137 You Never Know Which Comes First, Tomorrow Or Acciden

The main purpose of blood collection was to determine the patient's blood type for transfusion.

Transfusion was best for treating hemorrhagic shock.

"A large amount of fluid can be seen in the hepatic fossa with minimal fluid accumulation in the Morison's pouch. Suspected cause is hepatic rupture leading to intraperitoneal hemorrhage," a doctor reported their ultrasonographic findings.

"What surgery are you going to do?" asked Old Chief Physician Pan.

"Interventional radiology for hemostasis," Zheng Ren replied, "Notify the operating theater to prepare corresponding equipment."

Having already connected the intravenous infusion drip, the nurse threw a pack of dextran and an ECG monitor onto the stretcher trolley, which Zheng Ren quickly escorted to the operating theater.

"Chief Physician Pan, I'll leave preoperative counseling to you." Zheng Ren disappeared around the corner in a flash.

Old Chief Physician Pan was grim, fully aware of the patient's critical condition.

An undetectable diastolic pressure meant decreased intravascular volume due to rapid blood loss. Mortality risk remained high even with surgical intervention.

Zheng Ren rushed to the emergency operating theater to perform the surgery. In the meantime, Old Chief Physician Pan began to direct medical staff to preserve and mark the patient's clothes under video surveillance as evidence.

This was not done out of sympathy.

Countless unidentified patients were admitted to the hospital each year. After they were successfully rescued, they found out… No one knew if this was the truth, but they claimed to have lost their belongings and demanded compensation from medical personnel. It was a common trend in the current world.

Therefore, emergency rescue was often delayed by these trivial matters, and whether anyone had lost their life because of this, nobody knew.

Fortunately, this patient was in a critical state and required immediate surgical intervention, and Old Chief Physician Pan, who had not gotten off work, could help Zheng Ren deal with this issue. If this incident had happened in the middle of the night, legal procedures like preoperative counseling alone would take too much time and likely cost the patient his life.

Sometimes, apart from a doctors' expertise, fate was another important factor in a patient's survival.

A cell phone, fully accessible without a password lock as the patient was an elderly man, was found among his belongings.

Old Chief Physician Pan searched through its call history and tapped on a number labelled 'Darling'.

"This is the Sea City General Hospital emergency department.

"Are you Tang Guoqing's family member? Please come to Sea City General Hospital emergency department immediately. Your father has severe intra-abdominal bleeding and requires urgent surgical treatment.

"The patient has gone to the operating theater, but there are some procedures that need to be done.

"His condition is very serious, so I can't guarantee the success of surgical treatment."

Old Chief Physician Pan calmly and objectively explained the situation to the family member before putting the phone into a clean yellow biohazard bag, which was then sealed by a nurse.

Even though the family member had been informed about the situation, the patient still had to undergo surgery without waiting for his family to sign the preoperative informed consent documents.

Soon, a staff member of the medical administration division arrived at the emergency department. Old Chief Physician Pan urged him to begin recording the situation and confirm that the emergency surgery was greenlighted.

Old Chief Physician Pan speculated that the emergency surgery had already begun, which was considered a minor violation of rules, but such things were negligible when a life was at stake.

Approximately ten minutes later, a woman in her late twenties with a pair of rimless spectacles hurried into the emergency department.

She was barefoot. Perhaps she had discarded her high heels somewhere along the way for impeding her speed.

"Nurse, I'm Tang Guoqing's daughter. Where is my father? How is he? What happened to him?" asked the woman anxiously.

Tears had tracked down her chalk-white face and ruined her beautiful makeup, but she cared nothing for it and bombarded a nurse with questions.

Her voice was loud, impatient and impolite.

The nurse, who had been working in the emergency department for a long time, empathized with family members and patiently replied without any resentment, "The chief is in the office. Please speak with him."

Acknowledging the nurse's instructions, the woman hurried to Old Chief Physician Pan's office, knocked on the door and entered the room without waiting for a response.

She was in such a hurry that her left shoulder accidentally and loudly smacked into the door frame.

Paying no attention to the pain, she quickly asked, "Chief, my father…"

Her breathing was ragged, and the words that managed to escape her mouth were sharp and cold. The rest of the sentence vanished into thin air, leaving it hanging and uncertain.

"You must be Tang Guoqing's family, yes?" asked Old Chief Physician Pan.

The woman nodded, trying but failing to speak. Tears spilled down her cheeks as she did so, marring her already ruined makeup even further.

"Your father was sent here via ambulance. According to a witness, he had been strolling in Central Park and immediately collapsed after leaning heavily against a tree." Old Chief Physician Pan had already obtained all available information in a short time. That way, the family members would at least understand that the incident was self-induced rather than a direct result of external trauma or a traffic collision.

"His blood pressure was very low at the time of arrival. His systolic pressure was 50mmHg and diastolic pressure was undetectable, which was why I've decided to send your father to the operating theater for emergency surgery. We're trying our best to save him now."

Old Chief Physician Pan's honest and serious expression made the woman's heart sink instantly. Tears burst forth like water from a dam and streamed down her cheeks.

"Now is not the time to cry." Old Chief Physician Pan immediately stopped her and said, "I want to explain the surgery to you. Although I've been given authorization to proceed with the surgery, I still have to talk to you about it."

The woman nodded.

"Are you the patient's daughter? Please show me anything that can prove your identity," asked Old Chief Physician Pan.

The woman rummaged through her handbag and took out an exquisite card case that contained her identity card, work card and press pass, and the name Tang Xiu registered with him.

"Lead editor in a newspaper office?" Old Chief Physician Pan nodded and began explaining the surgery to her.

Tears of fear blurred Tang Xiu's vision.

Her entire world was rendered in grey after Old Chief Physician Pan finished his explanation.

The patient's condition was extremely serious and his chance of survival was only ten percent, perhaps lower.

Even if he was successfully pulled back from the brink of death, his chance of recovery in the ICU remained low as well.

When she had first read through Wei Feng's article, she had also agreed that the hospital should not perform surgery in the absence of patients' family.

Were it not for the fact that she had received tremendous pressure that coerced her to change her mind, she would certainly have published Wei Feng's article to correct such "unethical trends" in the medical world.

Now that Tang Xiu was going through the same situation herself, all she could feel was confusion and despair.

"Since emergency care was given in a timely manner, there is still hope. I'll take you to the operating theater now. You'll wait outside and inform your family in the meantime," Old Chief Physician Pan consoled her.

Timely manner? Tang Xiu was grateful to the kind-hearted citizen that had taken prompt action instead of turning a blind eye. Although they had let her father remain on the ground, they had also at least called 120 on time.

The doctors in Sea City General Hospital had begun the rescue even in the family members' absence.

This undoubtedly reduced further blood loss and increased her father's chance of survival.

Her logic told her that her father would have departed this life if the doctors had had to wait for her arrival.

This was contrary to her initial beliefs, but…

At this moment, she completely forgot that family had the fundamental right to be informed and decide.

It was extremely difficult for people to feel empathy without experiencing the same situation themselves.

The difference in perspective between onlookers and family members was worlds apart, so huge that it was beyond Tang Xiu's imagination.

She absent-mindedly followed Old Chief Physician Pan. Her ability to think was completely lost.

Her father had been fine all day, but how had he ended up in Sea City General Hospital with a life-threatening condition? Disasters really could strike at any time.

'Tomorrow may never come.'

She was scared that, upon her arrival at the operating theater, the surgeon would come out and apologize, saying they had tried their best.

She was scared of seeing a stretcher trolley covered in a white sheet with her father's pale, cold face underneath it.

She was scared that her father would suddenly draw his last breath, and she would not be able to bid her last farewell.

She was scared that ill-intentioned fate would make her nightmares come true

She was scared…

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