Life is Like a Journey – Chapter 7

Volume 1: Rise

Pregnant Woman

Thought it was a little kitten, but it turned out to be a little wolf dog.

Hao Renjie walked away, but Yu Gui stared at the signature in a daze.

So, Teacher Lu wasn’t a graduate of Renji Medical University? Instead, he was a top student from Peking University Third Hospital. If Renji Medical University is the top comprehensive hospital in the southeastern region, then Peking University Third Hospital is a world-class institution on a global scale.

Yu Gui’s fingers tapped on the keyboard, typing the three characters for “Lu Qingshi.”

At 9 PM, the lights went out. The firefighters, who had undergone a day of devil training, gradually fell asleep. Half an hour later, just when people were most relaxed, the alarm suddenly blared. Smoke billowed throughout the building, accompanied by the crackling of flames.

“Fire!” someone shouted at the top of their lungs. The team members were choked awake by the smoke, unable to open their eyes. They didn’t even have time to put on their clothes properly, scrambling and crawling to get out.

They ran to the playground in one breath, while Gu Yanzhi had been waiting with a stopwatch. When the last one came down, she pressed the stopwatch, her voice lowered, commanding authority without anger: “You are firefighters, not ordinary people, not trash, not cowards!”

“Look at your smoke-blackened, disoriented faces!” She pointed at them one by one with a pointer: “What’s the first rule of survival in a fire?! Tell me loudly!”

“Report! It’s to cover your mouth and nose with a wet towel!”

“Correct, but unfortunately, there’s no reward! Get ready for a hundred squats on the spot!”

That person was still indignant: “Report, I did it, why am I being punished!”

It was the troublemaker from earlier in the day. Gu Yanzhi squinted her eyes, using the solid end of the pointer to poke his chest, shoving the stopwatch in front of his eyes to let him see.

“You were the first one from your dormitory to come down, and the last one down was also from your dormitory, five minutes!” She suddenly raised her voice: “Do you know what five minutes in an unprotected fire scene means?!”

“It means that if this wasn’t a drill, the comrade standing next to you, the person you need to rescue, would already be dead!”

The troublemaker was stunned for a moment, then lowered his head and said nothing.

“Everyone, frog jump¹ around the playground for ten laps, and the last one will add another five kilometers of cross country running². The adjutant will keep an eye on them, and no one is allowed to sleep until they finish!”

Night shift duty, even when Lu Qingshi closed her eyes, her nerves were always tense. At the first knock on the door, she had already turned over and put on her white coat.

“Who is it?”

“Teacher Lu… it’s me.”

Lu Qingshi opened the door. Yu Gui stood cautiously outside, holding a laptop, looking down at her own toes.

“Teacher Lu… can I come in?”

Lu Qingshi stood at the doorway, showing no intention of letting anyone in, her face expressionless as she watched Yu Gui’s head lower and lower, her voice as soft as a mosquito.

“I… I have a question… that I want to ask Teacher Lu about…”

After a long while, the courage Yu Gui had finally mustered began to dissipate little by little in Lu Qingshi’s silence. Disappointed, she bowed and was about to leave.

Lu Qingshi stepped back: “Come in.”

Yu Gui was overjoyed: “I… I…”

“What question do you have? Ask quickly,” Lu Qingshi sat down by the table, propping her head up with a look of sleep deprivation.

Yu Gui hurriedly pushed the laptop in front of her: “These are some of my thoughts about hilar cholangiocarcinoma.”

Lu Qingshi scrolled up and down with the mouse, her long, fair fingers supporting her chin. The bluish glow from the laptop made her whole face appear even colder.

If viewed from the perspective of people within their circle, Teacher Lu’s type would be considered the “abstinence style.”

While looking at the screen, Yu Gui secretly glanced at her attractive side profile, thinking to herself.

After looking at just two pages, Lu Qingshi’s brows furrowed. She looked up at her student, who was lazy and loved to take shortcuts, and spoke mercilessly.

“I originally thought you were just unambitious, but I didn’t expect you to plagiarize a paper. Is this thing you wrote your own?”

Knowing she was in the wrong, Yu Gui twisted the hem of her clothes, her head lowered like an ostrich: “I… I saw Teacher Lu’s paper online… The cases in the paper are very similar to Wang Youshi’s case…”

“So?” Lu Qingshi raised an eyebrow, leaning back in the chair with her arms crossed: “Is this your reason for plagiarism?”

“I did not!” The term “plagiarism” is a crushing accusation for anyone doing research. Yu Gui suddenly became agitated, clenching her fists tightly.

“I went to the anatomy lab to conduct pathological research, following your methods and operational requirements. This surgery absolutely will not fail.”

Lu Qingshi looked at her with a pitying gaze: “With your third-rate level from a third-rate medical school? There is no such thing as a surgery that will not fail. Surgical techniques are advancing rapidly. Using my perspective at 35 to look at what I wrote at 18, my evaluation is — it’s utterly terrible.”

“A doctor’s so-called ‘not failing’ is at most just good luck, and clearly, you don’t possess that kind of luck.”

“Because luck is also a part of one’s capability.”

Yu Gui’s fists clenched tighter and tighter, her eyes slowly reddening: “So we just watch him die like this?! That is a living human life! He values men over women, he is poor, he is guilty! But does that mean he deserves to die?!”

“He had three daughters, but he didn’t abandon a single one. He worked hard to earn money, support the family, and ensure his children had food to eat and books to read! He has already given his all in life!”

As Yu Gui spoke, she wiped away her tears: “I know geniuses like you look down on me, look down on ordinary people like Wang Youshi, but we are also fighting with all our might. We don’t have as good a background as you, we don’t have as high an IQ as you, we aren’t as smart, as excellent, or as wealthy as you. Does that mean we are inherently guilty?! Although I am from a third-rate medical school with a third-rate level, I will always remember the day I put on the white coat and took the Hippocratic Oath. I am different from doctors like you who watch people die without helping!”

“I will never abandon any of my patients!!!”

After shouting, she panted heavily, tears streaming down her face. Lu Qingshi just quietly watched her in her disheveled state without saying a word.

Hao Renjie, hearing the commotion, ran over and hid behind the door, muttering to himself: “My goodness, I thought she was a little kitten, but she turned out to be a little wolfdog. Daring to confront Sister Lu head-on, she’s a tough one.”

In her pitch-black pupils, she saw a reflection of her own disheveled face. For some reason, the calmer she appeared, the more aggrieved she felt, and her tears kept flowing uncontrollably. What she thought in her heart was: It’s over, it’s over, I’ve offended the department head, I definitely won’t get the residency training certificate and won’t be able to graduate.

Thinking this, Yu Gui almost cried herself into a faint. When she raised her hand to wipe her tears, she seemed to see a slight curve of Lu Qingshi’s lips.

When she wanted to look closely again, Lu Qingshi’s face had returned to its expressionless state.

“Hello, Emergency Center of the First Affiliated Hospital of Renji Medical University,” amidst the silence, the phone rang, and the operator immediately picked it up.

“This is the 120 Command and Dispatch Center. At the intersection of Jingrong Avenue, 5 kilometers from your hospital, a car accident has occurred. The injured are a 32 year old male and a 30 year old female. Can the ambulance be dispatched?”

“Understood, setting off immediately!” The operator hung up the phone and redialed the emergency center’s internal line.

The phone in Lu Qingshi’s pocket started vibrating violently. She answered immediately: “Hello? I got it.”

She hung up the phone, pushed Yu Gui aside, and rushed out. Yu Gui stood stunned for a moment, then also pulled out her phone from her pocket. After hastily wiping away a couple of tears, she started running out as well.

“Newcomer, grab that emergency kit!” Hao Renjie, carrying an emergency kit, shouted while running.

“Oh! Okay!” Yu Gui yanked the emergency kit off the equipment table, no longer caring about crying. She quickly slung it over her back. Her white coat fluttered in the wind as she stumbled and scrambled, managing to leap into the ambulance in an ungraceful manner just as the door was closing.

But no one at the scene laughed. Even Hao Renjie, who usually loved to play pranks the most, uncharacteristically remained silent, checking the emergency equipment.

“What’s the situation at the scene?” Lu Qingshi put on her headset and contacted the 120 Command and Dispatch Center.

“Car accident, a small car rear-ended a large truck loaded with construction materials. There are two people in the car, the male driver is unconscious, and the female in the passenger seat…” The operator paused for a moment: “She’s pregnant.”

Lu Qingshi’s heart sank for a moment, but her voice remained calm and steady: “Got it.”

One by one, the orders were conveyed in an orderly manner: “Anesthesiologist, be ready for intubation at any time. Prepare for vital signs monitoring.”

“Hao Renjie, check the equipment. Depending on the situation, I might need to perform a thoracotomy.”

“Open trauma orthopedics, you know what to do, right?” The other party quickly nodded.

She had immense trust in this battle-hardened team that had been through countless situations with her, yet an inexplicable unease lingered in her heart.

“Yu Gui,” she finally called her name for the first time, “call Dr. Qin from Obstetrics and Gynecology, and ask her to bring another neonatal emergency kit.”

“Okay.” Yu Gui, in a flurry, fumbled for her phone and dialed, pressing several wrong keys due to nervousness. While waiting for the call to connect, she silently prayed in her heart:

God bless, God bless, please don’t let anything go wrong on my first ambulance run!

The phone on the bedside table kept vibrating. The man, impatient, turned over and reached for it to hang up.

The woman, however, suddenly woke up, sitting up naked from under the covers. Her voice was still hoarse, and her wavy long hair draped smoothly over her shoulders. In the moonlight, her porcelain-white, delicate skin and the butterfly bones ready to take flight could be seen.

“Give me the phone.”

“Stay with me a bit longer,” the man wrapped his arm around her waist. The woman pushed him away.

“Oh, hurry up!”

Qin Xuan called back to the other side while quickly getting dressed: “Okay, I got it, I’ll be there immediately.”

Even though they had made all the necessary preparations, when they were truly faced with the scene, everyone was momentarily stunned.

“This…” Yu Gui held the emergency kit, bewildered and at a loss. Shards of broken glass were scattered all over the ground. The front windshield of the small car was completely shattered, and the front end was severely crushed and deformed. Construction materials from the rear-ended large truck were strewn everywhere, including thumb-thick steel bars deeply embedded into the rear compartment. Black-red blood dripped down from the twisted and deformed car door, quickly soaking a large area of the asphalt road.

Yu Gui panted heavily, suddenly feeling her body go numb, her hands and feet ice-cold, unable to move a step.

Hao Renjie gave her a hard shove: “Newcomer, don’t just stand there, save people!”

Lu Qingshi was the first to reach the car door. Through the broken car window, she observed the condition of the pregnant woman and turned on the penlight: “Pupils non-reactive to light, breathing and pulse are weak, coma scale six. Anesthesiologist, prepare for intubation. Hao Renjie, start the IV line…”

Wearing sterile gloves, her fingers moved downward, her pupils suddenly contracted. A thumb-thick rebar was deeply embedded three inches below the heart. She tried to open the car door, but the severely deformed door barely moved, causing the rebar to tremble slightly.

The pregnant woman let out a weak moan, and a gush of blood spurted out along the rebar. There was already a pool of blood at the pregnant woman’s feet.

Lu Qingshi had no choice but to release her hand: “Don’t move. Call the fire department for extrication!”

“Xiaoliu, check on the driver’s condition.” She stayed by the pregnant woman’s side with the anesthesiologist, carefully performing the intubation through the shattered car window.

Orthopedic doctor Liu Qingyun responded, picked up the emergency kit, and ran to the driver’s side. He successfully opened the car door and, together with Hao Renjie, half-dragged, half-carried the person out.

“Director Lu, the patient’s coma scale is ten, possibly due to a hemopneumothorax³ caused by lung injury. I need to perform a closed chest drainage.” He used scissors to cut open the driver’s clothes. A large area of bruising covered the skin, and when he gently pressed on it, some bloody froth oozed from the patient’s mouth.

“Alright, proceed based on your judgment,” Lu Qingshi responded, “Give me the FAST⁴.”

The abdominal ultrasound was quickly connected. When the ultrasound moved to the pericardium, there was a large area of no echo.⁵

“Give me the thoracic puncture kit.”

Acute cardiac tamponade⁶, when the blood accumulation reaches 150 ml, will cause circulatory failure. At that time, it would truly be a case of two lives lost.

Lu Qingshi glanced at the pregnant woman’s protruding belly and silently prayed: Baby, you have to be strong.

“Director Lu! Blood pressure has dropped to 40—60, shock, she’s in shock!” The monitor began to beep sharply.

A thin layer of sweat appeared on Lu Qingshi’s forehead. This half-kneeling, half-crouching position was really not conducive to the procedure. She couldn’t lean on the car window either, because even the slightest movement would cause the rebar embedded in the pregnant woman’s abdomen to tremble and trigger massive bleeding.

“I understand, rapid fluid resuscitation! Epinephrine IV push!”⁷

“Doctor, doctor, there’s another one here, the truck driver has fainted, doctor!” The traffic police ran over, shouting.

Lu Qingshi was overwhelmed: “Xiaoliu, is your side stabilized?”

“Not yet,” Liu Qingyun said as he drained a large tube of clotted blood through the closed chest drainage, “The blood pressure still hasn’t come up!”

Yu Gui stood there like an outsider, watching everyone busy in front of her: the unconscious, bleeding pregnant woman, the driver who was still not out of danger, and the lingering smell of blood in the air.

She had never seen so much blood, such a tragic scene. Although she had been in the emergency department for a while, she had only done odd jobs. This was her first time standing at a rapidly changing scene. This was not the advanced medical facility of Renji Medical University, nor did she have an excellent team of multiple departments ready for consultation at any time.

She was all alone, standing in the vast world, watching everything happening in front of her, at a loss.

“Yu Gui!” In the midst of her blank mind, Lu Qingshi turned back and called her name.

“You go.”

“Dr. Lu… Dr. Lu… can I… can I do it?” Yu Gui, wearing sterile gloves, stood there with her hands clasped together, nervous and uneasy.

Lu Qingshi quickly nodded: “Don’t forget what you said—never give up on any patient.”

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1. Frog Jump: A physical exercise where one jumps forward in a squatting position.
2. Cross country running: A sport in which teams and individuals run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain such as dirt or grass.
3. Hemopneumothorax: The presence of both blood and air in the pleural cavity.
4. FAST (Focused Assessment with Sonography for Trauma): An ultrasound examination used to quickly assess internal injuries in trauma patients.
5. No echo: Indicates the presence of fluid or other substances that do not reflect ultrasound waves, often suggesting internal bleeding or fluid accumulation.
6. Cardiac Tamponade: A condition where fluid accumulates in the pericardium (the sac around the heart), leading to decreased heart function.
7. Epinephrine IV push: The administration of epinephrine directly into the bloodstream through an intravenous push to increase heart rate and blood pressure.