Path of Medicine With a System

Chapter 273: Looked down upon for being too young

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu

For emergency treatment at the hospital, normally after one doctor spoke up, there would be several or even more than 10 nurses helping out. Although the surgery plan was now confirmed, everyone could only perform basic emergency treatment for the teenaged girl, fixing the patient’s shock while preparing for the surgery.

Normally, it would be best in such a situation to perform surgery as quickly as possible. However, the patient’s family hadn’t arrived yet! In China, as long as there wasn’t a patient’s family member’s official signature of approval on the surgery paperwork, no doctor, not even Superintendent Ouyang, would dare to start the surgery! This was because the hospital wouldn’t get in trouble for the patient’s death, but the hospital might get into trouble if the patient died after surgery! The majority of reasonable people would be really grateful to the hospital and doctors, but there were always certain special people who would want to start a medical lawsuit instead!

And even if the patient was saved after the surgery, there were also some ingrates who would claim that they hadn’t consented to the surgery for the family member, and thus refuse to pay the hospital’s medical fees! Thus, actual emergency treatment was quite different from how it really was supposed to be! Quite often, intern doctors and nurses who had just recently graduated wouldn’t be accustomed to this!

Still, things were much simpler for Old Yang. He was a widower with no children or relatives at all. In such a scenario, usually the workplace would be contacted first, and if there was no set workplace, only then could the hospital directly decide whether or not to perform surgery! China’s medical system was indeed full of problems, but at the very least, the hospital could decide on the surgery if there were no family members to contact! The hospital could make the decision to perform surgery even if it knew it wasn’t likely to get paid! But, for any patient who had family that could be contacted, the hospital would have to be extra careful about starting a surgery!

These types of severe traumatic injuries would be very difficult to deal with. Sometimes, maybe the patient would appear alright on the surface, but the internal organs might have been shattered by the impact! To give an example, if the doctor needed to stick the liver with a needle, or remove some tissue with tissue forceps, that wouldn’t be a big deal at all. The liver could automatically heal itself from such small injuries. However, the liver would be really afraid of such direct and powerful impacts. The liver was really fragile, so it would shatter easily. To give an analogy, it would be like squeezing instant noodles to pieces through a plastic bag, with the plastic bag representing the liver’s membrane. This was probably why the liver was hidden inside the ribcage. Back when humans were evolving, it was likely that the ancient humans who didn’t have their liver protected by the ribcage wouldn’t even have the chance to spread their genes!

Old Yang’s boss was a small-time contractor. The contractor was so scared after receiving the phone call from the police that he literally peed his pants! Making money and surviving weren’t easy. The contractor was really scared about the accident with more than 10 deaths. Even though the contractor wouldn’t be held responsible for this accident at all when the government started to assign blame, this contractor was the cowardly type who decided that he needed to immediately get out of the contracted street cleaning business.

After it was confirmed that Old Yang had no family members, an obviously wealthy woman and a man with a strong aura arrived in the emergency department right before the surgery on Old Yang was about to begin.

The wealthy woman immediately had a breakdown when she saw her daughter in such a bloody condition on the examination table. “Yaya! Yaya! It’s mom! What happened to you, Yaya!? Mom has done wrong by you!” As the woman cried and shouted, she tried to pounce on her daughter!

“Stop! Her life is in a great deal of danger right now. She needs immediate surgery. You should sign the surgery paperwork!” The operating room head nurse immediately stood in front of the mother and blocked her. The teenaged girl’s rib bones had already been shattered into tiny pieces. If her mother recklessly pounced onto the girl and pressured the shattered bones, then the shattered bones would likely pierce into the heart and lungs, which would directly kill the teenaged girl! There would be no need for surgery then!

The man with the strong aura ignored the woman. He directly headed for Superintendent Ouyang. This man was the teenaged girl’s uncle, not father. This uncle was the vice president of the largest nationally owned company in Chasu City, so he had quite a high status. This nationally owned company was quite large and powerful. Its president would have equal status to Chasu City’s city leader.

“Superintendent Ouyang, this girl is my niece. Sigh! I’ll really be troubling you!” The vice president had a really humble attitude. Right now, his niece’s life was at stake. He didn’t dare to act arrogantly here.

“Rest assured, Vice President Chen. We’ll do our very best. You should immediately sign the paperwork as time is of the essence.” Superintendent Ouyang knew who he was, and was quite polite to him as well!

“Alright.” Vice President Chen pulled his sister away to go and sign the surgery paperwork. Old Yang had been pushed out of the emergency department and moved to an operating room by now. General surgery Director Zhao Quanping and the others for Old Yang’s surgery were also preparing to go to the operating room. Vice President Chen noticed this, and spoke up. “Superintendent Ouyang, Director Zhao isn’t the one who will perform surgery for my niece?”

“Doctor Zhang will perform surgery for this girl! Rest assured, Doctor Zhang is really amazing.” Superintendent Ouyang pointed at Zhang Fan.

As Vice President Chen was a leader from a powerful company, he had plenty of power and influence himself. Before he arrived at the hospital, he had long since learned that there were only two injured patients, who were his niece as well as a street cleaner. When Vice President Chen had entered the emergency department, he had taken a glance at both patients. He saw that Old Yang had a very bloody metal wheelbarrow handle stuck in his stomach. Meanwhile, he saw that his niece had lots of tree branches stuck in her stomach! From his layman’s point of view, he felt that Old Yang’s condition seemed to be obviously more severe than his niece’s condition!

The tree branches still had young leaves attached to them. The teenaged girl’s face was still covered with glass shards and blood! This wasn’t because the doctors didn’t want to clean her up, but rather that they didn’t have the time to do so. They were focusing first and foremost on saving her life, so who would have the time to care about the glass shards on her face?

General surgery Director Zhao Quanping was far more famous among Chasu City’s ordinary citizens compared to Zhang Fan. The wealthy woman didn’t recognize Director Zhao Quanping like her brother had, but she did know who Zhao Quanping was. In any small city, a famous doctor would be able to conquer a great share of the market. Anyone who was a friend or relative of a famous doctor would be able to brag about it!

The rich woman was also a layman who felt that Old Yang’s condition was more severe than her daughter’s. Additionally, she knew that her older brother was quite powerful. She had originally been fully focused on her daughter, but now she turned around to look at Zhang Fan, the doctor assigned to her daughter’s surgery. She saw that Zhang Fan was really young, and that he seemed only a few years older than her daughter.

The rich woman felt as if her mind had been struck by lightning! Her world was collapsing! Was someone so young really capable of performing surgery? She didn’t say anything to Zhang Fan, but she immediately turned around and kneeled in front of Superintendent Ouyang. “Superintendent, Superintendent! I’m begging you! Save my daughter Yaya! Superintendent! I’m begging you! Let Director Zhao perform surgery on my Yaya! She’s only a teenager!”

This truly made Superintendent Ouyang feel awkward. She wouldn’t care at all about patients’ family members who argued, got angry, or even tried to threaten her, as Superintendent Ouyang was famous for a steely temperament. She was willing to take a hard-nosed approach with anyone who dared to act in such a manner with her. However, Superintendent Ouyang was still a woman. When she saw another woman crying so pitifully in front of her, Superintendent Ouyang felt pity as well. But even if she pitied the mother, it wasn’t like Superintendent Ouyang could directly tell her that “Zhang Fan is the best doctor in our hospital”, because she still needed to save face for the other directors.

“Rest assured and sign the surgery paperwork. Time is of the essence here. The faster that we get the surgery started, the better the chance for your daughter to survive. Doctor Zhang really is quite amazing!” It was quite rare for Superintendent Ouyang to patiently explain things to a patient’s family member, but she did her best to do so this time.

“Superintendent! I’m begging you! Let me kowtow to you!” The rich mother kowtowed several times, slamming her head directly into the hard cement floor of the emergency department! Her head started bleeding from how hard she was kowtowing! Vice President Chen felt pained in his heart from watching this. He had a really good relationship with his younger sister and niece. Meanwhile, that street cleaner was a total stranger to him, someone he wouldn’t care about at all!

“Superintendent Ouyang, please help us out. Truly, please help us.” Vice President Chen had a really anxious expression! He was still speaking very nicely as of now. If Superintendent Ouyang didn’t agree, he would then immediately try and find connections who might be able to pressure Superintendent Ouyang! This was because doctors, especially highly skilled doctors, would also be a precious resource. As Vice President Chen was rich and powerful, of course he would try and fight for such a precious resource for his niece’s sake!

Zhang Fan wasn’t bothered by the patient’s family members’ concerns at all. Zhang Fan didn’t feel that it was his fault for being such a young doctor. Besides, everyone would have parents. He understood their pain and worries. But, even though Old Yang’s condition appeared more dangerous to the laymen family members, Zhang Fan knew that the teenaged girl’s condition was actually even more severe than Old Yang’s condition. That was why Zhang Fan had asked that Director Zhao be the primary surgeon on Old Yang, while Zhang Fan would personally perform surgery on the teenaged girl.

Superintendent Ouyang didn’t know any of this, as she wasn’t a surgical specialist. However, she understood Zhang Fan’s skills and character. She knew that Zhang Fan wasn’t the type who would choose the easier surgery for himself, which meant that he definitely had his own plan already on how to perform this surgery. Superintendent Ouyang didn’t want to change Zhang Fan’s surgery plan!

“Superintendent Ouyang, please let Director Zhao perform surgery on my niece. This is our right as family members to choose the doctor. We’ll pay all the necessary medical fees, no matter the cost. And no matter what the result is, the hospital won’t be responsible.” Vice President Chen was becoming slightly angry when he saw Superintendent Ouyang’s hesitation. He was someone with high status, so he was accustomed to getting what he wanted. He started using a slightly tougher approach!

“Alright!” Superintendent Ouyang could no longer be concerned with Zhang Fan’s surgery plan now. The hospital would also have to respect the patient’s family’s decision!

“Zhang Fan! Hurry and go perform surgery for the older patient! This surgery will be given to Director Zhao!” Superintendent Ouyang told Zhang Fan.

“Oh!” Zhang Fan wanted to say something at this time, but then the rich mother turned around and started kowtowing to Zhang Fan! Although the rich mother didn’t say anything, her intention was obvious. ‘Please spare my daughter!’

Zhang Fan felt truly helpless as he watched the teenaged girl’s mother whose face was now also covered in blood. He felt that this mother might be capable of something even more ridiculous if he insisted on performing surgery for the teenaged girl.

“Sigh!” Zhang Fan felt really helpless, but there really wasn’t anything that he could do. The patient’s family members were using both soft and hard approach! Zhang Fan felt that the only thing he could do was to finish Old Yang’s surgery as quickly as possible so that he could go and help out Director Zhao and the others!

The patient hadn’t done anything wrong at all here. Zhang Fan could understand, no matter what the patient’s family members were like. A life was at stake here. It wasn’t wrong for the patient’s family members to value her life. Besides, any doctor who didn’t value life wouldn’t be worthy of being called a doctor!

Zhang Fan thus exited the emergency department and caught up to Director Zhao.

“Director Zhao, we’re going to have to trade surgeries. The patient’s family members don’t want me performing surgery on her!” Zhang Fan told him.

“Sigh! Ridiculous! They’re putting her life in danger!” Director Zhao also knew that such a thing wasn’t something that the doctors could decide. The doctors would only be able to do their best on the surgeries that they were assigned to. There was no other way.