Chapter 162: [162] Teachers provide guidance over the phone
“Are you sure it’s tension pneumothorax?” Doctor Yang had to start with a big question mark because a trainee was diagnosing the patient.
“The patient has distension on the right side of the chest and the intercostal space has enlarged; there is no X-ray or CT scanner available for examination. So, Doctor Yang, let me have you first listen to the patient’s breathing amplitude.”
The calmness of the woman’s voice on the other end was beyond the expectation of all the teachers present!
Doctor Kim swallowed his shock: Was this female trainee, who had been the talk of the hospital these past few days, really this impressive?
Doctor Lin raised an eyebrow: As expected.
As for Doctor Yang, he was taken aback.
Fu Xinheng narrowed his eyes as the peculiar expressions of Cao Yong and the others from last night reappeared in his mind.
Over the phone came the sound of the patient’s breathing: inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. The breathing was getting shallower, the amplitude decreasing significantly and it became more and more difficult, as if on the verge of suffocation.
“I’m placing my fingers over the affected area on the chest to perform percussion; Teacher Yang, listen and tell me if it sounds tympanic,” said Xie Wanying. She held the phone close to the patient’s chest with one hand, while with the other, three fingers came together to lightly tap the affected area.
A group of teachers pricked up their ears, listening intently to every single sound from the phone as it concerned the patient’s life.
Sounds like thump—, thump— came through.
“I’m placing the stethoscope on the patient’s chest. Let’s see, Teacher Yang, if you can hear the breath sounds on the patient’s healthy side, and then compare it to the affected side.” Next, Xie Wanying took out the stethoscope from the emergency kit and put the diaphragm under the patient’s left clavicle.
Nothing could be heard, not at all. This further emphasized how crucial the development of future communications is for the advancement of medicine.
However, it didn’t matter; based on the percussion sounds just now, the clinical teachers could preliminarily confirm that Xie Wanying’s diagnosis was correct.
“It’s tension pneumothorax, we need to decompress urgently!” Doctor Kim said to Doctor Yang.
She’s just a trainee. How can we let a trainee do it? Doctor Yang anxiously inquired, shouting into the phone, “How far away are you from the hospital now?”
The obvious first choice was to send the patient back to the hospital for treatment!
The two police officers driving replied, “It will take at least another thirty minutes.”
“Are you certain you can make it in thirty minutes?” Doctor Yang asked.
The police officers couldn’t guarantee it because the road conditions tonight were terrible. It was clear that it might take the patient much longer than thirty minutes to reach the hospital.
“We won’t make it in time, Doctor Yang,” Doctor Kim said urgently.
The patient’s breathing was on the brink; they needed to decompress immediately, or his heart would stop.
“What kind of heart disease does he have?” Doctor Yang also became impatient, his voice turning hoarse as he shouted.
The patient had been unable to speak from the start. Xie Wanying had no choice but to listen to the patient with the stethoscope herself and use her special ability to make a judgment. After a pause with no response from her, the clinical teachers were unclear what was happening. Doctor Kim shouted, “Zhao Zhaowei!”
Zhao Zhaowei, whose eyelids were twitching with nervousness, answered upon hearing the teacher’s voice: “Doctor Kim, I’m here.”
“What heart disease does he have?” Doctor Kim asked.
“Yingying and I don’t know. He can’t speak. Yingying is listening to his heart with the stethoscope,” Zhao Zhaowei stuttered.
Two students, just from the tone and content of their replies, left two completely different impressions on the teachers.
“Are they from the same class?” Doctor Yang questioned.
Doctor Kim and Doctor Lin nodded. That much was indisputable.
Doctor Yang remembered Yue Wentong, who he had gone into surgery with last night, who seemed to be from the same class; a big difference within the same class. That’s right, Yue Wentong hadn’t come to work with the teachers today, he had taken the day off for some family matters.