down can easily lead to poisoning, which can cause organ failure," Dr. Zhang explained to the old lady in simple terms.
Children's skin has a much thinner stratum corneum than adults', so alcohol can be absorbed into the bloodstream through a child's skin. The alcohol that evaporates can also enter a child's respiratory tract and cause acute alcohol poisoning, which can lead to brain damage or even multiple organ failure in severe cases.
The old lady clearly didn't know that.
"We can just apply some alcohol to make a fever!" the old lady said, spreading her hands and raising her voice.
Liu Zhi saw this scene from afar and mentally prepared herself to be entangled.
When Dr. Zhang saw Liu Zhi, it was like seeing a savior. He quickly walked over with the CT scan in his hand.
"Dr. Liu, please take a look at this."
The old lady chased after them, saying, "What are you doing? Taking so long to diagnose is so irresponsible!"
“We apply fever-reducing ointment…” the old lady began to spout her own twisted logic again.
Liu Zhi interrupted her directly, "Adults are adults, and children are children."
"I've already explained to you that adult skin and children's skin are different." Dr. Zhang controlled his emotions and softened his tone. "Please understand us."
"What kind of attitude is this? Do you believe I'll file a complaint against you?" The old lady glanced at Liu Zhi's work badge and scoffed, "You're just a resident physician? Where's your head doctor? Find me a senior doctor. We don't need young people like you to treat us!"
The old lady kept talking, spitting as she spoke.
"Don't think I don't know, all doctors take kickbacks from pharmaceutical companies, especially emergency room doctors like you." The old lady muttered as she turned her back, thinking Liu Zhi couldn't hear her. "What good doctor works in the emergency room?"
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Author's Note:
The author is not a doctor; all professional knowledge comes from online resources and consultations with medical students regarding the medical system. Please point out any errors, and I will verify and correct them. Thank you very much!
Chapter 4 Don't Move
Neither of the doctors really wanted to talk to the old lady.
Liu Zhi pretended not to hear and continued looking at the CT scan.
“I suspect the child’s high fever is caused by brain damage,” Dr. Zhang said, frowning. “This isn’t my specialty, can you take a look?”
"There is bleeding outside the dura mater on the right side," Liu Zhi concluded after careful observation.
"Did the child hit his head?" Liu Zhi asked the old lady.
The old lady's expression visibly froze for a moment.
Liu Zhi repeated the question.
"I rolled onto the floor while sleeping last night..." the old lady hesitated, "but he said it didn't hurt anywhere."
The child had already woken up and, seeing Liu Zhi approaching, said in a tearful voice, "My head hurts so much, I feel like throwing up."
Liu Zhi confirmed it.
"You have a brain hemorrhage and need to be hospitalized," Liu Zhichao told Dr. Zhang.
Dr. Zhang immediately wrote out a prescription.
"Brain hemorrhage! How could it be so serious?" the old woman exclaimed. "Could you have misdiagnosed her?"
The child suffered from both a brain hemorrhage and alcohol poisoning, making the situation quite complicated. Liu Zhi and Dr. Zhang discussed it and decided to call Deputy Director Wang to come over.
“Deputy Director Wang will be here soon. You can discuss any issues with him,” Liu Zhi said.
The old lady got really anxious and called her son. The two started arguing in the hallway.
Liu Zhi learned from their argument that the child was from a single-parent family and that the court had awarded custody to his father.
The child's father is very busy with work and has to socialize after work, so the child is usually taken care of by the grandmother.
When Liu Zhi returned, the man called her back.
"Doctor, is my child seriously injured?" The man's eyes were filled with tears, and he choked up several times as he spoke. The old woman hid behind her son, her eyes also filled with anxiety.
“It can be cured, don’t worry.” Liu Zhi paused, her voice calm and firm. “You must trust the doctor.”
...
Liu Zhi returned to the consultation room, the old lady's words still echoing in her ears.
"Good doctors don't work in the emergency room."
These words were like a knife cutting into the heart of the emergency room doctor.
Emergency room doctors work three shifts a day, and working overtime and staying up all night is the norm. Their pay isn't even the best among all departments. Even after saving a life, they might still be criticized by the patient's family for their medical skills or for making "shady money."
Normal medical students who have rotated through the emergency department and experienced this pain will definitely avoid the emergency department when applying for a specialization later.
While the emergency department may not be the most important part of medical operations, it is certainly an indispensable one.
The old lady's disdainful sneer at Liu Zhi's professional title was like a knife to Liu Zhi's heart.
It takes five years for an undergraduate degree, three years for a master's degree, and three years for residency training, totaling eleven years, to train a qualified resident physician.
Her scoff negated so much of Liu Zhi's effort.
Liu Zhi pursed her lips, held her forehead, and tried to comfort herself.
It was a bit busy in the latter half of the night; Liu Zhi was still helping out in the emergency room until after 8 p.m.
Early this morning, another serious car accident occurred, and the injured were rushed to the Capital Medical University Affiliated Hospital for emergency treatment. Liu Zhibai, her white coat still unbuttoned, buttoned it up again and rushed out to help.
The ambulance siren sounded like a countdown to death, urging Liu Zhi to react quickly.
They are racing against time and fighting against death.
Meng Yang came from Ning Nursing Home and just saw Liu Zhi pushing an emergency stretcher past her. Another doctor was kneeling, desperately performing CPR.
The stretcher seemed to still smell of blood where it had passed, and passersby instinctively covered their noses and kept their distance.
Meng Yang stood there, looking back at Liu Zhi's retreating figure.
Ning Nursing Home has a peaceful work environment, and she hasn't experienced the tense atmosphere of the main hospital for a long time.
Meng Yang asked the nurse at the platform for the exact location of Liu Zhi's desk.
She stood at the doorway, looking at the row of desks, counting from north to south, and paused when she reached the third one.
Liu Zhi had her coat draped over the back of her chair, and a plastic bag sat under the table, on which a neat stack of books was piled. The table was clean and uncluttered, making her red mug stand out even more.
Meng Yang put the bread bag away and pushed the mug in a little further.
The coffee left in the cup had gone completely cold.
Meng Yang sighed, walked out of the office, and closed the door behind him.
Liu Zhigang had just come out of the emergency room, his surgical cap still on.
"Meng Yang?" Liu Zhi turned and called out to her.
"Hmm?" Meng Yang looked up at her. "Are you getting ready to leave work?"
Liu Zhi nodded and said, "I'll go change my clothes."
"Then I'll be going now."
"good."
As soon as Liu Zhi entered the room, she saw the bread on the table. She went out to look for Meng Yang and only saw a small figure from behind.
A wind picked up, and dust filled the air. Liu Zhi squinted and searched around before spotting the figure in off-white. She hurried to catch up with Meng Yang.
"Did you put the bread there?" Liu Zhi asked, holding up the bag in her hand.
“I came to submit my application today and ran into you in the hallway. I guessed you hadn’t had breakfast, so I left you some bread,” Meng Yang said. “Take it and eat it.”
Liu Zhi and Meng Yang walked side by side on the sidewalk, the deep winter painting the world with a somber hue. Meng Yang turned her head to look at Liu Zhi, her eyes bright and clear, her pupils becoming the only color in the grayness.
Liu Zhi held the bread bag, raising it and then lowering it, the words of refusal stuck in her throat.
Since their reunion, she had refused many times. Meng Yang had treated her so well that she couldn't bring herself to say no.
"Thank you." Liu Zhi closed the paper bag and didn't say anything more.
Meng Yangxin was exhausted; she was reluctant to speak and walked silently.
Although the two walked side by side, they looked like strangers.
The noise of traffic and the blaring of horns mingled with the wind, assaulting our eardrums. The sound of bicycle bells was drowned out, and Meng Yang, who was walking outside, was pulled inside by Liu Zhi.