The Enhanced Doctor-Chapter 383: No choice in

Liu Banxia was somewhat troubled about the interview scheduled for the next day. But there was no choice; he had to face it since he was the one who had caused this mess.

"Teacher Liu, the blood test results for that patient just came back, and the situation isn’t looking good," Su Wenhao rushed over to inform him.

Looking at the report, Liu Banxia furrowed his brows. The patient’s pH value was 7.2, indicating signs of acidosis.

"Have you informed the operating room?" Liu Banxia asked.

Su Wenhao nodded. "I’ve informed them. I heard they’re also facing difficulties in the operating room. The patient has been experiencing persistent ventricular fibrillation, which has significantly increased the difficulty of the surgery."

It didn’t take much to realize that the patient would be transferred to the ICU after surgery to correct the acidosis. Further treatment would depend on the patient’s physical condition.

The next steps carried a sense of doing one’s best and leaving the rest to fate. After all, they still weren’t clear about the patient’s actual condition.

Liu Banxia stepped aside and informed Qiaoqiao about the "good news" of his upcoming TV appearance. Qiaoqiao had told him before that he had to let her know about such things first, or there would be consequences.

He also needed to prepare. Just as he was about to return to his small office, an ambulance brought in a new patient.

"Blood pressure 50/70, injury from a fall from a height, multiple fractures throughout the body, already unconscious," the paramedic reported.

"Resuscitation Room 2. Dr. Wei, you’re in charge," Liu Banxia stated.

"Prepare for an X-ray and a rapid blood test. Are the blood bags ready? We’ll hang one directly in a bit," Wei Yuan ordered.

Liu Banxia observed the patient’s condition and couldn’t help but sigh internally. This patient is in bad shape, too. It’s hard to say if he’ll even make it off the operating table.

The patient was wearing a helmet with a camera attached. He’s probably an extreme sports streamer. Otherwise, a normal person wouldn’t have the energy to climb so high.

"Doctor, you must save him!" a family member of the patient cried, grabbing Liu Banxia’s arm.

"Please try to stay calm. We need to conduct examinations to understand the full situation," Liu Banxia said.

After nearly ten minutes, Wei Yuan came out of the resuscitation room. He nodded at Liu Banxia, who was also outside, then turned to the patient’s family. "We’ve completed our examination and inserted a chest tube. However, the patient’s current condition is very critical."

"He has multiple fractures throughout his body and severe internal bleeding in his abdomen. But these aren’t the most severe issues. The most serious is the brain injury. Although he wore a helmet, he suffered prolonged cerebral hypoxia due to very poor blood oxygen levels."

"Based on our examinations, we can now diagnose him as brain-dead. We need to ask for your opinion on whether to proceed with further resuscitation efforts."

"To put it bluntly, even if we manage to save his life, he will likely remain bedridden and dependent on a ventilator."

"This is different from a vegetative state. Someone in a vegetative state might regain consciousness one day. However, for this patient, brain death is irreversible."

Upon hearing Wei Yuan’s words, the patient’s mother collapsed to the floor.

Liu Banxia nodded at Wei Yuan. Wei Yuan could make the call from here.

The decision lay with the patient’s mother. Although cruel, she had to make it herself. Whether to continue treatment or not, both choices had their reasons. For the patient’s family, however, it was an agonizing ordeal.

Neither of today’s two emergency cases was looking good. This latest patient essentially represented a death. Liu Banxia was forcing himself not to speak; otherwise, he would have advised the patient’s family to give up.

Maintaining his vital signs would cost a significant amount of money, and the eventual outcome would still be removing life support. For the family, that would be like inflicting another traumatic experience.

This is why doctors sometimes seem so "cold-blooded"; they can often foresee the progression of such cases. Unless a family is truly wealthy, few can bear such expenses.

The first patient was also a difficult case. His family had arrived, but Liu Banxia couldn’t give them detailed information yet. They would have to wait until after the surgery.

Nearly half an hour later, Chen Xuehai returned to the first floor. "The situation isn’t optimistic," he said. "He’s been sent to the ICU to correct the acidosis first, and he’s on ECMO. Although it was very difficult, my part of the surgery was successful."

"Can you assess the patient’s overall condition?" Liu Banxia asked.

Chen Xuehai shook his head. "It’s hard to say. We still need to see how well the acidosis is corrected. If his luck had been just a bit worse, he would have been electrocuted to death on the spot."

"Alright. If anything comes up later, I’ll call you," Liu Banxia nodded.

This was close to his initial assessment. After being a doctor for a long time, you often develop an intuition after triaging emergency patients.

However, the situation developed much faster than Liu Banxia had anticipated. In less than ten minutes, a call came from the ICU. The patient had developed an acute abdomen. The electrical injury had likely caused damage to tissues within the abdominal cavity, which was also why the patient had developed acidosis.

"Let’s all discuss what to do with this patient," Liu Banxia said, calling Chen Xuehai and Shi Lei over.

"I’m afraid his heart can barely sustain a surgery right now," Chen Xuehai said, frowning.

"What’s the family’s opinion?" Shi Lei asked.

"The family naturally wants us to do everything we can," Liu Banxia said. "But we need to come up with a stable and feasible plan; otherwise, it’s too dangerous."

"That’s the crux of the problem. Given his current physical condition, it’s unlikely he can withstand the entire surgery. But if we don’t operate, the infection from the acute abdomen could also kill him."

"As the infection worsens, acidosis will be the least of his problems; sepsis and a host of other complications will arise. Dr. Chen, please don’t overthink it. I looked at his admission examination; his abdomen was soft, with no signs of an acute abdomen."

"Besides, at that time, there wasn’t time for more detailed examinations for the patient. So, there was no negligence in our admission procedures or process."

Chen Xuehai nodded. "Then let’s operate. But we must shorten the time as much as possible. It would be best if both of you are on the table. The faster we resolve this, the greater the patient’s chance of survival."

"Is Wang Lei in an operating room now? If not, have him manage the patient’s vital signs. He has more experience. Otherwise, we might not even have time to discuss things during the surgery."

Liu Banxia and Shi Lei exchanged a look and nodded.

What Chen Xuehai said was true: treating him might not save him, but not treating him would certainly lead to death. In reality, they didn’t have many options. Since the patient’s family had agreed to take the risk, they would proceed.

They scrubbed in and entered the operating room; the patient was also wheeled in. Wang Lei looked at Liu Banxia and Shi Lei with a troubled expression. Even though Liu Banxia and Shi Lei were the attending surgeons, he, the anesthesiologist, felt the most pressure today.

"Don’t look at me like that," Liu Banxia said. "You’re now the recognized top anesthesiologist in our Emergency Center."

"Easy for you to say," Wang Lei replied helplessly. "A surgery like this is even more stressful than neurosurgery."

"Are you two about ready? If you are, I’ll start the anesthesia. Then you need to move fast. Don’t worry about how pretty the incision looks; just find the lesion and deal with it as quickly as possible."

Liu Banxia nodded. "Let’s begin. Otherwise, we wouldn’t both be operating."

An acute abdomen can be caused by many factors. Although an ultrasound had been performed, it hadn’t revealed where the problem lay. This indicated that the damaged tissue wasn’t very large, which inherently increased the difficulty of this surgery.

Once the abdominal cavity was opened, a visual inspection showed that the organs and tissues within appeared intact. Liu Banxia sighed internally. He and Shi Lei began to search meticulously within the abdominal cavity.

Normally, during surgery, the team might chat a little to lighten the atmosphere in the OR. But today? The entire operating room was deathly silent, save for the sounds of the medical instruments.

Everyone knew that if Liu Banxia and Shi Lei couldn’t find the damaged tissue, the patient had no chance of survival. If they took too long to locate it, the patient would be in equally grave danger.

The patient’s vital signs were already unstable; the longer the anesthesia lasted, the greater the danger.

"Found it! My God, it’s all underneath the pancreas!" Liu Banxia called out softly after searching for a while longer.

"Are you sure? You didn’t misjudge by feel?" Shi Lei asked.

"No mistake. You handle it; I’ll continue checking the other organs. Let’s make sure not to miss anything. It’s very small," Liu Banxia said, nodding seriously. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

"Okay," Shi Lei agreed readily.

Now was not the time to marvel at Liu Banxia’s incredible sense of touch; dealing with the issue quickly was paramount.

Liu Banxia’s subsequent examination was also extremely thorough; he was truly scrutinizing everything with wide-open eyes.

"How is it? Anything else?" Shi Lei asked after finishing his part.

Liu Banxia shook his head. "Didn’t find anything else. I’ll close the abdomen."

Also to save time, his speed at closing the abdomen was a fraction faster than Shi Lei’s.

DING! Surgery completed.

Gained Experience Points +300, Diagnostic Skills Proficiency +200, Suture Skills Proficiency +100, Dressing Change Skills Proficiency +300, Glory Points +3.

"Good thing it’s done," Wang Lei said, also letting out a long sigh of relief. "Otherwise, I wasn’t confident I could have held on for another twenty minutes."

"Now it all depends on whether this patient’s vitality is strong enough," Liu Banxia said. "We’ve done everything we can; the rest is up to him."

"There should still be a chance," Shi Lei said. "At the very least, we’ve resolved the root cause of the acidosis. Now, we just don’t know how much impact this electrical shock had on his central nervous system, or if there will be any lasting sequelae."

"Haha, then I won’t worry about that part," Liu Banxia said. "I’ll leave communicating with the patient’s family to you. I still have to think about tomorrow’s interview."

Shi Lei shook his head helplessly, knowing Liu Banxia was leaving the happy moment for him. For a surgeon, the favorite phrase to say is, "The surgery was successful."

Even though this guy can be a bit cheeky at times, he still has some conscience after all.