Chapter 395 - Solving The Root Of The Problem
Zheng Ren was a little depressed for the rest of the day.
He was upset whenever he thought about the dead child with livor mortis being used as a pawn in their cruel scheme.
The child's lips were rather dark, which led to Zheng Ren's suspicion of it having congenital heart defects.
Maybe this was the reason the family sold the child to the crime group.
Zheng Ren felt dizzy when he returned to the ward. He then went to observe Chief Sun's surgery on peritoneal loose body resection.
The loose body was removed and dissected. The interior structure looked exactly like a goose egg as Zheng Ren had mentioned earlier.
Chief Sun complimented him but his mind was elsewhere.
The gynecology department then called to inform him that the girl who had pulmonary embolism had gone through the dilation and curettage (D&C) procedure. The filter could be removed after a few days.
That girl? Zheng Ren's lips curved upwards when he recalled the interaction between her father and boyfriend.
Life was more than just darkness, there was family and love.
In the afternoon, Chang Yue dragged him to the CT room to do a 64-slice CT scan with 3D-image reconstruction for Zheng Yunxia.
Zheng Yunxia had received two interventional embolization surgeries. Her liver tumor had shrunk to approximately 4 cm due to the interventional surgery's positive effects.
The left lobe of her liver was removed, but her caudate lobe was growing like a weed.
The liver had a strong ability to regenerate. Zheng Yunxia's regenerated caudate lobe managed to restore her liver function to a state before she had the disease.
All of this was undoubtedly good news.
Chang Yue looked at the scans with a smile on her face.
Zheng Ren was in deep thought.
The effect of interventional embolization surgery worked best when the tumor size was large. If the tumor was small, the blood supplying vessels were thinner and not all of them could be successfully embolized.
This was different from prostate interventional surgery. He only needed to embolize most of the arteries as the other parts of hyperplasia would slowly die off, improving the symptoms such as frequent micturition, urgent micturition, and urodynia.
Furthermore, considering the patient's age, he might be dead before the hyperplasia recurred.
However, if there were any remaining blood supply to the malignant tumor, it would multiply indefinitely and grow in an uncontrolled manner, resulting in cancer recurrence.
Zheng Yunxia's malignant hepatic tumor had been successfully contained. The best option was to complete the embolization surgery and proceed with radiofrequency ablation.
Zheng Ren gave a low hum while he stared at the scans on the film viewer. He did not start with the 64-slice CT scan with 3D-image reconstruction.
Chang Yue was puzzled. Initially, she tried to be polite and refrained from asking. However, after seeing Zheng Ren in silence for quite some time, she could not help but ask anxiously, "Chief Zheng, didn't Sister Zheng's condition get…better? You…"
"Uhm, she's doing very well," Zheng Ren said. "I'm just thinking about how to remove it entirely from the roots."
Removing it from the roots…
Chang Yue felt that Zheng Ren was joking. If it was Su Yun who said it, she would have teased him right away.
However, Zheng Ren rarely joked.
Given his personality, he would crack a joke so bad that it makes others feel despair.
Could it be true?
"Zheng Ren, the king of liver cancer…" Chang Yue said with hesitation.
"Uhm, you can see that the tumor has shrunk to one-tenth of its original size. We need a new method to tackle it. We can remove the tumor but to uproot it entirely… That depends on the individual's genetics but our current technology doesn't allow us to identify the tumor's source," Zheng Ren said.
"Boss, are you suggesting radiofrequency ablation?" Professor Rudolf Wagner asked while flipping his golden locks. "I'm really good at this. In fact, most of the mainstream interventional doctors are gradually moving away from interventional embolization surgery as it requires the surgeon to be exposed under X-rays. I've already begun to use radiofrequency ablation as the surgery's main procedure."
"Uhm, we're going to do radiofrequency ablation," Zheng Ren said.
"Let's do it then. It's just a simple surgery, there's no need to overthink it," Professor Rudolf Wagner said.
Suddenly, Zheng Ren realized that he might be forgetting something.
The rewards for the second stage of The Crown Jewel included not only 3,000 cases of radiofrequency ablation experience, but also an interventional surgery success rate +2.
What could that possibly mean?
The thought planted itself in Zheng Ren's mind and spread like wildfire.
"Boss, what are you thinking?" The professor asked in confusion when he saw Zheng Ren fall into a daze.
Zheng Ren did not bother about the professor and took his phone out to call Feng Xuhui.
"Hello, Manager Feng.
"Uhm, we're preparing to do a radiofrequency ablation on a liver cancer patient a few days from now.
"Okay, thank you. Right, this patient was the first patient who received the interventional embolization treatment for liver cancer. She comes from a low-income household so I'm hoping you can discuss this with Chairman Ma.
"Sure, thank you so much. Please try to expedite the process, we're going to have the surgery in the next 2 to 3 days."
Zheng Ren then hung up.
Chang Yue was perplexed.
She anticipated that he would perform the surgery tomorrow after completing the 64-slice CT scan with 3D-image reconstruction today.
After all, Zheng Yunxia had to return to work as soon as possible in order to sustain her living expenses. The surgery and the recovery process would take time. She had been facing a life full of misery alone but now she had help from the people of Sea City General Hospital.
The earlier they got the surgery done, the more time Zheng Yunxia would have.
Why did Zheng Ren decide to delay the surgery?
While Chang Yu was still pondering, Zheng Ren made the second phone call.
"Director Zhang, how was the patient from yesterday?
"What about the blood ammonia level?
"Okay, thanks. If that's the case, monitor the patient for a day. I'll go back and take the removable stent out the day after tomorrow.
"Oh right, Director Zhang, if possible, can you arrange a few more TIPS surgery so that I can do them all one after the other?
"Sure, there's no hurry for payment. You can pass it to me when I'm there."
Zheng Ren hung up after that.
"Boss, you're doing more TIPS surgery?" The professor asked excitedly.
"Uhm," Zheng Ren answered.
Professor Rudolf Wagner approached Zheng Ren with a huge grin and said, "Boss, I've recently been learning about your culture"
"Hmm?" Zheng Ren noticed something was not right. He glanced at the professor and cut him off mid-sentence. "Cut to the chase please."
"My God, thank you for your kindness." The professor expressed his emotional changes in a way he was most familiar with. "I have a friend whose relative has some problems with his prostate. He wanted you to treat him surgically because of his age."
Prostate?
Zheng Ren knew that the reason Professor Rudolf Wagner stayed behind in Sea CIty was to learn prostate interventional surgery.
The fact that he waited so long to make this request was rather impressive.
"Sure, but I don't think I have time to fly to Germany," Zheng Ren said.
"No worries, I can arrange for them to come over as soon as possible by train." The professor turned around and left enthusiastically to tend to his other patients.
…
…
Chapter 396 - The Emergency Depart
ment Is Not For The Faint-hearted
Zheng Ren's phone rang while he was in mid-thought.
When he saw that it was from the emergency ward instead of the emergency department, he answered the call with a frown.
"Chief Zheng, please hurry over. Something's wrong!" Lu Tianran exclaimed.
Ugh… When would this stop?
Even though Zheng Ren was mentally prepared for these situations to happen in the emergency department, his mind was occupied with the treatment plan to completely remove Zheng Yunxia's hepatocellular carcinoma.
He dashed toward the ward right after he picked up the phone call.
"What happened?"
"The old man who smoked and faked being sick got beaten up and now his bones are fractured," Lu Tianran explained in a rush.
Zheng Ren was stunned.
His worries came true. He transferred the old man to the emergency ward because he was afraid he might get into trouble in the emergency consultation room.
F*ck… How did he get bone fractures in the emergency ward?
He was hit? Who was that reckless?
Zheng Ren hung up the call and picked up his pace.
Professor Rudolf Wagner was contacting his patients to arrange for them to come over to Sea City for surgery. When he saw Zheng Ren running past him, he asked in surprise, "Boss, is it another emergency?"
Zheng Ren did not bother to answer the professor. He had to find out what was going on and nip it in the bud to prevent the situation from worsening.
He reached the ward in just after one minute when it usually took five.
The hallway was crowded with people. Zheng Ren had to push his way through to get to the old man's ward.
He was dumbfounded by the scenario in front of him.
A wrinkly, hunched old woman was standing there, pointing at the old man with her walking stick while berating him in a dialect that Zheng Ren could not decipher.
"What's going on?" Zheng Ren softly asked Lu Tianran who was standing to one side.
Lu Tianran was hiding in a corner, debating whether to interfere or stay out of it. He was relieved when Zheng Ren arrived. He told him in a lowered voice, "After Old Chief Physician Pan and Chang Yue discussed with his family members for three consecutive days, the old man finally admitted that he's not sick and requested for a discharge."
Was it not good news?
"We already completed the paperwork. His family members were packing his things and he was supposed to be discharged today. After that, his wife came." Lu Tianran gave a weird-looking expression as if he was about to laugh and cry at the same time. "His wife asked him why he refused to go home and if he has a mistress."
Zheng Ren was speechless.
Why would she worry at their age? The old man seemed healthy enough but was already over eighty years old.
His body might not be able to cope even if he wanted to.
"The old man argued back but I didn't understand what he said. Anyway, the old lady raised her walking stick and fractured his forearm."
Zheng Ren glanced at the old man and saw his left radius was fractured.
What the hell were they thinking!
The old man finally had a reason to be admitted to the hospital but he would be sent to the orthopedic inpatient department instead of the emergency ward.
At his age, it would be difficult to have surgery.
Most likely, he would need to wear a cast and let it heal over time.
Poor thing… Zheng Ren sighed and asked, "Was the patient dismissed from monitoring?"
Lu Tianran was not very familiar with the terms used by the emergency department because he had been working in the inpatient department. The old man was supposed to be monitored in the emergency consultation room. Technically, it was not considered as an admission because the patient's diagnosis was not serious enough.
Zheng Ren brought him upstairs to the emergency ward because he was worried that the old man would not be able to get a good rest from all the disturbance in the consultation room.
In this case, the patient would be considered as leaving monitoring instead of discharge.
"Uhm, yeah, he was dismissed."
This difference was crucial to both Sea City General Hospital and the patient.
If the patient was not dismissed when he got the fracture, Sea City General Hospital would be responsible for his injury. Things could get messy if legal action was taken.
If the patient was unreasonable, the case could go on for 3 to 5 years.
Even though the medical administration division had their own lawyers, the doctors would crumble under pressure if the case dragged on for years.
If the incident happened when the patient was not under the hospital's monitoring, the family members would not be able to blame the hospital. Since it was a fight between husband and wife, it could be categorized as a civil or criminal case but Zheng Ren was not too certain about that.
However, Sea City General Hospital was still partly responsible since it happened in the ward. However, they had sufficient reasons to plead the case.
"Who's the family representative?" Zheng Ren looked around and asked.
The old lady threw a side glance and asked, "I am, what's wrong?"
Zheng Ren shuddered.
He imagined himself in the old man's place many years later if he failed to stop smoking after Xie Yiren told him to…
Zheng Ren shuddered at the thought.
He shook his head to disperse those thoughts and put on a smile before saying, "Aunty, please don't get angry. You need to take care of your health."
"This useless piece of sh*t learned how to fake being ill!" The old lady roared while glaring at the old man who was sitting on the bed holding his left arm, too afraid to cry out in pain.
She was full of energy, unlike a typical woman in her eighties.
Zheng Ren dare not step on anyone's toes. Although the old lady seemed fine and could even fracture the old man's arm, she would risk having a stroke or even cerebral hemorrhage if she got too emotional…
"Aunty, look at you. I've told you not to get too worked up." Chang Yue emerged behind Zheng Ren. The incident had happened during lunchtime when Chang Yue was not around. After she heard what happened, she immediately rushed back.
Zheng Ren felt much relieved when he saw Chang Yue appear.
The old lady was calmer when she saw Chang Yue. She said, "Dear girl, this bugger decided to go to the hospital and fake being sick instead of taking care of his great-grandchildren at home!"
Chang Yue comforted the old lady while escorting her out of the ward.
Zheng Ren took the patient's sons to file a case in the emergency department to examine the old man before sending him to the orthopedic department.
The old man's children were worried when they heard their father got his arm fractured after the beating.
The children were placed in a difficult position as this was a fight between their parents. It was not easy to deal with such a fierce mother.
Luckily, this family was rather reasonable. Zheng Ren felt relieved and contacted the orthopedic department.
He comforted the family members and told them that the old man would not need to undergo surgery. He just needed time to recover.
There was nothing else that could be done other than reassuring them that the old man would be fine.
It was over when Old Chief Physician Pan arrived, still out of breath after rushing over.
When the old lady heard that she fractured the old man's arm, she backed down instantly. Even though she was still nagging him, there was fear in her expression.
People rarely intervened in a fight between couples, so this was an exception as it got quite physical and both parties involved were elderly.
Zheng Ren finally relaxed after sending the old man to the orthopedic department and reporting to the medical administration division.
The emergency department was certainly not a place for the faint-hearted.
/> Chapter 397 - Who The Hell Are You?
After wrapping up, Zheng Ren sat down for a rest. Before he got the chance to catch a breath, there was someone knocking on the door. The person looked familiar but he could not remember who he was.
The person was holding a bag of films.
Maybe they were one of the patient's family members. Had they met before?
"You're…" Zheng Ren asked.
"Hi, Chief Zheng. I'm Cheng Lixue from the Secondary Hospital," He said carefully while walking toward Zheng Ren in a humble manner.
"Hmm? Chief Cheng?" Zheng Ren finally remembered.
Cheng Lixue was rather bitter.
To be ignored by a young doctor… It was apparent that he was a nobody to him. He could not even recognize him even though they had met before and shared a meal together.
It was not surprising since the young doctor in front of him was an expert in the interventional surgery field and specialized in TIPS surgery.
Although he had yet to gain fame, it was just a matter of time for him to receive the recognition he deserved with the skills he had.
Cheng Lixue quickly set himself straight and bowed deeply even though he was much older than Zheng Ren.
His action startled Zheng Ren. He was wearing a black suit and had a serious expression on his face. With a white flower pinned on, it looked as if he was paying respects to a deceased person.
Only then did Zheng Ren noticed that he was still sitting on down in his chair.
The person in front of him was a department chief from the Secondary Hospital who was much older than him. It was not polite of him to remain seated.
He hurriedly stood on his feet and said smilingly, "Chief Cheng, please excuse me. I just came back after dealing with some matters and I'm not thinking straight, do forgive me."
It was unsure when Zheng Ren had started addressing him as an equal rather than using honorifics.
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