Chương 32: 32 - ACS Unit

After being in the ACS for a few months, Li Yun had a good understanding of everyone in the department.

Chief Lim, Doctor Zuo and Doctor Mei usually took the first shift while Chief Gao and Doctor Hao took the second shift. They rotated for the 3rd and weekend shifts.

Chief Lim and Gao were often in charge of performing the complex surgeries while teaching the twenty-plus residents. It was not an easy task, the first year residents barely knew anything and the third year residents could only handle the four most basic surgeries. For everything else, they still had to consult with the senior doctors.

The residents were also divided into three shifts, which were rotated on a weekly basis.

During the first shift, it was usual to see appendectomy, cholecystectomy, colectomy, and hernia repair. These were the type of surgeries residents must learn and will learn throughout their residency. For most surgeries, Doctor Zuo and Mei were the lead surgeons, taking a third year resident as an assistant and whoever arrived first to the scene as 2nd assistant. Chief Lim supervised the surgery while explaining the procedures to the residents.

The 2nd shifts were also similar to the morning shift, but twice as busy, and with more trauma and burn patients. Chief Guo specialized in trauma and burn care while Doctor Hao was a cardiovascular surgeon.

With the schedule managed efficiently, the majority of the residents in ACS were able to gather surgical experiences.

Even the first year residents were given opportunities, who often rushed into the ER at the sound of their pager beeping. The second and third floor year residents knew better. There will always be patients coming into the ER, no need to compete for positions.

An Luchang and Mi Xuan were usually the first to arrive. The doctors liked them as second assistance as they both seemed to have an encyclopedic knowledge of many surgeries. It was like having Seri and Alixa in the room.

Li Yun read a lot, but his recall ability was much slower. If his memory palace of medical knowledge was located a floor below, their medical knowledge was stored in front of them. There was no way he could compete.

Despite that, Li Yun was learning quickly how to navigate the ER by watching Chief Gao.

When a patient came in with multiple knife wounds and part of his intestine was exposed, it was not easy for anyone to deal with, even Chief Resident Han would step aside and call for Chief Gao. In the meanwhile, Li Yun was already stabilizing the patient.

The sound of a heart monitoring device constantly beeping as the patient went into cardiac arrest was enough to send everyone on edge. Everyone knew that person had 30 seconds left to live.

It was not an easy situation to be in. In many cases, being a good doctor was not enough to save a dying patient.

Chief Gao arrived at the scene, and watched as Li Yun continued to resuscitate the patient. The machine gave out an eerie sound of death. Chief Gao took over with the defibrillators.

"Clear!" Chief Gao called out.

Everyone backed away. The shock flowed through the patient, but no response.

"Clear!"

Another round of shockwave flowed through, shaking the lifeless body, but still no response. After the third time, the heart machine bottomed out with a resolute and continuous beep.

Chief Gao announced the time of death and walked back to his office.

It was not easy after that. A simple loss of life was enough to drain the morale of the entire department. Even Li Yun was shaken, and took a short break to reset.

There was a strange quiet atmosphere in the room. It wasn't the complete silence like the void in space, but the type of silence that amplified small sounds and whispers. Small chatter of the nurses discussing the patients' charts and tapping sound of an impatient patient could be heard, making everyone more annoyed than usual. Everyone continued to work as though nothing had happened, but they subconsciously whispered and lowered their voice.

"Why is everyone whispering!?" Chief Gao rushed out of the room. "Prepare the gurney, we have a patient coming in!"

The silence broke, and the ER erupted into another cycle of chaos.

Chief Gao prepared new gloves and rushed out. As he passed by the waiting room, he noticed that it was unusually calm. He looked ahead, and saw two ambulances and cursed.

"Why didn't the second ambulance call ahead!?" Chief Gao cried out.

"They had communication issues," responded Nurse Yuen. "I've already contacted Doctor Hao to handle it."

Chief Gao nodded and saw Li Yun nearby.

"Doctor Li, you assist Doctor Hao," Chief Gao directed.

Li Yun assisted the second patient onto the gurney and pushed it into the ER. A senior doctor looked at the patient. The man had fallen from the third floor while cleaning the windows. A tree had slightly broken the fall, but he was unconscious. The doctor ordered the CT scans after a quick physical.

At that moment, the patient reacted violently and coughed up blood. He had regained consciousness, but was coughing uncontrollably.

"He's going to choke on his own blood!" Doctor Hao cried out as he rushed toward the patient.

Just as he was approaching, Li Yun held the patient's face toward the floor and slammed his hand repeatedly on the back. After five strong blows, the man coughed up another pool of blood onto the linoleum floor.

Doctor Hao immediately cut away the shirt and exposed as much of the patient as possible to see any possible signs of injury.

"No visible signs of head injury, but a lot of bruising and potential internal bleeding. We're going to need lots of blood transfusions. We better operate on him quickly," Doctor Hao directed the nurse to prepare the room, and then looked at Li Yun. "Ever done an open surgery?"

Li Yun studied Doctor Hao for a moment.

He was the first person Doctor Zhang hired who wasn't in the military. Doctor Hao specialized in cardiovascular surgery in a rural hospital in the south. He had a funny accent and had strong tobacco and musky smell. Most nurses stayed as far away from him as possible. However, the man was a very skilled surgeon.

If there was a person Li Yun wanted to see in action, it was Doctor Hao.

Li Yun nodded in response to Doctor's Hao question.

"All right, let's operate!"

Li Yun scrubbed in as assistance while Mi Xuan scrubbed in as third as she was the first to arrive. In most instances, they would wait for someone more experienced to assist, but Doctor Hao decided to bring Li Yun along. Why? Because Li Yun lacked hesitations in his eyes.

During surgery, Doctor Hao opened up the abdomen, removed the excess blood, and checked for the source of the bleeding. There were multiple organs affected, and Doctor Hao quickly sewed up one, while Li Yun used the suction and arterial forceps to control the bleeding.

"Damn, this kid is good," Doctor Hao thought.