Chapter 78: Wash your mouth 20 times

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu

At any local hospital, no matter if it was a Class A hospital or not, the doctors basically did nothing but basic work. Conducting research and so on would mostly be nothing more than empty talk. The doctors would be busy every day with clinical treatment, writing medical reports, and performing surgeries. Where would they find time to conduct research? Besides, resources would be limited for lower-ranked doctors. The hospital would only say that they supported personal research, but do nothing more than that.

Hu Zengyang had some personal understanding of intestinal amebiasis. He had written several theses on this topic. However, due to resource limitations, he wasn’t able to receive enough patients with intestinal amebiasis, so he could only try and learn more by himself. Still, Hu Zengyang was quite proud that his theses were often quoted by others.

This was the sore place of the Chinese medical field. Anyone who wasn’t in a provincial level hospital or better would become nothing more than someone who repeated the exact same work day after day, year after year. There would be nothing new for them, and they were unable to innovate anything.

It would be nice if someone still managed to research something new successfully in such conditions, but if you failed in your research, endless amounts of insults and sarcasm would ceaselessly swarm you until you drowned. If you instead got accustomed to your work, that would be much safer as nobody would scold you or laugh at you. That was why only the true elites among regular doctors would become successful. They were able to handle the pressure and ignore the insults and sarcasm.

The weather slowly became hotter as springs were quite short in Chasu City. It was common to find that the peach flowers had suddenly bloomed after much rain and snow.

Zhang Fan would always go jogging for more than one hour every day before his day shift as long as he didn’t work the night shift on the previous night. Although Zhang Fan’s body was strengthened by his System, he still felt that getting actual exercise was quite important. How was a doctor supposed to treat others if he wasn’t healthy himself? Zhang Fan would run around the entire hospital for two full laps every day to work up some sweat and then take a shower. This filled him with energy every day.

In Chasu City, ethnic minorities were actually more common than ethnic Han Chinese. If you wanted to eat Chinese breakfast such as deep-fried dough sticks and soybean milk, you would have to go to the faraway Kaifa District. Han Chinese people were more common there. Meanwhile, the breakfast options around the hospital were all mutton buns or beef buns, milk tea, and other greasy foods. The fat content of these foods was rather high.

Zhang Fan purchased a small electric pot, and would cook some porridge every morning before he went out for his jog. The porridge would be ready by the time he returned. He had a tasty breakfast every morning with porridge, steamed twisted rolls, and salted vegetables. He truly couldn’t bring himself to eat meat early in the morning. Zhang Fan always arrived to work 30 minutes before his shift to read some medical books.

This morning, right when Zhang Fan arrived at the hospital, he saw a middle-aged woman collapse while holding her left breast. A young boy about five or six years old was holding on to her hand. He was loudly crying, “Mommy! Mommy!”

Although there was still 30 minutes until Zhang Fan’s scheduled work shift, it was this woman’s luck that she collapsed at the hospital entrance where Zhang Fan saw her.

Zhang Fan immediately dashed over to the woman’s side. Two nurses also noticed the situation and rushed over.

Zhang Fan instantly saw that the woman was in a bad condition. Her teeth were clenched tightly, and she was salivating. Her left hand was held over her heart, and she was in obvious pain. Zhang Fan checked her carotid artery while shouting, “Wake up, wake up, friend!

“Hurry! Help me lay her flat on the ground. Go call for someone from the cardiovascular department.”

When Zhang Fan checked the carotid artery, he discovered that the woman no longer had a pulse, so he immediately gave an order to the two nurses. After lying the patient flat on the ground, Zhang Fan swiftly cleared out all liquid from her mouth so that her breathing could remain unobstructed. Zhang Fan’s preliminary analysis was that the woman’s heart had suddenly entered cardiac arrest. There would be only an extremely short timeframe to save a cardiac arrest patient. Zhang Fan didn’t have the time to wait.

Both nurses were still students who were only interns. One ran off to the cardiovascular department, while the other stood around, not knowing what to do. Zhang Fan kneeled on the ground, and began to give chest compressions to the patient.

“Hurry and give her CPR!” he shouted at the remaining nurse.

“I don’t know how to give CPR!” the nurse responded timidly.

“Heavens!” Zhang Fan didn’t have the time to care about the patient’s drool and froth. He hurriedly wiped it off, and performed CPR for the patient. Meanwhile, the patient’s child was crying uproariously. “Hey, console her son!” This was already a tense situation, and the little boy’s crying was only making Zhang Fan frustrated.

“Take care of the child,” Zhang Fan said when his mouth was free. A cardiac arrest patient’s brain would be permanently damaged if they didn’t receive effective treatment within four to five minutes. Any longer than that, and the cardiac arrest patient would simply die. Thanks to Zhang Fan’s typical exercise routine and the training he did in his System simulations, his cardiac compressions were quite standard, with regular force.

More and more people gathered around, with several doctors arriving. They immediately started helping Zhang Fan to save the patient. This cardiac arrest patient was truly lucky. Zhang Fan’s treatment had been effective. After a round of chest compressions, her pulse reappeared.

A cardiologist arrived while running with an emergency treatment kit. Zhang Fan got up since a more professional doctor in the field had arrived. The patient’s young son was already exhausted from all his crying. He embraced the nurse while pitifully looking at his mother, who was still on the ground.

“Hurry and take her to the emergency department! She has ventricular fibrillation, and is at risk of cardiac arrest again! Everyone, help!” Everyone helped to put the patient on a stretcher as the cardiologist took the patient away.

Zhang Fan’s pants were now completely covered in mud from kneeling on the ground. He no longer had the time to change clothes before his work shift, so he went to a bathroom and washed his mouth. It had been an emergency situation, with no gauze bandages around, so he had performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on the patient.

Later on the same day, right when Zhang Fan was about to go on lunch break, Director Ren Li from the cardiovascular department phoned him. “Zhang Fan, were you the one who saved the patient from this morning? Did you perform CPR on her?”

Ren Li’s tone was quite severe. Zhang Fan’s heart skipped a beat as he wondered, ‘Did something bad happen?’

“Yes, it was me. I happened to meet her while I was on my way to work this morning. She collapsed right in front of me. When I checked her carotid artery, I discovered that she no longer had a pulse. There was no time to bring her in for emergency treatment, so I immediately had an intern nurse who was there go and notify the cardiovascular department. The emergency treatment I gave the patient was effective at the time. Her pulse returned within three minutes.”

He needed to explain the situation clearly. Although the patient’s life had been saved successfully, that was what the doctor was supposed to do. If the doctor failed, or if negative side effects appeared, the hospital would face questions. It would become quite troublesome if the patient’s family members were unreasonable. But, as a doctor, you would have to save the patient no matter how troublesome it was.

“It’s not the time to talk about that right now. Hurry and come over to our cardiovascular department! Hurry!” Ren Li urged him to come over.

‘What’s going on?’ Zhang Fan was really confused, but he rushed over to the cardiovascular department.

“Director Ren, you wanted to see me?”

“Are there any open wounds on your lips or in your mouth?”

“The patient had HIV?” Zhang Fan instantly understood.

“No, the patient was HBV (hepatitis B) positive.” Ren Li looked directly at Zhang Fan as she said this.

“I don’t think there are any open wounds.” Zhang Fan couldn’t help but touch his own lips. Right after that, he ignored Ren Li and instantly ran off to the bathroom, where Zhang Fan carefully checked to see if he had any open wounds on his lips or in his mouth.

Luckily, there weren’t any open wounds. Zhang Fan left the bathroom 30 minutes later after washing his mouth more than 20 times.

All the cardiologists in the department felt sympathy for Zhang Fan rather than laughing at him. “I’ve already reported this matter to the infectious diseases department. Go have a blood test done. If necessary, immediately go receive an HBV immunoglobulin injection. We just received the patient’s blood test results now. I immediately notified you and the infectious diseases department,” Ren Li told him.

“Is the patient alright?” Zhang Fan had no open wounds, and he had always received his vaccines on time, so he wasn’t particularly worried about receiving the hepatitis B virus. Since he was already here in the cardiovascular department, he figured he would ask about the patient’s condition. Otherwise, he would keep wondering.

“Her life was saved because of your treatment. She’s now hospitalized for observation. Zhang Fan, this is what you are!” Ren Li flashed him a big thumbs up.

“That’s good, then. I’ll go to the infectious diseases department for a blood test now.” It wasn’t that Zhang Fan was that concerned about everyone; it was his professional work ethic. He really would keep wondering if he didn’t know what happened to a patient he’d treated.

Several people from the infectious diseases department ran into Zhang Fan while he was in the elevator. Almost as if they were kidnapping him, they brought him to the infectious diseases department for testing. His blood test results soon came out. He was quite lucky, for the result was HbsAb (+), meaning that he was protected against the hepatitis B virus. There was no need for any further treatment for him.

The director of the infectious diseases department patted Zhang Fan on the shoulder. “Nice job, young man. You didn’t tremble at all. I brought several people over to bring you because I was worried that you would be so scared that you couldn’t walk.” Although this was a joke, it was only half a joke. Outsiders wouldn’t be able to understand the helpless feelings in it.