Volume 1: Rise
Patient
With the attending physician
Rainbow Culture Festival Marathon race venue.
The ground was a mess, with national flags, participants’ number plates, slogans stained with dirty blood scattered everywhere, and patients lying on the ground in pain.
Yu Gui grasped the strap of the emergency kit, dazed for a moment. This time, without waiting for anyone to pull her, she actively threw herself into the emergency scene,
“Old rules, first triage to determine the transport order. For thorny cases that cannot be handled, contact me. Understand?!”
“Understand!”
“Good, dismiss!”
Lu Qingshi issued an order, and the doctors in white coats scattered. Hao Renjie still followed Yu Gui. She ran to a fallen female athlete and crouched down: “Are you okay? Can you hear me? I am Yu Gui from the emergency center of the First Affiliated Hospital of Renji Medical University. Tell me your name.”
The woman lay on the ground, covering her knee and continuously gasping, her whole body sweating cold sweat: “Doc… doctor… my name is Li Yiyi…”
She removed the woman’s hand covering her knee, revealing a scraped layer of skin, with gravel embedded into the muscle. Blood flowed down to her calf, soaking a large area of her pure white socks.
She shouted to Hao Renjie, who was debriding another patient nearby: “Good Sister, give me saline.”
A bag of saline was thrown across the air, and she steadily caught it in her hand, soothing the patient’s emotions: “It might be a bit painful, please bear it a little.”
The woman placed her hand on Yu Gui’s arm, gritting her teeth. While Yu Gui was rinsing the wound, she was also being painfully pinched, grinning and bearing it.
“Okay, hold this and wait here without moving. Soon, an ambulance will come to take you to the hospital for further examination.”
After the debridement and suturing were finally completed, Yu Gui was also covered in sweat. She placed a green tag in the woman’s hand and helped her sit down by the roadside.
“Yu Gui, come over here,” under the blazing sun, Lu Qingshi stood up, with fine beads of sweat on her forehead.
Yu Gui threw the stethoscope around her neck and ran over: “What is it, Teacher Lu?”
“These patients all have yellow tags, and the ambulance hasn’t returned yet. Watch them, I will go check on Chen Yi.”
They are several fracture patients, and Lu Qingshi has done simple treatments for all. Yu Gui nodded: “Okay, understood.”
“How is it?” Lu Qingshi, under the blazing sun, ran over to Chen Yi and crouched down.
The anesthetist shook her head: “It’s not good, possibly a spleen injury1. I just punctured a tube of non-coagulated blood2.”
Lu Qingshi connected the ultrasound and slid it back and forth over the patient’s abdomen, indeed revealing a large shadow visible to the naked eye.
“Can you hear me? Sir? Sir?” Lu Qingshi called several times, but there was no reaction at all.
“He’s unconscious,” she took out a walkie-talkie to contact the ambulance: “How much longer until you arrive?”
“It’s not good, Director Lu, maybe about ten more minutes. There’s a traffic jam, and the road conditions are very bad!”
“Come, help me lay him flat,” Lu Qingshi spread a surgical drape over him: “Disinfect, I am going to perform a chest opening and spleen repair surgery right here.”
Without the slightest hesitation, Chen Yi handed over the scalpel. Lu Qingshi firmly grasped it in her hand and gently made an incision on the disinfected area.
“This money is not compensation; it’s a bit of thought from all of us medical staff. Take it to buy something nice for the child,” Director Liu placed a thick stack of envelopes on the table and pushed it over.
An’an’s mother, holding the little one, sat dejectedly, her eyes continuously glancing at the money, yet her hand dared not move.
Her husband had passed away, leaving behind a son and a daughter, one of whom was not biologically related to her. Raising two children alone was indeed very hard, but who in this world has it easy?
A gentleman loves wealth but acquires it properly; hardship should not become an excuse for blackmail.
Director Liu did not want to say more: “If you insist on suing, our Renji Medical University will accompany you to the end.”
He got up and left, the chair behind him moved, and An’an’s mother also stood up: “I… I won’t sue… I… I want to go see An’an…”
The small child is now being well cared for, her wound has already started healing, and the lower half of her pant leg hangs empty, but her spirits are not bad. The nurse is playing with her using a rattle drum, and although she doesn’t quite understand, she keeps drooling with a silly smile at the corner of her mouth.
An’an’s mother watched through the glass door, while in her arms, Xiaobai suddenly stretched out his arm, gently patting the glass: “Sister, sister.”
An’an’s attention was drawn, and she stiffly turned her neck to look over. Seeing Xiaobai, she smiled more happily, drool flowing onto her hospital gown. The nurse wiped it for her with a tissue, and she suddenly stretched out her arm, trying to touch her brother across the air.
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Xiaobai knew he couldn’t go in there, so he got down from his mother’s arms, lay against the glass partition door, and gently spoke towards the inside, his breath misting up the glass: “Sister, you must quickly get better and go home with Xiaobai.”
When Xiaobai’s father was still alive, the family of four, though poor, was considered happy. An’an was ill for a long time, but she liked her brother and loved to play with him. Xiaobai was also very attached to this sister. When the parents went out to work, just the two of them, big and small, relied on each other for survival. At that time, they really did treat An’an as their biological daughter.
An’an’s mother quickly wiped the corner of her eye with the back of her hand and slightly bowed towards Director Liu, who was gradually walking away down the corridor.
“This way, there’s no problem, right?” He looked at the decision on the table regarding the handling of Lu Qingshi and her group, hesitated for a moment, and then asked.
Dean Meng, sitting on the sofa chair, turned around: “Although Lu Qingshi’s identity and background are there, the people from the the National Health and Family Planning Committee won’t do anything to her. But our hospital still needs to express a stance and put on a show, giving them a way to step down.”
Director Liu thought for a moment: “Also, then announce it at the meeting next Monday.”
Lu Qingshi’s edge is too sharp, and this is the director giving her a warning; indeed, ginger gets spicier with age.
“Doctor, doctor, it hurts… so much pain…” The patient with a fractured calf tibia3 lay on the ground moaning, with bean-sized beads of sweat sliding down his forehead, his face full of pain.
Yu Gui held him still, not letting him move: “The cast has just been applied, don’t move. The ambulance will be here soon. Sister, give me a Pethidine4 for pain relief.”
The needle tip steadily pierced the skin, the medicine was slowly pushed in, the needle withdrawn, and pressure applied to stop the bleeding, all actions completed smoothly, indeed showing much improvement compared to before.
Hao Renjie hadn’t finished sighing when, from afar, a young girl came over supporting a middle-aged uncle: “Doctor, doctor, quickly come see my dad.”
Yu Gui quickly ran over and helped the person sit by the roadside: “What’s the situation? Was he also injured in the stampede?”
The girl shook her head: “No, my dad caught a cold two weeks ago and has been feeling uncomfortable all over. He had originally registered for the competition but couldn’t participate, so today he just came as a spectator.”
Yu Gui roughly checked and found no external injuries, then took the stethoscope from around her neck and pressed it to his chest: “Sir, can you hear me? Where do you feel uncomfortable?”
The man looked at her with effort, then covered his mouth and coughed twice: “Throat… throat pain… a little nauseous…”
The girl immediately added: “Oh, right, this morning my dad also vomited once. I told him not to come, but he insisted.”
Yu Gui frowned; the symptoms were very much like a cold, but there was something unspeakably strange. His heart rate was very fast, and there was a friction sound when the stethoscope was moved to the pericardium.5
“Good Sister, please measure his blood pressure and give me the thermometer,” Hao Renjie quickly found the thermometer from the emergency bag and handed it to her.
“Come, hold it well, and don’t move.”
Five minutes later, she took it out to see, 39.2℃, and Yu Gui’s brow furrowed even tighter.
“Hemostat.”
“Good, large vessel occlusion completed,” she gently pressed down the mosquito-type hemostat, the blood return was blocked, and the bleeding finally stopped.
Chen Yi breathed a sigh of relief and only then realized that sweat had soaked through her clothes.
Lying on the hot asphalt road under the direct sun, Lu Qingshi was not much better off, wearing a simple surgical gown, with a large wet patch on her chest, and sweat sticking to her hair, making the surgical cap mostly wet.
Chen Yi gently wiped her sweat with a non-woven cloth, and Lu Qingshi blinked: “Good, give me the 3.0 absorbable suture.”
As the suturing reached its most critical moment, the walkie-talkie on her chest sounded: “Teacher Lu, I have a patient here, no trampling compression injury, but with a cough, throat pain, nausea, and a just-measured body temperature of 39.2 degrees Celsius.”
Lu Qingshi, lying on the ground, extended her hand: “Give me the surgical scissors.”
She cut off the excess thread ends: “Heart rate?”
“More than 140 beats per minute.”
“Doctor Yu, the ambulance is back, which one should go first?” The driver and stretcher-bearer ran over to ask.
Yu Gui looked at the injured with yellow tags all over the ground, then looked at the young girl and the middle-aged uncle sitting by the roadside waiting, and hesitated.
The patient with the open fracture, who had just been given Pethidine, started to moan violently, cursing: “F*ck! Didn’t they say the ambulance was back and I would go first?! My leg is so serious, doctor, what are you waiting for?!”
Yu Gui pressed her lips tightly: “That uncle over there, the ambulance has arrived, let’s first send you to the hospital.”
The girl helped her dad onto the car, continuously apologizing to Yu Gui. The car door locked, and Yu Gui continued pressing the communicator to talk with Lu Qingshi: “Teacher Lu, I’m not certain about that male patient’s symptoms, so I sent them to the hospital for further examination.”
Without raising her head, Lu Qingshi quickly wound and knotted the thread with her fingertips: “Is anyone accompanying the car?”
Yu Gui hesitated for a moment: “I… I saw the situation didn’t seem too serious… so I let Good Sister follow them back first…”
Lu Qingshi frowned: “Besides fever, nausea, cough, and throat pain, what other symptoms or main complaints does the patient have?”
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Yu Gui slapped her head and suddenly remembered: “Oh right, his daughter said he vomited once early in the morning, and had a cold for the past two weeks that hasn’t fully recovered…”
Lu Qingshi’s hand holding the tweezers paused, as a very easily misdiagnosed illness came to mind: viral myocarditis.6
She suddenly stood up: “Chen Yi, I leave the finishing to you.”
“Understood!” The other nodded once.
She began taking off her surgical gown and ran back, her white coat fluttering in the wind: “Viral myocarditis, there’s no time, stop the ambulance!”
Yu Gui’s heart thumped, and she suddenly turned back as the ambulance was about to rush out of the parking lot, with the world dimming, like a slow-motion replay.
Lu Qingshi’s communicator sounded again: “Sister Lu, the patient’s consciousness level has rapidly decreased, and he’s gone into shock!”
Yu Gui suddenly rushed out from the roadside, spreading her arms, and tightly closed her eyes in fear: “Stop!!!”
Her forehead hair strands were lifted by the strong wind as the driver, greatly alarmed, quickly stepped on the brake, stopping the vehicle one centimeter from her chest.
Yu Gui opened her eyes, collapsed on the ground, and gasped heavily.
Lu Qingshi leaped onto the ambulance, pulled on gloves: “Move aside.”
Hao Renjie quickly moved aside, and Lu Qingshi leaned next to the patient, quickly taking scissors to cut open his clothes: “Open venous access and rapidly replenish a large amount of balanced solution!”
Hao Renjie directly took a 2000ml bag and hung it up, setting the infusion rate to maximum.
Lu Qingshi turned to look at the vital sign monitor: “Dexamethasone7 7mg, intravenous drip.”
The young girl was frightened by her father’s sudden shock, her face turning pale, and she collapsed on the man’s knees crying. In the narrow ambulance, there was no room to turn around, so Lu Qingshi glanced at her: “You go down first.”
“Doctor…” The girl, with tearful eyes, looked at her: “I beg you, you must save my dad.”
Lu Qingshi nodded once: “Rest assured.”
Hao Renjie raised an eyebrow, finding it unbelievable, as Sister Lu had never said such definite words to a patient’s family before.
“Sister Lu, the blood pressure isn’t coming up,” he said while squeezing the balloon.
“Add 7.5 µg8 each of dopamine and dobutamine9 to 5% glucose solution, dilute, and then maintain an IV drip.”
After one minute of medication, the blood pressure gradually rose, and the heart rate also stabilized, but the blood oxygen saturation was still hovering around eighty.
Lu Qingshi took off her mask: “Quickly send them to the hospital, and then continue with antibiotic treatment upon return.”
She looked at the stunned Yu Gui: “You follow the ambulance, and immediately contact the cardiology department for a cardiac puncture biopsy when you return.”
Having nearly caused a life due to her own rashness, Yu Gui was deeply entrenched in self-blame. Lu Qingshi jumped off the ambulance, her eyes cold: “If you have time to blame yourself, it’s better to do something useful. Get this patient safely to the hospital, understand?”
Yu Gui pressed her lips tightly, nodded once, held the car door, and got into the ambulance. As the car door locked, she saw Lu Qingshi standing in the open area, her body slightly swaying, being supported by Chen Yi, who arrived afterward.
“Sister Lu, are you okay?”
“I’m okay,” Lu Qingshi said, holding her waist, with fine sweat seeping from her forehead, the severe pain unbearable. She bit her lip and stood up: “Let’s go, continue working, and get these patients safely to the hospital, then we’re done for the day.”
Chen Yi’s lips moved, wanting to advise her to get a check-up, but she refrained.
In the evening, she returned home and took a simple shower, her hair tips still damp. She changed clothes and went to Gu Yanzhi’s home to feed Hamburger. This guy is now extremely enthusiastic when it sees her, actively pouncing into her arms, rolling around, acting spoiled, and begging for petting.
Lu Qingshi held up its head and rubbed it. Even when her hand accidentally went into its mouth, Hamburger was very careful not to bite her. It seemed to really like her, as every time she came, it would pounce into her arms, sniff her neck, and even lick her face.
This kind of closeness went from initial dislike to not being annoying, and Lu Qingshi reached out to pull the large dog off herself, leaving two black paw prints on her white short-sleeve shirt. She frowned and dragged the dog to the bathroom.
“Today, no matter what, you’re getting a bath.”
When the shower turned on, Hamburger started yelping noisily, desperately trying to jump out of the bathtub. Lu Qingshi went to hold her and ended up getting covered in shower gel bubbles.
So, the bath for one person and one dog was like a fight. Lu Qingshi was exhausted to the point of collapse, and her freshly changed clothes were all sorts of mess.
She lay on the carpeted floor of Gu Yanzhi’s living room to catch her breath. The air conditioning was on, and the temperature was just right. Hamburger curled up next to her, closed his eyes, and snored, and this comfort brewed a drowsy sleepiness.
In the hospital, Qin Xuan, halfway through her night shift with nothing to do, simply ran to the ICU to chat with Gu Yanzhi.
She was holding her phone excitedly, as if it was talking about her: “Hey brother, you’re really famous now. Look, this #most beautiful reverse walk fire sister# and #year’s most handsome fire instructor# have been trending all day. Some people even said they want to come to the hospital to see you. Look, our hospital’s front desk received quite a few flowers today.”
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A bouquet of fresh lilies was placed on the bedside table.
Gu Yanzhi didn’t feel much about it: “Don’t… I still want to sleep peacefully for a few days.”
Qin Xuan squinted her eyes: “Is our hospital’s ICU that easy to enter? You might be willing, but your attending physician isn’t. She’d rather no one come to disturb you, so you can rest properly.”
On the headboard, clipped with a plastic card, are their names.
Patient: Gu Yanzhi.
Attending Doctor: Lu Qingshi.
For some reason, hearing her say this, Gu Yanzhi’s heart slightly warmed, and the corners of her mouth lifted into a smile.
The phone continued to slide down, but suddenly stopped.
An article about today’s rescue accident press conference, with pictures and text, showed Lu Qingshi in the photo wearing a white coat, sitting in the corner.
Sunlight poured down from the floor-to-ceiling window, and the high-definition camera captured her hair strands distinctly, her slightly cold brows and eyes, skin like congealed cream, and slender white fingers on the keyboard. Her entire demeanor was like the first snow of winter, cold and bright, making everything around her a mere backdrop.
Gu Yanzhi’s breath slightly paused.
Something in her chest cavity restlessly started to beat violently.
For the first time, she felt… Doctor Lu seemed excessively beautiful.
She swallowed hard, and while Qin Xuan turned away to drink water, impulsively, she pressed the save button.
Footnotes
- Spleen injury: Occurs when the spleen is damaged, often due to trauma, which can lead to internal bleeding or rupture.
- Non-coagulated blood: Refers to blood that has not clotted, meaning it remains in its liquid state.
- Calf tibia: Refers to the tibia bone located in the lower leg, commonly known as the shinbone, which is the larger and stronger of the two bones in the leg below the knee.
- Pethidine: A synthetic opioid painkiller used to treat moderate to severe pain, especially in acute settings like surgeries or labor. It acts by affecting the central nervous system to reduce the sensation of pain.
- Pericardium: A thin, double-layered sac that surrounds and protects the heart, providing lubrication and reducing friction as the heart beats. It also helps to anchor the heart within the chest cavity and prevents it from over-expanding when blood volume increases.
- Viral myocarditis: An inflammation of the heart muscle (myocardium) caused by a viral infection, leading to symptoms like chest pain, fatigue, and heart failure. The inflammation can impair the heart’s ability to pump blood effectively, sometimes resulting in long-term heart damage.
- Dexamethasone: A powerful corticosteroid used to reduce inflammation and suppress the immune system in conditions like asthma, allergies, and autoimmune diseases.
- µg (microgram): A unit of measurement in the metric system, equal to one-millionth of a gram (0.000001 grams). It is commonly used in medicine to measure very small doses of drugs or vitamins.
- Dobutamine: A medication used to treat heart failure and cardiogenic shock by increasing the strength of the heart’s contractions and improving blood flow. It works as a beta-1 adrenergic agonist, stimulating the heart without significantly raising heart rate.