Life is Like a Journey – Chapter 35
by Little PandaVolume 1: Rise
Meaning
You are a doctor, not an executioner
“I’ll do it myself.”
With subtle self-esteem acting up, the stubborn firefighting instructor refused her kindness. Having been lying down for more than a month, she was eager to stand up, so she supported herself on the wheelchair and got up a bit hastily. As soon as her foot touched the ground, her muscles felt a burst of soreness and weakness, causing her body to lean slightly forward. Lu Qingshi reached out and steadily supported her.
“Don’t rush, the recovery of body strength will take time.”
Gu Yanzhi looked at the children playing on the distant grass, and her gaze dimmed slightly. She pressed her lips tightly and nodded slightly.
“Come, I’ll support you.”
This time, she didn’t refuse the doctor’s kindness again. After walking about ten steps with her, her forehead started to sweat, and she supported her knees, slightly gasping for breath.
The nurse quickly pushed the wheelchair over, and Lu Qingshi’s lips moved a bit.
“Firefighter sister, keep it up!!!” came a child’s tender voice from afar. He Miaomiao was sitting in the wheelchair being pushed by her mother, her gaze bright and full of expectation as she looked at her. The white hospital gown’s chest had the arm badge she gave last time.
Gu Yanzhi smiled, slightly pressing her lips together, and her eyes became resolute. Lu Qingshi felt a tightness on her wrist as she supported her hand to stand up again, walking forward step by step.
The doctor in the white coat stayed close by, and He Miaomiao cheered her on, feeling more excited than if she could stand up herself as she saw her walking farther and farther.
“Firefighter sister is amazing!!!”
This little guy calls me aunt but calls Gu Yanzhi sister, even though there isn’t much of an age difference. Lu Qingshi turned back: “Miaomiao, why do you call her sister but call me aunt? We are about the same age, you know.”
Gu Yanzhi burst into laughter, surprised that the usually indifferent Doctor Lu would care about such a thing, showing an unexpectedly child-like temper.
“Because, you are indeed six years older than me.”
The doctor raised an eyebrow: “How do you know my age?”
As expected of Doctor Lu, grasping key points very accurately, Gu Yanzhi felt a bit embarrassed.
“Uh… it’s written on the expert wall in your department…”
Is it written on the expert wall? Lu Qingshi frowned, thought for a bit, and found she couldn’t remember clearly, so she let it go.
“Miaomiao?” After waiting for a while and not hearing the child’s response, Lu Qingshi turned around. Miaomiao’s mother was squatting by her side, calling her name.
He Miaomiao did not respond. Lu Qingshi sensed something was wrong, released her hand, walked forward two steps, and suddenly started to run.
Gu Yanzhi, anxious to go over and take a look, took two steps and nearly fell to the ground as her feet gave way. The nurse held her down, not allowing her to move, so she watched as Lu Qingshi threw off the stethoscope from around her neck, pressed it to her chest to listen for a moment, then picked her up and ran toward the emergency center.
“Notify cardiology, cardiac surgery, thoracic surgery, anesthesiology, and critical care medicine to come down for a consultation, quickly!”
She kicked open the emergency room’s door with one foot and placed the person on the bed, while the nurse swiftly pushed the ultrasound and electrocardiogram to the bedside.
Yu Gui also rushed in to help, while Mother He looked at her daughter lying on the hospital bed, her face pale and lifeless, covering her mouth to stop herself from crying out loud.
“You should wait outside for now; we will immediately notify you as soon as we have results.”
Yu Gui escorted the person out, and Mother He grasped her sleeve, not letting go: “Doctor, you must save Miaomiao…”
She could only nod and say nothing more.
“Sister Lu, the blood oxygen isn’t rising!”
Seeing the blood oxygen level drop below the normal range, the monitor emitted a sharp beep.
“Administer oxygen, 0.25mg digoxin intravenous injection.”
For children, this dosage is somewhat astonishing, but Lu Qingshi knows that at this moment, if the medication is not increased, Miaomiao might not make it through this crisis.
“Blood oxygen is rising!” Yu Gui glanced at the monitor, but as soon as the words were said, it dropped back again.
“Prepare a 6.5 mm tube,” Hao Renjie said, handing the laryngoscope1 and catheter2 together to her. Lu Qingshi lifted her head and steadily inserted the catheter.
“Okay, another shot of cardiac stimulant.”
After Hao Renjie finished the injection, he immediately made space for her. Lu Qingshi continued performing CPR without pause, and three minutes later, someone else took over.
Yu Gui rolled up her sleeves and rushed forward, pressing while staring intensely at the screen, wishing she could poke a hole through it. But after ten minutes and three waves of people, her vital signs still had not returned to normal; no spontaneous breathing or heartbeat meant there were no surgical indications.
“Epinephrine (Adrenaline) 5mg IV push!” Hao Renjie gritted his teeth as he administered the medication through the catheter into the vein.
Lu Qingshi continued pressing her chest, one compression after another, as fine beads of sweat appeared on her forehead. Father He and Mother He waited anxiously in the corridor.
“Bring the defibrillator over!”
“Charge 200J, charge complete, clear!” Yu Gui picked up the defibrillator and pressed it against her chest, but the ECG remained a straight line.
Lu Qingshi continued performing CPR, sweat soaking her forehead, and after another three-minute round of CPR, Yu Gui connected the defibrillator.
At Hao Renjie’s feet, the medical waste bin already contained four empty adrenaline syringes. He looked up at Lu Qingshi: “Sister Lu…”
Yu Gui gritted her teeth and turned to look at him: “Do not give up!”
After half an hour of full-scale resuscitation efforts, with over twenty medical staff in the department taking turns performing effective chest compressions, Miaomiao still had not regained a spontaneous heartbeat.
The medical director was outside explaining to Father He and Mother He: “That is to say, the child’s heartbeat is entirely the result of our medical staff’s compressions. Once we stop, the ECG shows a straight line. Do you understand what I mean?”
Mother He was already in tears, almost crying herself into a tearful mess, and even Father He, a seven-foot man, had tears streaming down as he tightly held his sleeve: “If there’s the slightest possibility, please save Miaomiao.”
Liu Changsheng held his hand: “Rest assured, our feelings are as urgent as yours. If there’s the slightest possibility, we will absolutely not give up.”
An hour passed, and all the medical staff involved in the resuscitation were gasping for breath. Yu Gui’s eyes were slightly red as she looked at everyone who had stopped moving, including Lu Qingshi.
The green line representing life was deathly silent, just like the silent emergency department at this moment.
The child lying on the hospital bed was so small, and since birth, had never properly interacted with this world. Her biggest wish was to attend kindergarten with other children. For this, she gritted her teeth and persisted in taking medicine, enduring countless surgeries both large and small. Is her life really to stop here?
Hao Renjie was unwilling to give up, as was Qin Xuan, who arrived soon after, and all the medical staff present felt the same. A young nurse had already started wiping away tears.
The cardiology director who came for consultation also spoke: “It’s not working… let’s give up… with brain hypoxia (lacking oxygen) for this long, even if saved…”
Yu Gui rushed forward: “No… don’t… don’t give up… let’s try… try again…”
She turned and threw herself onto Miaomiao, continuing CPR, but was pulled away by someone. Yu Gui struggled to get up, and when she saw clearly who pulled her, tears welled up in her eyes.
“Teacher Lu!”
“Step aside, don’t obstruct, Hao Renjie, give me the scalpel,” Lu Qingshi glanced at the mannitol3 that had been hung since the start of resuscitation, and slightly bent over to kneel down at the bedside.
“Lu Qingshi, what are you doing?! Without surgical indication, opening the chest will only make her die faster!” shouted the intensive care doctor.
Lu Qingshi had already disinfected and made an incision on Miaomiao’s skin: “Is she alive now? I want to open the chest and directly massage the heart. If you have time to criticize me, you’d better come and help.”
When the head nurse came to report Lu Qingshi’s next step in the resuscitation process, Liu Changsheng directly sprayed a mouthful of tea onto the medical record and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead with a cloth.
This conjecture, which had only appeared in papers, she really dares to bring it into practice. If this resuscitation is successful, everyone will be happy, but if not, it will not only be medical negligence but also a medical ethics issue.
“Quick, quick, quick, bring in He Miaomiao’s family,” he paced back and forth and suddenly stopped: “No, first notify Dean Meng.”
“Director Lu, the blood gas analysis and chest X-ray have arrived,” a nurse ran in and handed her the examination results. Lu Qingshi, kneeling at the bedside, with blood on her hands and chest, glanced at them and handed them to the cardiac surgery director to see.
“Right ventricular failure caused by pulmonary hypertension,” the examination results made everyone turn pale. Congenital left heart underdevelopment had already severely impacted her hemodynamics, and now the right ventricle as well…
The cardiac surgery director took off his glasses and sighed deeply: “The transplant can’t wait.”
But after waiting for a full five years, there is still no suitable match. Where can we find one suddenly now?
“Old Liu, you’re making it difficult for us. You know that now everything is allocated automatically by the system. Is your hospital urgent while others are not? Forgive my bluntness, but there are many who have waited ten or even eight years without getting a transplant!”
Director Liu made a call to the Jinzhou City Human Organ Donation Committee, gripping the receiver tightly, and speaking humbly: “I know, I know. You understand the situation of patient He Miaomiao, the child is still so small, and has been waiting five years with a top ranking. If there is nothing domestically, could you help me look overseas? Saving a life is better than building a seven-story pagoda!”
The other side, while speaking, pulled out He Miaomiao’s data and medical record to compare with the database of registered organ donation volunteers.
“It’s not that I’m unwilling to help you, but this donor heart requirement is too difficult! The child is so small, you can’t fit a forty- or fifty-year-old heart into the chest cavity!”
This is a consensus understood by all medical practitioners. Liu Changsheng hopelessly hung up the phone and sighed deeply: “Lu Qingshi, it’s not that I don’t want to help you, there’s really no way.”
He prepared to go out and talk to the patient’s family once more.
Lu Qingshi was already kneeling on the ground, continuously massaging the heart for three minutes. The tender heart slightly trembled in her palm, and she understood that it was the result of her effort. Once she let go…
Yu Gui saw her eyes slightly redden, also somewhat moved: “Teacher Lu, let me do it.”
The people in the resuscitation room gradually dispersed. Lu Qingshi, somewhat dazed, withdrew her hand. The moment she let go, the heart slightly beat once. She thought she was seeing things until the monitor showed fluctuation again, and although weak, it made everyone cry tears of joy.
Lu Qingshi breathed a sigh of relief and collapsed sitting on the ground, her eyes filled with a smile.
Yu Gui burst into cheers, hugging Hao Renjie as they shouted and jumped together. Lu Qingshi got up from the ground: “It’s not over yet, administer cedilan 0.3mg with glucose intravenous drip, increase the oxygen flow, and maintain the vital signs.”
As long as there is a heartbeat and breathing, the transplant has meaning.
“Hello, this is the Renji Medical University First Affiliated Hospital Emergency Center,” the phone rang just once before the operator grabbed it.
“This is Anzhen Hospital, we have a fifteen-year-old patient with a car accident brain injury, our hospital’s treatment capability is limited, requesting transfer admission!”
“Okay, send them over!”
Greater ability also means greater responsibility, so the green channel was wide open, and the ambulance, with sirens blaring, rushed in. Lu Qingshi’s phone vibrated violently in her pocket as she was suturing He Miaomiao, with fine beads of sweat seeping from her forehead.
“Yu Gui, help me answer it.”
Yu Gui hurriedly pulled the phone from her pocket, pressed the call button, and placed it by her ear: “Car accident, abdominal open wound with brain injury, send to emergency room number three, please have thoracic, neurosurgery, and brain specialists come for consultation, patient age?”
“Fifteen years old, female.”
Lu Qingshi glanced at He Miaomiao’s pale face beside her hand: “Urgently do an HLA typing4 and blood gas analysis5, I’ll be finished here soon.”
She withdrew her hand from He Miaomiao’s chest cavity, took off her gloves, and threw them into the trash can: “You handle the rest.”
“Ah? Me?” The person who was just full of joy now suddenly turned pale.
“Do you want to save her?”
Yu Gui nodded woodenly.
Lu Qingshi stuffed the needle holder into her hand: “If the suture is incomplete, it could be fatal.”
This was a hot potato, and everyone looked at her with sympathy, while Yu Gui was on the verge of tears.
Qin Xuan had already received the news and stopped her as soon as she came out: “You entrusted such an important patient to an intern?”
Lu Qingshi bypassed her and turned to leave: “I have other patients.”
Qin Xuan caught up: “What about Miaomiao?! She’s still not out of danger! Didn’t you watch her grow up?! You were the chief surgeon in her last operation…”
Lu Qingshi pushed her aside, her tone turning cold: “Move aside.”
“Director Lu, the HLA typing result is out,” a nurse ran out of the emergency room and handed the test report to her.
Qin Xuan glanced at it and immediately grabbed her collar, her eyes red as she shouted: “Lu Qingshi, you are not allowed to go!”
The child’s heart typing completely matched with He Miaomiao’s. If she were brain dead then…
Lu Qingshi’s expression turned completely cold as she looked down at this acquaintance of three years, surprisingly feeling so unfamiliar.
She slowly pried Qin Xuan’s hand open: “Qin Xuan, remember your identity, you are a doctor, not an executioner.”
Footnotes
- Laryngoscope: A thin tube with lights, a lens and video cameras that help them to look closely at your larynx (voice box).
- Catheter: A tube that is inserted into your bladder, allowing your urine to drain freely.
- Mannitol: A diuretic (a type of drug that causes the kidneys to make more urine). It helps you make more urine and to lose salt and excess water from your body. It treats swelling from heart, kidney, or liver disease. It also treats swelling around the brain or in the eyes.
- Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) typing: A genetic test used to match patients and donors for bone marrow, cord blood, or organ transplants.
- Arterial blood gas analysis (ABG): measures the balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide in your blood to see how well your lungs are working.
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