The Enhanced Doctor-Chapter 450 Unlucky Scammers

With doubts in his heart, Liu Banxia laid out all the child’s diagnoses, cross-referencing and examining them anew.

Even though he looked through them again, the entire examination results were normal. Then he brought up the ultrasound images, which, after a look, were also normal.

There are many reasons for abdominal pain, but organ pathologies had already been ruled out, as both ultrasound and CT scans were normal. He also ruled out any parasites, as the stool test was normal.

Even acute intermittent porphyria, which he had diagnosed before, could be ruled out based on the normal urinalysis and the fact that the child was not photophobic.

Median arcuate ligament syndrome could also be ruled out; it wasn’t epigastric pain. Besides, that kind of pain is persistent, unlike the child’s current relaxed demeanor.

The child’s abdominal pain followed a certain pattern; it came on quickly and subsided just as abruptly. According to the child’s description, the pain would reach a peak and suddenly cease.

"Doctor, do I have an incurable disease?" Seeing the serious expression on Liu Banxia’s face, the child asked with noticeable fear.

"Don’t let your imagination run wild. All these test results are normal. We’ll need to look for neurological reasons now," Liu Banxia said with a smile. "Because pain is either due to organic causes or nerve-related issues. Have you bumped into anything recently?"

The patient shook his head. "No, I barely have any physical education classes, and when I do, it’s just jogging on the sports field. Unlike others who enjoy playing football or basketball, I’m not good at either, and at most, I play shuttlecock."

"Hey, you remind me of my student days. Things were a bit better for us; at least our P.E. teacher only started to get sick when we reached senior high," Liu Banxia said.

His lightheartedness brought a laugh out of the boy.

Indeed, P.E. teachers often fell ill mysteriously.

"How long does each pain episode last?" Seeing the child relax, Liu Banxia asked again.

"Probably over an hour. It starts as an annoying pain and gradually intensifies," the patient thought for a moment before answering. "I started feeling it when I came here today. The tests took a while, and now the pain is gone. Could I have tapeworms in my intestines?"

"Haha, if that were the case, the stool test would have revealed it. Now lie down, let me examine you again," Liu Banxia said with a laugh.

At least now it was clear the child wasn’t lying. And if he wasn’t, the cause of this pain would require careful investigation.

A careful examination of the child revealed the same findings Wang Huan had reported: everything was normal, including the auscultated bowel sounds.

"President Liu, how did it go?" Wang Huan, who had rushed over, asked after Liu Banxia finished the examination.

"Let’s observe him for now. The child is honest. I need to have a good talk with his father; we can’t wrongfully accuse the child. Just stay here in bed and call us if you start feeling that pain again. We need to figure this out," Liu Banxia answered.

Upon hearing his words, the child nodded with a relaxed expression.

Wang Huan was quite curious about what Liu Banxia had discussed with the child to make him seem so much more spirited.

"Any ideas?" Wang Huan asked.

Liu Banxia shook his head. "So, we can only observe for now and see what happens during the next attack. Let’s conduct an electroencephalogram then. I’m currently suspecting a neurological symptom, something similar to intestinal spasms."

Wang Huan frowned. "I considered that as well, but I didn’t find anything abnormal when I was auscultating the bowel sounds. I thought that maybe this time it would be my turn to shine and it might be acute intermittent porphyria."

"What do you need to shine for? The fact that the hospital assigned Brother Hui and you to come here is shine enough," Liu Banxia said. "I only found out later. Apart from our Department of General Surgery, the attending physicians for the other departments were chosen only after thorough discussion and selection."

"Actually, I’m quite looking forward to it. Once all the departments here are established and all these floors are utilized... tsk tsk... then, even though it’s an emergency center, it really won’t be inferior to a regular top-tier general hospital."

"Haha, is there any news from the hospital about when everything will be finished?" Wang Huan asked.

"I’m not sure about that. I only heard Director Jiang from the Anorectal Department mention that the Chief Director is very ambitious and wants to strive for a national-level trauma emergency center," Liu Banxia replied. "So, I don’t think it will be too long. We have the whole year; we should at least be able to achieve provincial level. Then, if we advance our academic development and invite some influential figures to lead, this might just become a reality."

"Enough chit-chat, looks like more emergency patients have been brought in. I’ll go over and take a look. Let me know if there’s anything, especially if the child’s abdominal pain recurs."

Wang Huan nodded. He also saw paramedics pushing in a gurney.

"Pregnant, 30 weeks, abdominal pain, blood pressure 90/130, heart rate 110, oxygen supplied in the ambulance," the paramedic said.

"Resuscitation Room One, connect the monitors, fetal monitor, bedside ultrasound," Qi Wentai, who was in charge of the admission, ordered.

Although the patient was not in obvious life-threatening danger, her risk level had risen significantly because she was pregnant. The task at hand was to determine the cause of her abdominal pain, whether it was due to the fetus or her internal organs.

Qi Wentai also felt somewhat anxious, equally worried that something might be wrong with the fetus.

After conducting a few scans, he furrowed his eyebrows and looked back at Liu Banxia. "President Liu, it seems like it’s a wandering spleen and splenic torsion. The torsion angle isn’t large at the moment. Should we do a CT scan?"

Liu Banxia’s eyebrows were also tightly knitted. "Let’s do one to assess the spleen’s condition. Otherwise, this surgery will be challenging, and it won’t be easy to get through to the patient and her family."

Qi Wentai nodded and rushed the patient towards the CT room.

"Dr. Liu, this is a rather routine operation, isn’t it? We can avoid operating near the uterus, and pregnancy is a major cause for a wandering spleen," Xu Yino said.

"What’s difficult is not the surgery itself, but the patient and her family. You’re still young yourself, so you may not understand this deeply yet," Liu Banxia replied.

Xu Yino furrowed her eyebrows, still not understanding.

"If it isn’t a life-threatening condition, many pregnant women would choose to delay interventional treatment," Su Wenhao stated.

Liu Banxia nodded. "Exactly. After all, anesthesia can affect the fetus. This isn’t childbirth; the fetus is still in the womb."

"Let’s see what the CT scan reveals. If there’s no ischemia or serous effusion and the spleen enlargement isn’t severe, we may need to figure out how to reduce it."

This is a common situation in the emergency room. Pregnant patients often resist X-ray examinations, let alone surgeries involving anesthesia.

It’s a situation that usually poses a significant challenge, and how to proceed with this patient would also depend heavily on the spleen evaluation.

「Just then, another gurney was pushed into the emergency room.」

"Right arm crush injury, bleeding stopped with a tourniquet, vital signs currently stable. Vascular damage, open radial fracture," the paramedic said.

"Resuscitation Room Two. Call Doctor Wu from Orthopedics. Wang Chao, you see the patient first," Liu Banxia instructed after a quick assessment.

Wang Chao quickly led them towards Resuscitation Room Two.

Seeing Officer Xu, who had once handled a dispute involving him and a patient, Liu Banxia went up to him. "Officer Xu, what brings you here too? Do you know him?"

"A professional scammer," Officer Xu explained. "Didn’t expect to get hit for real this time. Lucky he reacted quickly. He saw the driver wasn’t stopping and tried his best to dodge; otherwise, his head would’ve been crushed."

"Have you contacted his family?" Liu Banxia asked, part amused and part exasperated.

"Yes, they are on their way," Officer Xu replied.

"Well, that’s good. Otherwise, we might have another addition to our deficits," Liu Banxia felt slightly relieved.

"We had no choice. This was the nearest hospital, so we had to bring him here. Unless the injuries aren’t severe, we would usually take them to the city hospital," Officer Xu explained. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

He knew Liu Banxia was worried about settling the medical expenses.

If it’s a traffic accident, insurance claims would handle the expenses, which isn’t a concern, just a matter of time. But in cases of scam attempts? The money could be challenging to collect.

Moreover, this was an emergency room; patients had to be treated first. It wasn’t unheard of for patients to refuse payment, and then that money was truly gone.

"How much in medical expenses do you have outstanding now?" Officer Xu curiously asked.

"A lot, how could it not be? We still have two industrial accident patients lying in here. Although their lives aren’t in danger, it seems like they haven’t reached an agreement on the compensation with the factory," Liu Banxia replied.

"Then there are various other situations; each month, the money owed because of such cases adds up to a large sum. People only see the hospital collecting money; they don’t see when the hospital has to pay out. Hospitals are not charitable institutions. If we don’t charge, how will we have the funds to operate?

"That’s why many hospitals don’t have emergency departments now, because of the significant expenditure. You could easily suffer a loss, with staff expenses, owed medicine fees, and so on. It may not seem like much individually, but it accumulates into quite a sum.

"But this guy is really unlucky. Just now, I saw a comminuted radial fracture, with ruptured tendons and blood vessels.

"Although it can be repaired, this arm will be more or less useless. Saying it’s an ornament might be an exaggeration, but preserving 40% of its functionality would be a good outcome. He’ll have to spend a lot of money healing his arm and will end up losing most of its use.

"With functioning hands and feet, he had many job options. Why on earth did he choose such a dangerous trade? Isn’t it way riskier than a stuntman?"

Officer Xu laughed. "I guess so, not every driver can react as quickly."

This was said in jest. Every job has its risks, but this guy’s line of work was too risky, and no one would be willing to insure him.

The surgery and medication costs this time would indeed amount to a large sum of money.