At this moment, Nurse Bai had already rushed back. “Dr. Jiang, the OR is ready for the patient. Thoracic surgery will be here soon.”
Jiang Tingxu nodded. “Move him there.”
Ni Xiaona’s father was pushed out of the ward.
Before Jiang Tingxu walked out of the door, she had stopped again. “Mrs. Ni, does Mr. Ni have a history of hypertension?”
“Y-yes. It’s quite severe. We’ve been asking Mr. Ni to stop drinking, but he never listens to us.”
Jiang Tingxu had her assumption validated—it was a hypertensive emergency that had led to the aortic dissection.
…
Mr. Ni’s sudden collapse had caught everyone off guard. The timing was cramped—just in between two interchanging shifts. Jiang Tingxu and Liao Jiayu were the only doctors on duty in the emergency department during the overnight shift. There was supposed to be another resident with them—he had caught a cold and a fever of 39 degrees. It was why he had missed his shift by taking a leave of absence.
Perhaps it was a coincidence, but the head nurses on the three rotating shifts had had their day off last night. Otherwise, the situation wouldn’t have been so overwhelming.
The doctor taking over the next shift hadn’t arrived yet. Thoracotomy was not a simple procedure, so Jiang Tingxu and Liao Jiayu had to be there in the operating room. In other words, it would mean that there would be no doctors on-call in the emergency department.
Nevertheless, a person’s life was at stake. Saving his life was a priority.
Liao Jiayu had wanted to make a call, but he realized his cell phone wasn’t with him. Now that he had reached the doorstep of the emergency operating room, he could only order the nurse beside him, “Give Director Pei a call. Have him come over as soon as possible. We’re understaffed, and we need more help. There’s no time to spare.”
“Alright, Dr. Liao. I’ll call him right away.”
Right before the door closed, Liao Jiayu had repeated his orders. “Hurry!”
…
Jiang Tingxu and Liao Jiayu had finished scrubbing and changed into their surgical gowns. At this instance, the consulting surgery from thoracic surgery had arrived. Jiang Tingxu had never thought she’d see an old acquaintance.
“Peng?”
Being the apprentices of Dr. Huang, it could be confirmed that their skills and abilities were decent. Jiang Tingxu heaved a sigh of relief.
“When was the last time we partnered, Tingxu?”
“Ahem, to be precise, it was two years ago when you graduated, my dear senior.”
Liao Jiayu was curious. “Dr. Jiang and Dr. Deng, did you guys share the same mentor in medical school?”
Jiang Tingxu nodded in acknowledgment.
Deng Peng’s smile was even brighter. “Of course we did,” he sighed, “the A&E had stolen our precious talent from our department. You cannot imagine the frustration our professor had to go through every time he was reminded of this unfortunate incident.”
Eh?
Jiang Tingxu had remained silent while Doctor Liao chuckled. “You were wrong to put it that way. Dr. Jiang is the treasure of thoracic surgery, but the feelings are mutual for us A&E folks.”
“Guys, cut it out. We have a more critical situation on hand.”
The three of them then went over to the operating table. “Pulse and B.P.?”
“Pulse of 120, B.P. 180 over 120.”
Jiang Tingxu frowned. “It’s all too high. Give him a beta-blocker. Keep his pulse at 60 to 75 BPM. Only when we have him steadied, we could stabilize and stop the dissection.”
“Yes.”
Deng Peng looked at the patient’s charts that had just come out. His brows furrowed. “The situation is not very ideal. We must open up his chest immediately.”
Jiang Tingxu was calm when she nodded. “Let’s start.”
By sterilizing and disinfecting the instruments with sterile towels, the preparations were completed.
“Chainsaw.”
“Dr. Jiang, chainsaw.”
Buzz, buzz, buzz…
The operating room was filled with the unpleasant and ear-piercing sound of a chainsaw cutting through the sternum. It was unbearable. Jiang Tingxu, who was sawing the patient’s breastbone with a chainsaw, appeared professional and confident.