Chapter 63: Emergency Care for Trauma 3
It seemed like the brake pads on the tricycle had failed.
An elderly person walking up ahead couldn’t dodge in time, and the tricycle struck them head-on. The old man let out a cry and fell to the ground without a word. What’s more terrifying is that after hitting the old man, the tricycle crashed into a wall and tipped over on the spot. The uncle riding the tricycle fell off and lay on the ground, motionless.
The sudden accident left all onlookers stunned. Only after coming back to their senses did Xie Wanying realize that among the spectators, only she and the class monitor had actually witnessed the accident.
Without a second thought, Xie Wanying sprinted toward the injured parties.
Yue Wentong watched her retreating back run about ten meters before he remembered to start moving his feet.
“Ah, ah, ah!” The elderly man was panting heavily in pain, wailing and crying out.
There wasn’t a single streetlight at the end of this alleyway at night, no wonder a serious accident had occurred.
Quickly pulling out a flashlight from her bag, Xie Wanying turned on the light and directed it toward the old man, as well as the uncle who lay in the distance next to the tricycle.
Yue Wentong, who had caught up, hadn’t expected her to even carry a flashlight, and a flash of surprise crossed his eyes. After all, who would think to carry a flashlight in their backpack every day?
Depending on the special ability activated within her, Xie Wanying rapidly assessed the severity of injuries for both victims.
The uncle had injured his head, while the elderly man had suffered injuries to his thigh.
If a head injury needed to be treated, it would require an electric drill to bore a hole in the skull for drainage, which she didn’t have on hand. Besides, the progression of a brain injury could be less immediate and less fatal than the current state of the old man’s thigh injury.
It was estimated that the old man’s leg injury involved a severed femoral artery.
If a thigh injury reaches a major artery, it could result in heavy bleeding. The body could swiftly lose over half its blood, leading to hemorrhagic shock and death.
The first principle of emergency treatment on the scene is not to attend to whom is more severely injured but to consider the overall situation on site and decide who requires and can receive immediate aid faster. Both factors need to be weighed.
“Treat this one first!” Xie Wanying made a decisive decision, squatting down beside the elderly man, and called out to the class monitor across from her, “All the gauze and bandages you bought, give them to me, quick!”
Yue Wentong, looking at the uncle lying motionless on the ground in the distance, felt that he seemed to be more severely injured and replied, “I’ll go check on that uncle.”
“It’s no use if you go. He’s suffering from a brain injury; it’s internal, and there’s nothing you can do. It’s not too late to move him to the hospital when others come,” Xie Wanying said. “In the next few minutes, it’s more important to save the old man.”
“How do you know?” Yue Wentong asked her.
There was no time to explain in detail. Xie Wanying snatched the plastic bag he was carrying from the store, took out the gauze and bandages, quickly stacked the gauze, then placed the bandages, opened the rest of the bandages, and prepared to use the recently purchased surgical scissors to cut them for binding.
Her series of swift and decisive actions left Yue Wentong dumbfounded. He had purchased these items to keep in the dorm for emergencies, but when it came to actually using them, he had only seen doctors do so at the hospital. He had not yet learned emergency or surgical medicine and had no understanding of how to use them.
“Is your father really a truck driver?”
Yue Wentong’s heavy voice of skepticism echoed through the night.
It seemed that doubts about her had been present from the very beginning. Like the other male students in the class, hearing about a girl joining their class, the top science student with a quiet and refined demeanor, who looked like she ought to study humanities, how could she be chosen for surgery? No one could make sense of it.