Chapter 193

When Fang Ziye, Xue Tao, and the others arrived at the location, uniformed police officers had already secured the scene.

The suspect, of thin build, with an absolutely deformed left foot, sat on the elevated steps of the ground, bearing weight on his right foot, his left foot trembling slightly.

He wore a mask, dressed plainly, hair neat and capable-looking; his exact age could not be discerned.

But at this moment, his face showed no expression of pain; rather, his gaze was sinister, staring fixedly at one of them, head tilted, as if to memorize his appearance.

"Make way, make way." Xue Tao and Fang Ziye formed the stretcher team; the real 120 ambulance doctor went to negotiate with the police.

During the arrest, the patient suffered such severe fractures; out of humanitarianism, he still had to be sent to the hospital, only the handcuffs were not removed either.

After the 120 doctor completed the handover, Xue Tao stepped forward, pretending to know nothing: "Which one is the patient? How did he end up like this? You don't even need to look to know it's a fracture."

"Can the other foot still move? Any injuries elsewhere?"

Xue Tao, wearing gloves, lifted the right foot and discovered bleeding inside as well, only it had been concealed by dark socks and pants, and had not been discovered at the first time.

The middle-aged man seemed not to know pain, looking at the leader among those in uniform: "Besides bullying honest people, what else can you do? Useless running dogs."

"You bunch of cowards, eating the taxes paid by the common people, doing the work of helping people swallow bones — you all damn well deserve to die! ~"

The middle-aged man's teeth were yellow, cold eyes smiling, as if he wasn't worried at all about being caught.

Having said this, he looked again at the leader: "Shen Dong, I remember you. Rest assured, this time when I get out I'll only go after Zhang Yu; next time it'll be your turn."

"You have a son, currently in junior high; you also have a wife, who might have hyperthyroidism — I've inquired clearly about it all. Hehehe……"

Upon hearing the words 'Shen Dong', Fang Ziye instantly associated them with that boy's father he had seen in the emergency department this morning, and glanced sideways.

"Since I do this line of work, I'm not afraid of your threats! ~"

"Doctor, take him to the hospital. Later our colleagues will come to the hospital to question him."

"But your vehicle must not leave our sight." Shen Dong said to the 120 doctor.

The 120 green-clothes thought for a moment, then nodded.

The middle-aged man now showed no fear, and was quite cooperative as Xue Tao and a police officer laid him down on the stretcher.

It was at this time that Fang Ziye discovered that actually, not only was one foot fractured, the other leg also had a fracture, only not deformed as severely as the left foot.

After Fang Ziye and Xue Tao pushed the man into the vehicle, a police officer also got in, did not unlock his handcuffs, just watched from the side, eyes fixed dead on the middle-aged man.

The vehicle started quickly.

Xue Tao and Fang Ziye, the two of them, didn't dare to breathe.

After the middle-aged man's eyeballs rolled around once, he said to Fang Ziye, Xue Tao, and the others: "Both my legs were beaten fractured. Please make sure not to cut off my pants, because there are still fingerprints left on them."

"What use are fingerprints? You're a murderer fleeing after the crime, and you resisted during the arrest!" The police officer, hearing this, was slightly moved.

"Murder?"

"You police arrest people without any evidence?"

"What murder? Any evidence?"

"Recording, fingerprints, crime scene? Or what?"

"But Shen Dong, he broke both my legs when I was defenseless and unable to resist — that's a fact of malicious injury." The middle-aged man laughed wildly.

"Sorry, on all your things, you can't read any of my fingerprint information." The middle-aged man smiled sinisterly.

"But, Shen Dong, he broke both my legs when I had no defense and no power to resist — this is malicious injury, this is fact." The middle-aged man laughed very crazily.

"You're despicable! Shameless!" The police officer was clearly not old; at this moment he hated so much his teeth itched.

"What use is nobility?"

"You think that Zhang Yu and Shen Dong are noble? They're just a show for outsiders; they don't know shit. In ancient times, they'd just be hawks and running dogs."

"What do they count for?"

"Sooner or later I'll kill at least one, cripple the other — that'll be breaking even. Oh, and their families too."

"Hei hei hei hei hei……" The middle-aged man laughed, mouth corners stretching strings.

"I'm just running my mouth, and not to Shen Dong and Zhang Yu's faces — that's not illegal, right?" The middle-aged man was extremely arrogant.

The police officer clenched his fist.

"Shut up!" The 120 ambulance doctor shouted.

The middle-aged man looked at the green-clothes, didn't speak, then turned his gaze toward Xue Tao's direction. After pausing slightly, he stopped smiling and fell silent.

Then Fang Ziye noticed that after Xue Tao recognized the middle-aged man's face, he seemed slightly at a loss.

Another half minute passed before Xue Tao hesitated for a long while and said: "Director Pang, how could it be you?"

Xue Tao's words were shocking; beside him, Fang Ziye's heart instantly tightened.

It seems Xue Tao knows him.

This explains why he could enter the ICU, and why he could pretend to have a superior's momentum and tone to give orders to standardized training residents.

But?

Is he a doctor from our hospital?

What grudge does he have with Shen Dong and that Zhang Yu?

"You've mistaken the person." The middle-aged man turned his head and body away without the slightest hesitation, as if he didn't want to say anything at all.

Hearing this, Xue Tao's mouth opened and closed a few times, but in the end he didn't ask further.

Soon, the 120 arrived at Enshi Central Hospital's Emergency Department.

The process went very smoothly; after the patient arrived, he was directly pushed into the X-ray room and CT room.

The middle-aged man was also very cooperative, and struggled no more.

But later, after he was admitted to the Trauma Center's "Special Ward", he was no longer someone Xue Tao and Fang Ziye could get access to.

Because several police officers had gone in to handle interrogation procedures.

While Fang Ziye and Xue Tao, the two of them, personally completed the admission record and the inpatient comprehensive record procedures in the doctor's office.

"Tao Ge, this person — was he a colleague before?" Fang Ziye finished writing the admission record and asked Xue Tao, who was writing the comprehensive record, which was the first inpatient record.

"Mm, it's a superior. A few years ago he seemed to have resigned inexplicably, and I heard he went to prison. Don't know the details."

"When I first started working, I crossed paths with Director Pang. He was a very kind person. Don't know how he ended up like this today."

Xue Tao immediately said: "Things we shouldn't ask, let's not ask."

"But, since this Director Pang is in the profession, he'll probably be very difficult to deal with. Even getting him into the operating room would be extremely difficult."

"You know too — he just said he's divorced, left with nothing, no savings, no family, no money, no relatives."

"And when we do the informed consent talk and signature, our usual approaches won't work on him at all!"

"We're screwed! ~"

"Let Director Wu and Director Zhang have the headache then." Xue Tao scratched his head.

This was truly the case.

A scoundrel who knows the trade, and one who even made it to director — getting him to sign a surgical informed consent form, that's no easy task.

If he refuses surgical treatment and it drags on like this, he can't be transferred to prison, and can't endure prolonged interrogation.

Moreover, the longer this injury drags on, the more unfavorable it becomes for Shen Dong, who caused his injuries.

No matter how you put it, this middle-aged man, pretending to be a superior, entering the ICU and ordering a rookie resident to extubate Zhang Yu — that's suspected murder, violates medical ethics, simply besmirches the profession.

"Mm!" Fang Ziye also nodded.

"Tao Ge, just now Director Wu called you — has Zhang Yu in the ICU improved any?" Fang Ziye was more concerned about Zhang Yu's injuries.

Zhang Yu, a hero who was retaliated against — it was because of him, he did things that upset bad people. This Director Pang, on top of that, still wants to go after someone like this.

Fang Ziye had no good feelings toward someone like this.

"Don't know. Still on extracorporeal circulation for now. This isn't something we can control either." Xue Tao shook his head.

"Has Director Wu gotten free then? Isn't the situation clear already?" Fang Ziye asked again.

"Investigating the case — I'm even more of an outsider there. But I estimate neither of us will get any sleep these few days." Xue Tao said.

Before long, someone came to the doctor's office looking for Xue Tao.

"He won't talk. Doctor, how's his treatment going to work?" A uniformed officer neither Fang Ziye nor Xue Tao knew asked them straight to their faces.

"Given his fracture situation, the consideration is surgical treatment."

"Open reduction and internal fixation. Then re-examination — if results are good, he can be handed over to you?"

"Just that his current situation is troublesome. One, his hospitalization costs — currently still covered by the hospital's allowance. But national policy for hospitals is self-financing, our department is the same."

"If you can't classify him for expense-paid medical costs, then only his family can advance the medical and surgical fees?" Xue Tao laid out the situation clearly.

No choice. He's just an employee. If Zhang Mingcan doesn't give the word to let Pang Hong have surgery without payment, and no hospital leadership steps in to cover it, Xue Tao can't even arrange the surgery.

Let alone go find him for the informed consent talk and signature.

Right now, several department directors are still downstairs being questioned. Don't know when they'll be back. And without full classification, if it really was Pang Hong who induced the resident to extubate the patient, those directors can't come back either.

"This? How does your hospital view it? No emergency contingency plan?" The police officer asked.

"There is, but I don't have the authority. Need our department director. Our Director Zhang is still downstairs." Xue Tao said.

"As for treatment, we still need Pang Hong himself to sign — informed consent. If he disagrees to surgery, everything we talk about is pointless."

Informed consent is an absolute principle. Anyone, any identity, in the hospital they're all patients. If he disagrees, even if the Jade Emperor came, doctors can't operate on him!

Police can't either.

After all, what if Pang Hong isn't a suspect, later cleared, then dies on the operating table during surgery — what would the hospital do?

"Damn it!" The uniform across from them cursed, as if disdaining Xue Tao's white coat, but didn't lash out further.

Fang Ziye on the side had nothing to say.

The uniform turned and left.

Before long.

Director Zhang Mingcan, Old Director Hong Du, and Wu Guo Nan and the others finally got free from downstairs.

Because there's no need. If they really wanted to harm Zhang Yu, just shove a glob of fat into a blood vessel or cut a few vessels right on the operating table — far more direct, reasonable, and legal than going to the ICU.

Why go out of their way to provoke trouble, unless it was a crime of passion.

Although Wu Guo Nan and the others don't have absolute alibis, at the time of the incident they were all still in the operating room, only later running to the ICU to rescue — many people can prove this.

So Director Zhang and the others being kept, they could only be asked a few questions.

After the three directors returned, Xue Tao reported Pang Hong's situation to them at the first opportunity.

However, the three seemed to have already known Pang Hong's identity long ago.

"Xue Tao, know him. This is Director Pang."

"But precisely because he's Director Pang, this matter is definitely complicated."

"The person who broke his bones will absolutely not end well. Purely played by him. I have sufficient reason to suspect he deliberately provoked someone into breaking his bones."

"Because once hospitalized with fractures, Pang Hong gets absolute time to maneuver."

"Now, whether it's our hospital or other colleagues, who can persuade him onto the operating table?" Zhang Mingcan smiled bitterly.

"If we'd known it was him earlier, better to have sent him to People's Hospital or Minzu University Hospital."

Old Director Hong Du, the most senior, also Zhang Mingcan and Wu Guo Nan's teacher, spoke up hearing this: "But we can't just ignore him."

"Right now the main thing is to find an absolute emergency surgery indication, force him onto the table. But pity — he's already admitted. If he were still on the road, it'd be easier."

When Hong Du said this, Zhang Mingcan and the others looked at him.

What does "easier" mean?

You want to create an absolute surgery indication?

Hong Du glanced at them and said: "You're still young. Haven't experienced Enzhou's banditry phase. In that era, local customs were even more fierce. People wanting to stay in hospitals, play rogue and not leave, avoid calamity — there were plenty."

"All kinds of rascals were common. Hospitals wanting to send people away always needed methods."

"Now conditions are better, so there are fewer such people."

"However, those are all dealing with laymen; using similar tactics to intimidate Pang Hong won't succeed." Hong Du complained a bit.

"Then we can only wait like this, no way out?" Wu Guo Nan asked.

The whole person felt extremely aggrieved.

"There is a way." Hong Du shook his head.

"First, we need Anesthesiology to contact an Anesthesiology professor, the top professor in the province, so Pang Hong can't find any flaw in the anesthesia risk."

"Second, we need to contact the top professor in Trauma Surgery, so he also can't chew on the surgical risk!"

"Third, we need to contact the Blood Bank, make thorough preoperative preparations, so he has nothing to say and must sign that form."

"Fourth, we need to find a way to resolve the surgery cost issue for him."

"A fracture is an obvious surgical indication. With sufficient funds, and both the surgical team and anesthesia team fully staffed, if he still refuses surgery, then it's not up to him anymore."

"After all, a fracture left untreated long-term will trigger an emergency indication for amputation."

"At that time we'll directly follow the On-duty Director's procedure, proceed with the amputation procedure."

"Pang Hong, this person, wouldn't do that." Pang Hong is Hong Du Lao Zhuren's junior; it seems Hong Du still has a certain understanding of Pang Hong.

Wu Guo Nan then asked: "Director Hong, why did Pang Hong actually resign?"

"Don't know."

"Ask less." Hong Du clearly knew, but was unwilling to say.

"Zhang Mingcan, you try contacting Professor Duan Hong from Tongji Hospital first, and also contact Professor Deng Yong from Zhongnan Hospital; if they can't come, call Professor An from Provincial People's Hospital or Professor Qi from Peking Union Medical College Hospital."

"We'll definitely get one person; as long as one comes, this Pang Hong won't be able to claim the surgical risk is high anymore; these are already the best professors in the province."

"Okay! I'll try. But it'll probably be tomorrow by then, right?" Zhang Mingcan said.

Asking a professor to come do surgery — for such a trivial emergency surgery making them rush overnight — Zhang Mingcan couldn't bring himself to ask.

"The rest, we'll talk about later!"

"Wu Guo Nan, Xue Tao, and Little Fang, you all go rest first."

"Wrangling with this Pang Hong isn't something that can be cleared up in a few words. At least several more days of maneuvering." Hong Du instructed thus; clearly, in the face of such a big matter, he was the most composed.

A home with an elder is like having a treasure.

Even though Zhang Mingcan and Hong Du's ideologies differ however much, when encountering such an emergency situation, the Old Director still has to come out and take charge.

Mainly because the current situation is truly too special!

Where does Xue Tao have time to rest? He still has to prepare the Surgical Informed Consent Form, Admission Notes, and all the signature materials.

This patient is special; only Xue Tao can personally manage and communicate. Fang Ziye is a Doctor from Zhongnan Hospital; they dare not let Fang Ziye directly communicate with the patient.

If Fang Ziye seeks help from his teacher again, tomorrow all their phones will be blown up.

With a patient of such a special identity, your own hospital's people don't manage him, letting Fang Ziye manage — is that to harm someone?

Fang Ziye thus became idle again; after saying goodbye to the trembling, confused Mao Mao in the Doctor's Office, he walked out of the Department.

Only, when entering the doctor staff passage Elevator, he turned his gaze and saw, in the stairwell passage, a person standing there, hugging his head squatting in the corner, as if the whole person was in extreme pain.

It was precisely the hot-tempered, blunt-speaking Shen Dong, whom Fang Ziye trusted very much.

Seeing this, Fang Ziye's expression flashed slightly; he scratched his head and said: "Actually, you should have worn gloves."

Fang Ziye knew this Pang Hong was the one Shen Dong fractured in a fit of rage.

But Fang Ziye still felt Shen Dong was really too immature.

If he recognized Pang Hong, knew Pang Hong was a doctor, he shouldn't have let him be hospitalized!

And he shouldn't have let himself fall deep into the charge of intentional injury!

(Chapter End)