Fallen
Don’t get trapped here
Her temples were damp with sweat, and her soft black hair clung to the side of her ears. Lu Yinxi couldn’t help but reach out to tuck it behind her ear.
This action was somewhat intimate. Jian Qing grabbed her wrist, preventing her from touching her so freely.
Lu Yinxi didn’t pull her hand back and played dumb, pretending not to understand: “What could I possibly know?”
Jian Qing stared at her, her dark eyes deep, as if seeing through everything: “You knew about this a long time ago. You took me to the park in advance to wait, and even prepared the gauze for artificial respiration beforehand.”
Just like before, her tone was cold and certain.
Lu Yinxi had been intimidated by her two or three times before. After reflecting on it, she guessed that perhaps Jian Qing was trying to get her to talk—using a confident tone to voice her doubtful speculations and then observing her reactions.
If she managed to escape the questioning by using flowery words to deceive Jian Qing, Jian Qing would temporarily pretend to let down her guard but would continue to observe silently. She would also take advantage of Lu Yinxi letting down her guard to occasionally probe for more information.
—Very cunning.
Having experienced being suddenly sent to the psychiatric department, this time Lu Yinxi wouldn’t be easily fooled. She looked straight at Jian Qing’s brow and softly explained, “The gauze was left over from the emergency rescue at noon; there were two packs left. I put them in my pocket while tidying up, planning to use them for practicing CPR. In the afternoon, when I went to the demonstration room with Brother Zhang, we used one pack. You can ask him if you don’t believe me. As for going to the park, that night when you came back, I saw you were exhausted and felt a bit sorry for you, so I wanted to take you out for a walk. Think about it, no matter how strange I might be, I am still a human being; it’s impossible for me to foresee the future, otherwise, I’d be a god, wouldn’t I?”
Her soft and warm words brushed past Jian Qing’s ears, carrying sincerity and earnestness. When Jian Qing heard the low and tender “felt a bit sorry for you,” an indescribable emotion spread through her chest, and her cold heart was softened by the strange yet sappy sentiment.
She stood up straight, released Lu Yinxi’s wrist, turned around, and lowered her head to drink water. Her eyes became clear and bright.
Lu Yinxi curved her lips into a slight smile and walked away to throw out the trash.
She had figured out that Jian Qing responded better to softness than to hardness.
But she couldn’t be sure if Jian Qing would still have doubts afterward; she could only take it one step at a time.
Yan Miaomiao, clutching her stomach, came back from the ICU. Seeing that Jian Qing was still in the emergency department, she gave her a hard pat on the shoulder: “What’s up? Still planning to stay and help me?”
Jian Qing turned around, habitually observing people’s actions, and noticed Yan Miaomiao clutching her lower abdomen. She asked, “Where does it hurt?”
“Are you going to give me a consultation?” Yan Miaomiao patted her shoulder and laughed, “It’s the old stomach problem. Who working in the emergency department doesn’t have a minor ailment! I haven’t even had dinner yet. Luckily, your timely CPR saved the patient tonight; otherwise, it would’ve been hard to say if they could be saved.”
Jian Qing looked Yan Miaomiao up and down a few times, her expression serious: “You’ve lost a lot of weight.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’ve been working myself to death in the emergency department lately. How could I not lose weight! I know you’re not busy in oncology, but don’t always keep that stern face. Patients won’t be killed by their illness but by your scary face! What’s wrong with losing weight? Many girls would kill for that!”
Jian Qing pursed her lips and reminded, “You should go for a gastroscopy.”
Yan Miaomiao waved her hand: “You don’t suspect it’s stomach cancer, do you? I really don’t like talking to people from your department; it’s always this cancer or that cancer, so unlucky! I had it checked last month, it’s gastritis. I still have patients to attend to, no time to catch up with you. I’ll treat you to the canteen food another day!”
As she spoke, she turned around swiftly and went back to her emergency work.
The work in the emergency department is rushed, both coming and going, with “urgent” being the key.
Lu Yinxi came back after throwing out the trash and, seeing that slender figure, asked Jian Qing: “Your college classmate?”
Jian Qing responded with a hum.
Lu Yinxi exclaimed in surprise, “An eight-year program? Staying in the emergency department?”
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Jian Qing said, “She likes it.”
Anyone with even a slight understanding of the medical field would be surprised to hear about this choice.
The emergency department is famously known for being tough, exhausting, and chaotic, yet not specialized, and it’s also a place where it’s easy to get scolded or even physically attacked.
It ranks among the top five departments that medical students least want to go to — with pediatrics unquestionably ranking first.
Yan Miaomiao’s name contains six instances of the water radical (淼淼 ‘Miaomiao’ symbolizes calmness), yet she acts with great vigor and intensity. She patted her chest and said that working in the emergency department perfectly suited her temperament. Back then, despite her classmates’ confusion and her parents’ disapproval, she resolutely decided to stay in the emergency department of the First Affiliated Hospital.
Nowadays, most of her peers are still struggling to become attending physicians. Even if they have qualified for promotion to associate chief physician, the positions are still occupied by those ahead of them, and the hospital does not offer the appointments, so they have to wait a few more years.
She and Jian Qing are among the few doctors who have been evaluated and awarded the title of associate senior doctor.
The medical field highly values age and experience, and the promotion of professional titles is mostly linked to the number of papers published and their impact factors.
A young associate chief physician, when seen by industry insiders, may not necessarily be regarded as having good clinical skills. They might even subconsciously think her research ability is strong, but her clinical skills need to be verified.
After all, doctors who do well in research inevitably divert their attention from clinical work.
Usually, when colleagues from other hospitals see Jian Qing’s title, they are initially surprised and then inquire further: Is it because she is particularly good at research? Did she go to the front lines to support during some public health emergency? Does she have some strong background connections? Oh, she is Vice President Hu’s prized student? That explains it.
The reaction to seeing Yan Miaomiao from the emergency department is different: A doctoral graduate? Staying in the emergency department? Then she must be given the position of associate chief physician, otherwise, such talent cannot be retained.
Lu Yinxi looked at Yan Miaomiao’s back and then at Jian Qing, smiling as she said, “You two are very typical of internal medicine and surgical doctors.”
Doctors from different departments sometimes have personalities that match their specialties. Internal medicine doctors tend to be quiet and reserved, speaking and acting slowly and methodically, with slow ward rounds and slow medical record writing—slow work yields fine results. Surgical doctors, especially obstetric and gynecological chiefs, are vigorous and decisive, their commanding shouts can make people tremble, and their hawk-like gaze can intimidate a batch of fresh interns.
Of course, this is not universal. The common universal trait is that they all walk very quickly. Sometimes, hospital staff don’t need to wear white coats; you can identify them as medical professionals by their brisk walking speed.
Jian Qing also glanced at Yan Miaomiao, with a hint of concern in her eyes.
Her sclera seemed somewhat yellowish…
On the way home, Lu Yinxi let Jian Qing go up first, while she spent a few minutes strolling through the fresh food supermarket downstairs, buying some groceries.
When she got home, she saw Jian Qing so exhausted that she didn’t want to move, lying on the sofa with her eyes closed, resting.
She squatted down and softly said in Jian Qing’s ear, “You rest for a while, I’ll go cook something for you.”
Lu Yinxi ran to the kitchen, opened the refrigerator, then ran back to the sofa and quietly asked, “Actually, up until now, I still don’t know what dishes you like to eat? What soups do you like to drink?”
Jian Qing, with her eyes closed, answered in a low voice, “Anything is fine.”
Lu Yinxi made an “oh” sound and went back to the refrigerator, trying hard to recall every dish she had ever made.
In the end, she made tomato and egg soup and stir-fried yam with black fungus, and brought them to the table.
She hadn’t cooked for a long time, and these dishes were completed by watching instructional videos.
Jian Qing, half asleep and half awake, smelled the aroma, got up voluntarily, washed her hands, sat down at the table, and waited for the person in the kitchen to come out and dine together.
Lu Yinxi brought out the last specialty dish—garlic spare ribs, sat down, and started the meal.
Surrounded by the fragrance of the food, the life and death scenes in the hospital were all left behind. The two just practically considered how to fill their hungry stomachs.
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No matter how hungry Jian Qing was, her movements remained unhurried and methodical.
Lu Yinxi suppressed her eager feelings, trying to appear calm and collected, waiting for Jian Qing to voluntarily praise her.
But Jian Qing remained silent for a long time, just focusing on eating.
After five minutes, Lu Yinxi pretended to be relaxed and asked, “How does it taste?”
She believed the taste was good and the presentation was decent: the tomato egg soup had a rich color, the stir-fried tomatoes melted in the mouth, sweet and sour, the warm soup filled the stomach, leaving a lingering taste of fried egg and the sweet and sour of tomatoes on the tongue; the yam was sliced into thin pieces, wrapped in a faint onion fragrance, with a refreshing texture.
Jian Qing neither praised nor complimented, and said indifferently, “When you’re hungry, everything tastes good.”
Lu Yinxi nearly puffed up with anger like a pufferfish, puffing up her cheeks. Thinking of Jian Qing’s fatigue today and her beautiful face, she suppressed her temper and moved the garlic ribs in front of Jian Qing. “You haven’t tried this dish yet.”
“I don’t like strong flavors,” Jian Qing said somewhat fastidiously.
Lu Yinxi glared at her with her sparkling peach blossom eyes.
It wasn’t fierce; instead, it had a hint of coquettishness.
Reluctantly, Jian Qing picked up a piece of rib and put it in her mouth.
When finally cleaning up the dishes, Lu Yinxi discovered that most of the ribs had ended up in a certain doctor’s stomach.
Her culinary skills were affirmed by actions.
A little figure laughing heartily appeared in her mind, and Lu Yinxi, feeling content, quietly hummed a song while washing the dishes.
Her fingertips carried the garlic aroma, the lemon scent of dish soap, and the everyday essence of cooking—rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and tea—clung to her body. She didn’t mind at all; instead, she felt incredibly at ease and satisfied.
The next second, she suddenly realized her thoughts were wavering.
She raised her head and looked out at the night sky through the window, where stars were as vast as a sea of smoke.
She warned herself that this was not the real world, and she should not get trapped here—neither her body nor her mind.
The next morning, Lu Yinxi, in the role of a lifesaving benefactor, went to visit He Bei, the young woman in the intensive care unit.
He Bei lay on the hospital bed, her complexion pale, her body covered with various tubes and connected to numerous devices that temporarily replaced her heart and lungs.
Dark red blood was drawn from her body and entered the membrane lung for oxygenation and carbon dioxide removal, and the bright red blood was then pumped back into her body.
ECMO, an artificial heart-lung machine, has a core component that includes a membrane lung and a blood pump, acting as an artificial lung and an artificial heart. It is currently the most effective support for severe heart and lung failure, hailed as the “last lifeline” for critically ill patients.
No one would have thought that a minor cold could lead to such severe consequences for her.
Two weeks ago, He Bei experienced mild fatigue, chest tightness, coughing, and palpitations (rapid heartbeat), thinking it was just a small cold. She bought some medicine on her own and took it for more than two weeks without improvement.
She had a habit of exercising and did not skip her workouts even when she had a cold, believing that sweating more might help her recover faster.
In reality, those symptoms were not caused by a cold but by fulminant myocarditis, which has symptoms very similar to those of a cold.
A common cold with fever typically does not result in symptoms such as chest tightness, shortness of breath, or rapid heartbeat, and most cases will recover within two weeks.
Myocarditis is an inflammatory disease of the heart, mostly caused by viral infections, such as influenza viruses. Fulminant myocarditis, as the name suggests, occurs rapidly and violently, with the virus directly attacking the heart, causing it to stop beating.
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This disease is more common in children and young people under the age of 40 who are otherwise healthy.
Young people’s immune systems are more active, and their response to invading viruses is more intense.
The immune cells of young people are like a hot-blooded youth; when they detect an invading foreign species, they engage in a life-or-death struggle, becoming so fervent that they cannot distinguish between the virus and their own myocardial cells, ultimately attempting to annihilate everything.
——further aggravating the damage to the myocardial cells.
In the original story, He Bei collapsed in the park, with no one coming to her aid. By the time she was taken to the hospital, she was already dead.
Now, she lies on the hospital bed, still showing signs of life.
Lu Yinxi held her pale knuckles and softly said, “You must survive…”
If you survive, I will have hope of changing my fate.
The author has something to say:
Mwah, remember not to go running if you have a cold (even if the school teachers forcibly require you to do exercises, you must refuse). If you experience chest tightness or palpitations, promptly go to the hospital for a checkup. If your symptoms have not improved in more than two weeks, you must see a doctor.
Also, don’t scare yourself by self-diagnosing based on symptoms. Many medical students, while studying, will look at those diseases and think they have this or that illness, but in reality, there is nothing wrong~~~
Thanks for the chapter, Little Panda! This type of stuff is the scariest, especially when medical misinformation (or really any kind of misinformation) runs rampant on the internet. Though, I do agree with the author that it's important not to panic too much or wildly self-diagnose. Reminds me of a previous chapter where there was an old man who looked up medical information and was trying to educate the doctors about his disease; it's really interesting to see the author's perspective on why patients act a certain way.
Just today I watched a short explaining how external lungs work.
Thanks for the hard work Little Panda