Chapter 115: Chapter 0112: Patients with Neck Pain

Just a few days, and Dean Xia and Director Han’s efficiency was sky high.

If they weren’t efficient, I guess Sanbo Hospital with its vast premise would now be nurturing sparrows.

It’s not that it hasn’t happened before. When it first opened, you could hardly see any patients around. When you mentioned Sanbo, there were more doctors than patients, and more sparrows than doctors.

I followed Director Han to the fifth floor to see the operating rooms. A considerable amount was invested in these operating rooms. There were three multifunctional operating rooms, all laminar flow, one of which was a hundred-level laminar flow.

They had planned to develop a same-day surgery center before, but the environment wasn’t mature enough. This ambitious plan was aborted after only a few months.

This time, Dean Xia might have visited somewhere that opened his mind. I heard he deliberated on this for several days and nights. Finally, he discussed it with a few deputy deans and Director Han. They decided to adopt the same-day surgery model to set up a comprehensive orthopedic department. Although the environment was not mature, they could be flexible. They wouldn’t strive for discharge within 24 hours, but would aim to speed up recovery and shorten hospital stays. Instead of the two weeks others take, we aim for one week.

The operating rooms were fully equipped, with arthroscopes, foraminoscopes, microscopes, etc., all properly prepared. These were picked from old ones in the existing operating rooms. According to Director Han, when opening a new department, we should not affect the existing departments. The old ones could still be used.

Everyone borrowed a cart from logistics and moved everything at once. Zhang Lin brought a bag of facial cleanser. Little Five had many miscellaneous items. Yang Ping didn’t have much, so Little Five helped him.

Song Zimo also used a cart to transport his and Tang Fei’s belongings, which included dozens of books, each fairly heavy.

The department was not officially opened yet, so no one had much to do.

Every day at work involved reading some books, chatting in the doctor’s office when bored. Zhang Lin brought a Go set. On a whim, Yang Ping and Song Zimo decided to have some matches.

But Yang Ping’s hand was not convenient to use, how could he play? Blind Go! They played back to back, depending on memory to move pieces, with Little Five and Zhang Lin helping to maneuver the pieces.

There was no other way, two geniuses clashing. The ordinary people could only stare. They could astonishingly finish a game of blind Go from start to end. This memory, can only be described with a vulgar phrase, bloody awesome!

Song Zimo had met blind chess masters in his time, but blind Go masters were a new breed. Many would forget halfway through the game, but Yang Ping could play through an entire game with him.

He was officially defeated! He absolutely had to admit it!

He got steamrolled in surgery, and then got steamrolled in chess. After playing chess for more than ten days, Song Zimo got steamrolled for more than ten days.

During these days, Xiao Su brought meals to the department every day, feeding Yang Ping during mealtime; she took his clothes home to wash every day, bringing them back after drying them.

About ten days later, his hand healed. The superficial injury recovered quickly and didn’t leave any traces.

After yearning and waiting for what seemed an eternity, the comprehensive orthopedics finally opened. After the simple ceremony on the first day, they started seeing patients.

Director Han and Director Tian saw patients in the specialist outpatient clinic, while Yang Ping and Song Zimo saw patients in the general outpatient clinic.

Not too bad, they saw several patients within the first hour. Director Han took a patient with persistent wobbly knees. He had an MRI done and a surgery at another hospital, but it was ineffective.

He came to Sanbo this time because the introduction on the wall of the clinic hall mentioned that complex orthopedic cases are treated in the comprehensive orthopedics department. Well, he decided to register with this department.

Another patient arrived: a man in his 30s, carrying a briefcase, pulling a suitcase, looking rushed. With the small number of patients, he didn’t even have to queue.

He put down his suitcase, went to the registration desk to register, and had his blood pressure measured. He said he felt somewhat feverish and had his temperature taken.

“Doctor, my neck and back hurt. I have cervical spondylosis and have had X-rays, CT, and MRI scans done. I visited a local doctor two days ago and took some medicine and received therapy, but it didn’t work. My condition worsened this morning, and it’s unbearable!”

The patient rubbed his neck and pointed at the painful part.

Yang Ping read his patient slip: Blood pressure: 152/102mmHg; Temperature: 38.0°C,.

“Your blood pressure is a bit high. Has that been the case normally?” Yang Ping asked.

The patient replied, “Sometimes it is. I haven’t paid much attention to it since I don’t feel unwell, so I’ve never taken medication for it. My neck is making me feel worse. My cervical spondylosis is more severe this time. Please give me some painkillers. I’ve to catch a flight to Beijing for a meeting.”

“Your temperature is slightly raised, too!” said Yang Ping.

The patient touched his forehead: “It was normal yesterday, only rose today.”

“Do you feel discomfort in your chest or abdomen?”

“No issues with my chest. I felt a little nauseous this morning and there’s a slight bloating pain in the abdomen, very slight. I have chronic gastritis.”

Yang Ping inquired about the history of his disease. The neck and shoulder pain had persisted for three days.

During the physical examination, he felt the neck and shoulder muscles, which showed no clear spasms, and the several special tests for cervical spondylosis were all negative.

So he took the stethoscope to listen to his lungs and heart: “There seems to be a problem with your heart. Let me do an electrocardiogram for you.”

He noticed weakened heart sounds in the apex area, galloping rhythm of the fourth heart sound, friction sound in the pericardium, and arrhythmia. Highly suspected of myocardial infarction, the pain radiated to the neck.

The procedure for handling this type of patient is: Complete an electrocardiogram within ten minutes, call the Chest Pain Center, and send the patient there.

Yang Ping immediately asked the nurse for help and brought in the electrocardiogram machine.

The patient was quite cooperative, he laid down, and Yang Ping undid his clothing to perform an electrocardiogram.

“The ST segment is elevated, acute myocardial infarction, needs immediate treatment!” The EKG supported his examination, Yang Ping realized that this patient was extremely dangerous, and could drop dead at any moment.

“You suspect I have heart problems? I have medical checks every year, my heart has never had any issues, doctor, aren’t you diagnosing too recklessly?” The patient buttoned his clothes while taking a call.

“Don’t get upset, listen to me–” Yang Ping tried his best not to antagonize him.

“I don’t have time to debate with you, I have to catch a flight, my ride is here.”

The nurse’s wheelchair was brought, but the patient hurriedly ran off.

Yang Ping ran after him but the man ran too fast and disappeared from sight.

“What happened?”

Song Zimo came out the consulting room, thinking that Yang Ping and the patient had a physical conflict.

Yang Ping stood at the entrance and said lightly: “This patient is highly suspected of having acute myocardial infarction, the pain is radiating to the neck, the infarction area is expanding, he could drop dead at any time, I just carried out an electrocardiogram on him, and he ran away.”

It wasn’t highly suspected, but confirmed. The examination training that Yang Ping went through in the system space gave him a recognition ability that was sharper than ordinary people’s.

High blood pressure, and there being atherosclerosis in the coronary artery as the foundation.

Body temperature at 38 degrees, indicating that the infarction has appeared for 24-48 hours, and the heat from the necrotic material being absorbed.

Nausea, upper abdominal distension, although mild, is caused by necrotic myocardial or tissue perfusion insufficiency stimulation to the vagus nerve.

“Quickly tell Director Han, find a way.” Yang Ping hurried to Director Han’s consultation room.

Director Han was seeing a patient.

“Director, can I interrupt for a bit? It’s quite urgent.” Yang Ping said.

Director Han immediately stopped his examination of the patient, when a doctor said it was urgent, it meant a life was at stake.

“Just now there was a patient with cervical pain, came to me for consultation under the impression of cervical spondylosis. When I examined him, I highly suspected that it was acute myocardial infarction – no, it was confirmed, definitely confirmed, the infarction area is expanding, he could be in danger at any time, he didn’t believe me and ran off on his own.”

Yang Ping showed the electrocardiogram to Director Han.

“He ran off? Excuse me, we have an emergency rescue, could you please wait a moment.” Director Han explained to the patient he was seeing.

“No problem, doctor, go ahead, I am not in a hurry.” The patient was understanding.

“Are you sure this patient is suffering from acute myocardial infarction?” Orthopedics’ internal medicine diagnosis ability has always been a weak point, but for Yang Ping, he completely believed in him, he confirmed again just to be certain.

“I am sure, one hundred percent, this is his electrocardiogram, the ST segment is elevated, he needs immediate treatment to restore myocardial blood supply, otherwise he could die at any time!” Yang Ping’s tone was calm and clear.

Director Han immediately shouted: “Everybody come in!”

Director Tian and Song Zimo among others came in.

“We will call the contact number left by the patient, at the same time ask the security department to pull up the surveillance video and find out where the patient went to, fast!”

“We will go to the security center, Song Zimo will call the patient’s phone.” Director Han arranged.

Director Han and Yang Ping rushed towards the security department, the security department had a surveillance room, every surveillance footage of the entire hospital was there.

Seeing Director Han in such hurry, the head of the security team asked: “What happened, Director Han?”

“There is a patient, who could drop dead at any time, and he ran away. Quickly, pull up the video surveillance of the entrance of the comprehensive orthopedics department, our building, building number eight.”

“Quick! Building number eight entrance!” The security guard in charge of the surveillance started pulling up the video.

About ten minutes earlier, the video was rewound to about ten minutes ago.

“That’s him!”

“Freeze that, track him!”

“Surveillance shows the man crossed the garden, took the shortcut, went out from the east gate, got on a vehicle that was waiting for him. The license plate, can you see the license plate?” the head of the security team pointed at the surveillance and said.

Thankfully, the position where he got on the vehicle, at the hospital’s east gate, was still in the range of the hospital’s surveillance.

“Zoom in, note down the license plate number!”

Director Han’s phone rang, it was Song Zimo.

“The call went through but he didn’t answer, I called several times, he didn’t answer.”