The Enhanced Doctor-Chapter 515 intestines fell out

(Thanks to kenny75, 15670509722, Clear Lotus Drifting With Wind, Carp1979, and 11111Soar for their monthly tickets and encouragement!)

Success and failure are often divided by a thin line. This is especially true when doctors treat patients; there’s no middle ground, even though people’s standards for success have been significantly lowered these days.

After Liu Banxia finished breakfast, he stared at the elevator entrance, waiting to see when Chen Xuehai would come out.

The rescue in the patient’s room was only a temporary success. True success meant the patient recovering well after surgery and leaving the operating table.

Just as he was watching, Chen Xuehai and Liang Xiaolin walked out of the elevator.

Seeing their expressions, Liu Banxia pumped his fist. It was a genuine success. Both of them were smiling broadly.

"Feeling pretty good, huh?" Chen Xuehai asked with a smile.

"Pretty good. I’m in high spirits," Liu Banxia replied.

"Then lunch has to be top-notch. Don’t skimp on it. When it comes to money, no one in the hospital is richer than you," Chen Xuehai teased.

"Absolutely, no problem! So, what’s the prognosis?" Liu Banxia asked, beaming.

"There shouldn’t be any major issues. Honestly, I still have some lingering fear," Chen Xuehai said with emotion.

"If we had been even a little slower, the outcome would have been uncertain. Thankfully, the patient’s son was vigilant and called Xu Yino the moment he felt unwell."

"And thanks to Xu Yino for not hesitating like some other interns. She quickly recognized she couldn’t handle it and called us."

"And now, it’s your turn for praise. If you hadn’t detected the difference in the heart sounds, we would have lost precious time. Every extra millimeter in a cardiac incision increases the risk exponentially."

"Did you hear that? Dr. Chen is praising you. I don’t need praise; I’m always this good," Liu Banxia said cheerfully.

Xu Yino, however, wrinkled her nose. "Teacher Liu, Teacher Chen, I don’t think I did anything that great. I didn’t even know what was wrong. I just felt something was off, so I asked the nurse to administer oxygen and called for you."

"Silly girl, that’s precisely what’s commendable," Liu Banxia said.

"Many interns overthink things. They worry, ’If this situation is simple, will calling my attending make me look incompetent?’ Some even think, ’If I manage this situation well, will I be highly regarded?’"

"Often, the ability to decisively admit you can’t handle something is the best course of action. Recognizing your own limitations is crucial. Saving lives is not a game. In this regard, all of you have performed very well."

"HEH HEH HEH, thank you, Teacher Liu," Xu Yino said with a silly grin.

"It’s always the apprentice who sides with their master, isn’t it? Wasn’t I just praising you?" Chen Xuehai said with a helpless sigh.

"Dr. Chen is amazing, alright? Let’s go eat!" Liang Xiaolin said lightly, then skipped off with her hands behind her back.

Liu Banxia and Xu Yino couldn’t help but laugh. This was Liang Xiaolin’s way of teasing Chen Xuehai. If you don’t praise us, fine, we’ll praise you instead!

"Hurry up and get some food. We won’t call you during the day unless something comes up," Liu Banxia said.

Chen Xuehai nodded and went to eat.

Liu Banxia was in a great mood, humming an off-key rendition of "A Little New Year’s Greeting"—"In the first month, it’s the New Spring, the very first day of the New Year. Families reunite, the young pay respects to the old..."

No one paid him any mind. The two emergency cases, one last night and one this morning, had significantly boosted morale in the emergency center.

This was what they called a "prosperous start." Although they were, in a sense, "doing business," they hoped not for more customers, but for more successful rescues.

These were two lives, their value immeasurable.

"Stop wandering around. Since you’re not busy, you take the next patient. It’s the first day of the New Year; we need a good rest," Shi Lei said.

"No problem, there aren’t many patients now anyway. If I... Speak of the devil! A patient arrived just as I said that. I’ll take them," Liu Banxia said with a hint of resignation.

A young couple entered. The man looked somewhat nervous, while the woman appeared slightly more composed.

"Let me have your registration form," Liu Banxia said.

Looking at the form, he pulled up the patient’s chief complaint: a bulge in the groin.

"Unbutton your pants, let me take a look. How long has this been going on?" Liu Banxia asked.

The young man unbuttoned his pants. "It started last night," he said. "I felt a little pain but didn’t pay much attention. Then it started to bulge a bit. When I woke up, it was bigger, and there’s an aching, heavy pain."

"It looks like an inguinal hernia. Yours is quite severe; it’s more than ’a bit’ larger. Did you eat breakfast this morning?" Liu Banxia asked, frowning.

The young man shook his head. "I was planning to come to the hospital for a check-up, so I didn’t eat. Doctor, what is this? I looked it up online, and it said something about the intestines falling out?"

Liu Banxia nodded. "That description isn’t entirely wrong. Don’t worry too much; surgery can correct it. It’s a rather vivid description, I suppose."

"Our abdominal cavity actually has many weak spots. Some are congenital, meaning present from birth—those are congenital inguinal hernias. Your case is acquired, and there are many possible causes."

"It’s also common in middle-aged and elderly people. Any increase in intra-abdominal pressure can trigger it, like coughing, sneezing, or straining during bowel movements, because the abdominal walls of older people tend to be weaker."

"Some patients only experience occasional bulging, and the intestine doesn’t prolapse. In your case, however, the intestine has already prolapsed into it."

"Did you lift anything heavy last night? In young people, this type of acquired hernia usually occurs from lifting heavy objects, strenuous exercise, or even running."

"However, I must tell you, your situation is somewhat severe. Typically, an initial inguinal hernia doesn’t present as such a large mass. You must have ignored it when you first felt it. Anyway... it’s a minor surgery."

"In a bit, we’ll draw blood for pre-operative checks, and then you’ll have a CT scan. There are two surgical options: open surgery and laparoscopy. I’ll have the attending surgeon discuss them with you later. Don’t worry; it’s like a bulge in a tire—we just add a patch."

The young man quickly nodded. "Then let’s do the laparoscopic one. That’s minimally invasive, right? Will everything be okay after the operation?" 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Liu Banxia nodded. "Everything will be fine after the operation. However, you have to be careful in the future. Don’t push yourself unless absolutely necessary. Now that you’ve had this experience, remember to come to the hospital immediately if you notice such symptoms again."

"It’s good you came in. If you had waited longer, it could have led to intestinal obstruction or necrosis. Since you don’t have any other abdominal pain symptoms right now, there’s no need to worry. Go get your tests done."

The young man took the forms and hurried off to pay and get the tests. Liu Banxia shook his head, smiling.

DING! Consultation completed.

50 Experience Points Obtained.

Looking at the system prompt, Liu Banxia didn’t know what to say. Even if it’s an easy diagnosis, you shouldn’t be so stingy as to not even give a single point towards diagnostic skill proficiency.

"Teacher Liu, what’s wrong? Isn’t it just an inguinal hernia?" Liu Yiqing, who was following him, asked curiously.

’When something seems unusual, there’s always a reason,’ she thought. Teacher Liu’s expression and demeanor clearly indicated something was up, but she still couldn’t quite figure it out.

"You’re still young; you don’t understand these things yet," Liu Banxia said with a grin. "Anyway, call Doctor Qi over."

Who lifts heavy objects for fun on New Year’s Eve? And they wouldn’t be at the gym. If it had happened from straining too hard during a bowel movement, the young man would have said so directly. When I was listing possible causes, the girl quickly looked away. Plus, his condition is quite severe... it’s easy to guess. Liu Banxia mused. Sounds like they were trying to unlock a new ’achievement’ and it didn’t go as planned.

"President Liu, an inguinal hernia?" Qi Wentai walked in.

Liu Banxia nodded. "It reminds me of when we were at odds, and the Chief used this very surgery to test us. The patient requested laparoscopy; he’s gone for pre-operative tests now."

"A significant portion of his intestine has prolapsed. Don’t postpone it until the afternoon. Let’s do the surgery right after the tests are done. It might delay your lunch."

Qi Wentai smiled and nodded. "Okay, leave it to me. I’ll take the interns in with me; let them observe."

"Alright, take them all. It should be quiet today anyway," Liu Banxia said.

Although Qi Wentai would be performing the surgery, there wasn’t an immediate rush. It was a routine operation, and the necessary tests and pre-operative preparations would take some time.

Liu Yiqing was still puzzled. Why would Teacher Liu act so strangely over a simple inguinal hernia?

She was a girl who always sought the truth, and she felt this was some kind of test, but she couldn’t decipher it.

So, the interns gathered together, studying this utterly normal case.

Liu Banxia didn’t dwell on it. Some causes were best left unasked. This wasn’t a complicated or rare disease, and hernia repair surgery was as routine as it got.

He had to continue seeing patients. Even on the first day of the New Year, people kept arriving.

Life and accidents don’t care if it’s the first or second day of the year; they happen when they happen.

Fortunately, most were minor issues. Wang Chao handled the debridement and suturing. Patients with other discomforts underwent some diagnostic tests, got prescriptions, and went home.

After seeing seven patients, it was past eleven in the morning.

"Looks like there aren’t many more people. I expect some patients with stones might come in today though. Have they started the surgery yet?" Liu Banxia asked, stretching as he came out.

"What assignment did you give the interns? They’ve been studying it for ages and still don’t seem to have figured it out," Wang Chao asked curiously.

"Assignment? I didn’t give them any assignment," Liu Banxia said, a bit bewildered.

"Then what were they studying? They were discussing it intently before going into the OR. I thought you’d given them a surgical case study," Wang Chao said.

Liu Banxia thought for a moment, then chuckled. "They’re probably trying to figure out the cause of the patient’s condition."

This was probably an aftereffect of his frequent pop quizzes, making them overthink things. However, this particular cause wasn’t something he could easily explain to Liu Yiqing. Even for doctors, some topics were best left undiscussed.