Chapter 75: Medical malpractice

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu

Ouyang Hong was extremely angered. She had just successfully defeated the surgeon vice superintendent for the superintendent position, but now the gastrointestinal department of internal medicine caused such a major medical incident for her. Not only that, she had issued her approval for hiring this expert doctor, which made her even more furious.

“Is this your skill level? Why didn’t you stop the expert doctor before he began the surgery? Just what are you getting paid for? Whose responsibility would it have been if he’d killed the patient today? Yours? Or mine?” Ouyang Hong directly pointed her finger at Zhao Cheng while angrily scolding him. “What expert doctor? Bullsh*t! Say it, what benefits did he give you? You invited someone with half a foot in the grave to come perform surgery? Just what were you thinking? Say it!”

Ouyang Hong thunderously scolded Zhao Cheng right in front of Hu Zengyang. Zhao Cheng was truly good at concealing his true feelings as he didn’t say a single word. Meanwhile, Hu Zengyang’s face was already completely red out of embarrassment even though the superintendent’s anger wasn’t directed at him.

“Superintendent, please listen to me explain. It really was just an accident.” Zhao Cheng went up to the front to try and explain after seeing a lull in Ouyang Hong’s temper.

“I refuse to listen. The patient is still in the operating room. The patient’s family won’t care if it’s an accident. Things might still be alright if the patient is fine, but if something happens to her, I’m holding you fully responsible. Don’t think that I can’t do anything to you.” Ouyang Hong’s voice became shrill.

Ouyang Hong’s main intention in having Hu Zengyang here was to have him be a witness. Hu Zengyang was a lower-ranking doctor, while Zhao Cheng was ranked higher as well as a vice director of the gastrointestinal department. The so-called expert doctor had also been invited by Zhao Cheng.

Ouyang Hong was so angry that she continuously scolded Zhao Cheng for two hours straight without stop. Hu Zengyang was incredibly impressed with both Ouyang Hong and Zhao Cheng. One was really able to scold, while the other was really able to take the scolding. There wasn’t even a respite from the scolding in two hours, and Zhao Cheng even poured tea for Ouyang Hong during the scolding. Meanwhile, the spectator Hu Zengyang almost felt like he couldn’t take it anymore.

“Superintendent, the surgery to save the patient’s life is now over. The results were good, and her life was saved. But, what should we do about the problems that come afterward? My general surgery department can only do this much. The patient’s family is already beginning to complain.” Director Zhao Quanping of general surgery called Ouyang Hong at this time.

“What’s going on?” A hospital wouldn’t be afraid of a patient dying or a patient not paying up medical fees. A hospital would only be afraid of patients’ families’ complaints. The hospital would be even more afraid of complaints if the hospital was in the wrong.

“I don’t know, as I just finished the surgery. I heard the patient’s family members shouting that our hospital doesn’t care about patients’ lives.” None of this was the fault of the general surgery department, so Zhao Quanping didn’t want to get even the slightest bit involved. He knew that it would be endless as long as he got involved.

Logically speaking, the patient really did require endoscopic band ligation surgery. However, inviting such an elderly doctor to perform the surgery had truly been ridiculous. The expert doctor’s fee along with the emergency surgery fee for saving the patient’s life afterwards would all add up to several tens of thousands of yuan. Zhao Quanping was a department director, so he was quite clear on all the trouble here.

Ouyang Hong knew that she wouldn’t be able to make Zhao Quanping take any responsibility and face the patient’s family. “Thank you for your hard work, please go ahead and rest now.” She then hung up the call. It was simply that the surgical departments weren’t truly a part of her faction. Zhao Quanping hadn’t even tried to learn more about the overall situation. Instead, he had instantly phoned her. Ouyang Hong knew quite clearly that this was because he didn’t want any responsibility.

“Go now, what are you just standing around for?” Ouyang Hong told Zhao Cheng.

“Go where?” Zhao Cheng didn’t understand.

“Go wipe your own *ss!” Ouyang Hong really wanted to hit him. Hu Zengyang almost laughed out loud at hearing this.

Normally, even with a failed surgery, it would be the end after the successful emergency surgery to save the patient’s life. What would ordinary people know about surgery? If the doctor said the patient required surgery, then that was that. If the doctor said that certain medical fees were required, the patient’s family would simply pay. They wouldn’t dare not to listen.

Why was the family complaining? That was because someone in the know had given them advice. Someone unknown from the gastrointestinal department had secretly informed the patient’s family that they should go and make a ruckus, complaining that the hospital didn’t care about human lives and that the invited expert doctor was a scammer.

With an ill patient and the hospital, the ill patient would be the weak one. However, the patient would no longer be the weak one after the surgery. What would the patient be afraid of after the surgery was complete? It wasn’t like the hospital was the police station.

Ordinary civilians would also have their own smarts. The patient’s entire family was from a rural village. However, a benefit of rural villages was that it would be easy to summon people to your cause. The patient’s husband had returned to his hometown village, and summoned many of the villagers over. In such rural villages in China, as long as someone was normal and liked enough, everyone would definitely come to help out with matters like this.

Several hundred villagers came over and clogged up the entire general surgery department where the patient currently was. They didn’t interfere with the doctors’ work, but kept verbally complaining. Most of them just gossiped. The other patients’ family members also came over to see what was going on. “What’s happening, what’s happening? Tell me!” People would forever be gossipy and curious.

Ouyang Hong felt a headache when she rushed over to the general surgery department and saw literally hundreds of people. With so many people, if anyone tried to incite something, it would be easy for something catastrophic to occur with so many patients in the department. ‘Our security department is so f*cking useless!’ Ouyang Hong was even more enraged.

Although she was so furious, she didn’t allow her anger to show one bit on her face. This was the progress she had made in her decade of sparring against former superintendent Huang Yun. “Who are the patient’s family members? I am the superintendent of Chasu City Hospital. I’ll take responsibility for anything that happens here. Anyone not related to a patient must immediately leave the hospital. Otherwise, you shall bear the consequences.”

Ouyang Hong spoke in a severe tone, and she had a powerful aura. She successfully scared most of the villagers coming here to help out—they were just honest farmers. “We aren’t unrelated, we’re all relatives.” There were some among the villagers who were smart and reacted fast.

“Okay, the patient’s family members should come discuss things in my office. Let’s not bother the other patients.” Ouyang Hong was still able to speak with confidence since the patient hadn’t died.

Much later, the hospital’s security guards finally arrived. Ouyang Hong ignored the security guards as she led a group of people to her office. Ouyang Hong wouldn’t be afraid as long as there wasn’t such a gigantic horde in the department. In her office, if something went wrong, the police station happened to be right next door to the hospital. It would be simple to deal with this smaller amount of people with a single phone call.

“Tell me. What’s going on?” Ouyang Hong spoke after everyone sat down. Representing the hospital were Superintendent Ouyang Hong, Zhao Cheng, Hu Zengyang, and Director Zhao Quanping of general surgery. Since even Ouyang Hong was present for the meeting with the patient’s family, Zhao Quanping had to come as well.

“My wife was perfectly fine before starting the endoscopic band ligation surgery. But, she almost died there! What bullsh*t vice director do you have here!? He swore that there would be absolutely no danger! F*ck him!” The patient’s husband loudly cussed while pointing directly at Zhao Cheng.

*Bam!* Ouyang Hong loudly slammed her fist on the table and stood up. While she could scold Zhao Cheng however she pleased, she couldn’t allow an outsider to do the same. All good leaders of Chinese hospitals had the same habit: they would be protective of their own. The right and wrong of hospital employees could only be determined by the government or an official third-party organization’s inspection, but nobody else.

“If there’s anything of importance, then speak of that instead of cussing at others. Do you see what’s next door to our hospital? That’s a police station. I’m here to discuss any problems you may have, not here to listen to you behave so vulgarly.”

Women could be quite scary when they were being forceful. The patient’s entire family was stunned by Ouyang Hong.

“I don’t care. At any rate, someone told me that you guys don’t care about human lives, and invited a scammer to randomly perform surgery. Show us the surgery’s recording if you dare.” When the patient’s husband said these words, Ouyang Hong and Director Zhao Quanping exchanged glances. It was now 100% obvious that there was a traitor in the gastrointestinal department.

Zhao Cheng angrily gritted his teeth. It was extremely obvious that the traitor had to be one of the two other vice directors in his department. It wouldn’t be easy to determine which one, but it definitely had to be one of them.

Of course, the surgical recording couldn’t be viewed because of all the blood. Evidence of medical malpractice would become extremely obvious if the recording were shown to any other hospital. Ouyang Hong could no longer speak so forcefully after this.

“We still need to investigate this matter.” After a long talk, Ouyang Hong finally temporarily dismissed the patient’s family members.

“What should we do? The patient’s family wants an answer by tomorrow. What am I even supposed to tell them? You caused this incident, so you tell me.” Ouyang Hong pointed directly at Zhao Cheng.

“Someone from our department must have told them—”

Zhao Cheng was then interrupted by Ouyang Hong. “I don’t care who told them, just say what you think can be done now.”

After that, Ouyang Hong directly ignored Zhao Cheng, and called the hospital administration department director to summon all the vice superintendents and department directors immediately for an emergency meeting. Nobody was allowed to be absent without an excellent reason.