Chapter 468: The Disobedient Patient

The scene shifts to the next afternoon.

The camera is at the entrance of the Intensive Care Unit, where the Family Member is waiting for the Patient to be wheeled out.

The doctor from the Intensive Care Unit gives a brief explanation to the family, and a bed is pushed out; the Patient on the bed has a disposable sterile Dressing on their neck, looking quite spirited and full of vitality, with none of the near-death appearance from the Emergency Rescue yesterday.

Seeing their family, the Patient feels very embarrassed and turns their body slightly, trying to avoid the blade-like gazes of their family members.

"Slap—"

A slap lands on the Patient's face; it is a heavy blow, twisting the Patient's mouth and sending spittle flying.

This startles both the Intensive Care Unit and Surgery doctors.

Some of the audience in front of the screen are confused, while others smile knowingly.

"Drink, drink, drink your mother&*￥#&..." A string of profanities is hurled at the Patient, scolding them thoroughly.

But the Patient does not talk back, covering their face with one hand while offering a fawning, sheepish smile.

They press their hand against the Dressing on their neck and make a strange sound, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to."

The voice is slightly odd, but the doctors in front of the screen all know this is the sound of air leaking after a Tracheotomy.

The Family Member scolds them some more, but when they reach out to hit them again, they are pulled away by a doctor.

The camera follows the Patient back to the Surgery department, but it does not follow them inside immediately, pausing for a moment.

In the Review Room.

Guangtou Zhuchiren smiles and says, "Professor Shen, how are cases like a patient leaving the hospital without permission during their stay and getting into trouble usually handled?"

Professor Shen says helplessly, "There's no way around it; there are all sorts of ways to handle it, it mainly depends on whether the patient's family can accept it."

"It's hard to assign responsibility for this kind of thing, right?" Guangtou Zhuchiren asks.

Professor Shen pauses to collect their thoughts, then explains in detail, "As long as an inpatient isn't in critical condition and is able to walk around, there's always a possibility they might go out. Doctors and Nurses can't really do much to stop them; for example, being locked in a ward only happened during those years when the pandemic was raging."

"Back then, we could explain it to the patients and their families, and everyone could cooperate. Now, with the world outside peaceful and prosperous, we can't tell the patients that. It's fine if nothing happens, but once something does, there's no way to explain it."

To put it mildly, this is a lack of hospital regulations; to put it strongly, insisting on keeping a patient in the ward could be considered illegal detention."

Guangtou Zhuchiren laughs, "That's a bit much, isn't it?"

"There are only so many doctors and nurses; no one has the energy to watch every single patient. We can't exactly install a chip tracker upon admission to lock down where every patient is."

"Are patients really that disobedient? They're all here to get treated..." one guest asks.

Mao Mao reveals a strange smile and interjects, "When I was an intern, I encountered a patient, Myocardial Infarction, a very severe kind, who had to stay in bed; even the slightest movement would cause ischemic pain in the precordial area. After 3 days of medication, they were doing a little better, when suddenly the monitor at the Nurses' Station went off."

"The Nurses' Station alarm?" a guest asks, looking somewhat bewildered.

Mao Mao briefly explains that the Cardiac Monitor for patients is displayed at the Nurses' Station, then says, "We rushed to check the situation; the doctor was so anxious they didn't even put on shoes and ran over barefoot. As it turned out..."

"As it turned out what? Did the patient's condition worsen, and you had to perform Emergency Rescue?"

"Did the patient get out of bed without permission?"

"Did the patient get into an argument with someone?"

The other guests ask one after another, but Mao Mao just smiles and says nothing.

Only Professor Shen smiles slightly; based on Mao Mao's expression, they vaguely guess what happened.

"The patient was doing that thing... and got it all over the bed. The alarm went off because they were too excited, which triggered the Myocardial Infarction." Mao Mao omits the sensitive words, but everyone knows what they mean.

"That's possible too!"

"Do they not want to live anymore!!"

"Are they okay in the end?"

"Professor Shen has probably encountered many similar situations; I've spent little time in Clinical work and only encountered this once." Mao Mao adjusts their glasses and says with a smile, "But as far as I know, there should be quite a few patients who sneak out in the middle of the night to drink."

"Mm." Professor Shen nods, "I once encountered a patient with Liver Cirrhosis and massive ascites; their navel was even protruding from the body surface due to abdominal pressure."

"Every night after lights out, the patient would sneakily drink about 1 jin of white liquor; no matter how we tried to persuade them, they wouldn't listen."

The guests don't understand clinical medicine, but they are very interested in all kinds of gossip, especially these two examples mentioned by Professor Shen and Mao Mao.

They chat away, diluting the bloody intensity of Ji Xiang's mosaic-covered hands from earlier.

Fan Dao clearly leaves enough time here for the guests to gossip, using interesting topics to wash away the recent bloodiness.

After a full ten minutes or so, the scene shifts, and the camera enters the ward.

The Patient sits at the head of the bed, leaning against the bed rail, with an expression of wanting to laugh but holding it back.

Fan Dao's assistant walks over with a microphone, feeling a bit timid; after all, they witnessed the Patient start spitting out pink, foamy liquid from their mouth and nose after violent vomiting, yet now they are sitting perfectly fine in front of them.

The contrast leaves Fan Dao's assistant feeling at a loss.

"Is your physical condition up for an interview?" Fan Dao's assistant asks.

The Patient raises a hand and uses their good hand to cover the Dressing, "No problem, my body is perfectly fine."

As they speak, they let go and use one hand to thump their chest to show their health.

It makes a thumping sound; the Patient looks very healthy, with no problems at all.

Seeing that they are fine, Fan Dao's assistant thinks they could probably run out of the hospital and drink another half jin right now, so they relax and begin the interview.

The Patient is a bit embarrassed, but they have a talkative personality, and as they speak, they become fluent and increasingly excited.

"I didn't know I'd run into this kind of thing; it's just that my hand was injured, and being cooped up in the hospital is truly unbearable, so I snuck out to have a few drinks."

"Soon after drinking, I felt nauseous and started vomiting. At that time, I thought it must have been the Anesthesia from the surgery; my alcohol tolerance wasn't this bad before."

"But as I kept vomiting, I felt something wasn't right; my whole body was weak, and even standing was difficult. I wanted to call 120 for Emergency Rescue, but I didn't dare, thinking that if I finished vomiting, I could drag myself back to the hospital to find a doctor."

"Right at that moment, I suddenly blacked out. You know, just like that!"

The Patient makes an exaggerated gesture.

"One second my stomach was churning, and the next second it was like someone was strangling my throat; in the blink of an eye, I was completely unconscious."

"When I woke up, I realized I was lying in the hospital; I was so scared then, afraid that my family would find out and scold me to death."

Seeing the Patient vividly recount the process of falling ill, Fan Dao's assistant thinks in a daze that if they hadn't been following them the whole time, who would have guessed that this person had one foot in the gates of hell last night.

(End of chapter)