Chapter 74: High-yield Patients In Referrals!
“I’m not going, I’m not going. Doctor Lu, I sincerely came back to find you.”
“If you’re really unhappy, we’ll go out and have a meal. Just name your price for drinks. If I flinch, I’m a coward…” The young, burly man was willing to go all out.
Before he was injured, he felt that life was cheap, and everyone was in the same boat, so who was afraid of whom?
But after falling off his motorcycle and injuring his leg to the point of ‘limping’, he finally understood that people were made of flesh and blood, and the pain was real, and the inconvenience was also real.
“That won’t do. Our hospital prohibits patients from treating us to meals or drinks. If you’re willing to have surgery, you can go for the preoperative examination first, and I’ll prepare the paperwork for your consultation and signature.”
“After excluding any contraindications for surgery, we’ll go to the operating room for suturing…” Lu Cheng wasn’t in a hurry.
The young man’s bleeding had stopped. A tendon rupture without active bleeding was a ‘pseudo’ urgent surgery, meaning it could wait.
In fact, the consultation and signature paperwork were standard templates, but until the preoperative examination results were out and absolute contraindications for surgery were ruled out, Lu Cheng wouldn’t take the patient to the operating room.
Don’t underestimate the young man’s appearance; if he truly had a heart condition or other problems, ending up on the operating table due to such a minor surgery would lead to a lawsuit.
…
After Lu Cheng finished preparing the relevant documents, he was contemplating a patient’s postoperative medication. He was struggling with whether to prescribe anticoagulants, but ultimately decided against it.
“Knock, knock, knock!” There was a knock on the office door.
“Lu Cheng, this patient is from Jishi City,” Zeng Huanqi, who was on duty at the emergency clinic, said, surprising Lu Cheng.
Jishi City is a prefecture-level city in Xiangzhou, with several Grade A tertiary hospitals like Xiangzhou People’s Hospital and Xiangzhou Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, whose medical standards are clearly much higher than Long County People’s Hospital.
Lu Cheng tilted his head. “Auntie, you were injured in Jishi City, why didn’t you go to the Zhou Hospital?”
The patient was an auntie in her late forties. Her hand was wrapped in sterile gauze and bandages, making it look like a flexor tendon rupture in District Two.
The auntie said, “Doctor Lu, I’m from Long County. My daughter is a nurse in the orthopedics department at Zhou People’s Hospital. She told me that your surgeries are even better.”
“My daughter asked, and my injury is a multiple tendon rupture. If not handled properly, it can easily lead to complications.”
“Let me see your medical record…” Lu Cheng stepped forward and asked the accompanying person, who was presumably the auntie’s husband, for the medical record book.
Upon seeing the diagnosis, Lu Cheng said, “Auntie, how did it get this bad? Tendon ruptures on the wrist, fingertip, and back of the finger?”
“You have vascular injury too? Then you should have gone directly to Zhou People’s Hospital!”
“I can’t perform digital artery suturing,” Lu Cheng admitted frankly.
“The machine caught it… Huh?” The auntie instinctively answered Lu Cheng’s question, but upon hearing that Lu Cheng couldn’t do it, she was the one who froze.
The auntie became a little flustered. “What should I do now? Should I go back to Jishi City?”
Lu Cheng nodded. “You have a combined vascular injury, and it’s a vascular injury in the avascular zone, which I currently cannot handle!”
“If it were a vascular injury in another location, I could manage it.”
“How long ago did you get injured?”
The middle-aged man, who had been silent, spoke up. “At 9:30 this morning, my wife got some immediate treatment nearby and we drove back right away.”
“Doctor Lu, you’re not joking, are you?”
Lu Cheng shook his head. “How could I joke with you about something like this? You transferred from Jishi City to our Long County specifically to see me; I’m delighted. How could I possibly joke with you like this?”
“But if I can’t do it, I can’t do it. However, don’t rush. I’ll call another teacher to see if he’s available.”
“If he’s available, you won’t need to transfer. If he’s not, you’ll have to rush back to Jishi City immediately.”
“I cannot currently handle a tendon rupture with an avascular zone vascular rupture accompanying it.”
Lu Cheng’s suturing skills had reached Blue Mastery 20/20, just a step away from the next level. However, avascular zone vascular suturing required taking that final step even to enter the beginner level.
It could be said to be Lu Cheng’s only blind spot in local suturing at the moment.
“This? Doctor Lu…” The couple’s expressions were quite grim.
Firstly, it was the hassle. Secondly, they felt that their daughter might not have been very reliable.
Fortunately, Professor Tong Yuan’an was free today. Upon hearing Lu Cheng’s phone call for ‘help’, he readily agreed without hesitation.
“Xiao Lu, it’s rare for you to ask me for a favor, so I can’t refuse. Have the patient wait for me in the emergency department!~”
“We’ll go on stage together then,” Tong Yuan’an said with a chuckle.
Ever since being ‘defeated’ by Lu Cheng a few days ago, the fat man Tong Yuan’an had been ‘introverted’. Lu Cheng had initially thought he was a bit angry or ‘temperamental’.
It wasn’t as exaggerated as he thought. Lu Cheng explained, “Teacher Tong, I have a flexor tendon A3 zone in the lower limb to handle here. You can start first, and after I finish mine, I’ll come to learn from you.”
“Oh, right, Teacher Tong, this patient was transferred from Jishi City and has already been delayed for nearly two hours, so her surgery might need to be scheduled a bit faster.”
Tong Yuan’an let out a sharp sound from the other end. “What the hell?”
“A patient from Jishi City being transferred to your Long County? I’ve never heard of that…”
“Teacher Tong, it was a misunderstanding, and I can’t resolve this misunderstanding alone, so I have to ask for your help.” Lu Cheng’s tone was gentle and appeasing, showing self-awareness.
Lu Cheng would not take risks with matters outside his capabilities. If he could get help, Lu Cheng wouldn’t pretend to be noble.
After the call, Lu Cheng explained to the couple, “The Professor Tong I’ve invited is a professor from the Hand Surgery department at Xiangya Hospital. He happens to be visiting our hospital for outreach, and his skills are much, much better than mine.”
“So you are lucky, but don’t be so reckless next time.”
“For emergencies like this, try to get treatment as close as possible to avoid wasting time…”
Lu Cheng’s attitude was quite enthusiastic. Although the couple felt a bit strange, they replied, “Thank you, Doctor Lu.”
“Professor Tong is a professor from Xiangya Hospital, so we’ve come to the right place this time.” The auntie’s conflicted expression finally eased.
【 By appeasing the patient’s emotions, the patient’s menopausal anxiety syndrome was relieved to a certain extent, gaining 0.8 Skill Points! 】
Suddenly, a rather substantial amount of Skill Points appeared out of nowhere, making Lu Cheng look thoughtfully at the auntie.
She was indeed in her mid-forties, going through menopause. Perhaps her transfer from Jishi City to Long County was also for better treatment.
This age group is in menopause…
“Well, I need to go talk to another patient about signing consent forms. Later, I’ll ask Doctor Du to come and talk to you for signing. After you sign, Professor Tong should be here soon.”
“Your previous blood test results are complete. One more ECG, and if there are no unexpected findings, you can have surgery.”
“Don’t worry, what comes will come, and at least Professor Tong is here,” Lu Cheng muttered again.
“Okay, okay…” The auntie nodded, a faint smile appearing on her lips.
【 By appeasing the patient’s emotions, the patient’s menopausal anxiety syndrome was relieved to a certain extent, gaining 0.9 Skill Points! 】
The Skill Points from the auntie were truly high-yield!
But similarly, this auntie would undoubtedly be difficult to handle.
Lu Cheng then asked Tian Duoduo from the Nursing Department to take the couple to the nurse station to rest. After calling Du Daihua, who was on standby for surgery, Lu Cheng also called Zhang
Tiesheng.
Professor Tong needed an assistant for the surgery, and Tong Yuan’an might not bring Peng Kun, so the emergency department needed to provide a surgical assistant.
Additionally, Lu Cheng called Lin Qianlong again, explaining the situation and his ‘assessment’ of the auntie’s emotional state.
“Yes, Xiao Lu, you did very well.”
“This patient, hearing hearsay, transferred from Jishi City. After all, she’s a very determined person, so we need to handle this with caution beforehand.”
“I’ll be right there!~” Lin Qianlong didn’t shirk responsibility at all, nor did he blame Lu Cheng for calling him to the emergency operating room to oversee.
