Chapter 72: with translation of chapter title

Arriving at the first floor of Jizhen Da Lou, Director Pan was already waiting for Zheng Ren.

The two rushed all the way to ICU; at the entrance's Gengyishi, they put on caps and masks, donned dark green sterile garments, changed into slippers, and then entered.

ICU is like a secret room in movies used to hide treasures; besides changing clothes, one also needs to swipe the access control twice.

This is to minimize bringing in bacteria, because most patients in ICU have tracheotomies and use ventilators to assist breathing. Their bodily immunity is extremely weak; bacteria that pose no problem for normal people may be a deadly pathogen for these critically ill patients.

Upon entering ICU, many department directors had already arrived early and were conducting physical examinations.

In the upper right of Zheng Ren's field of vision, the System Panel had already displayed the diagnosis—placental abruption, hemorrhagic shock.

The patient is a young woman, 20 weeks pregnant; due to gestational hypertension, placental abruption occurred, with the placenta detaching from the uterus to the extent of half the placental area.

Because of severe bleeding, the patient already exhibited symptoms of hemorrhagic shock: pallor, profuse sweating, thready rapid pulse, and dropping blood pressure.

The fetus has already died from hypoxia; fetal heart tones cannot be detected.

This is a very tricky patient…

Since it is her first pregnancy, if a hysterectomy is performed, the patient will no longer be able to bear children. For a woman who longs to become a mother, this is a very cruel thing.

However, if an emergency hysterectomy is not performed, the bleeding site will continue to hemorrhage; obstetrics has already taken measures, but packing and hemostatic drugs have little effect.

This is a dilemma.

Several directors who came for consultation also clearly found the condition very thorny, frowning at the shocking numbers on the monitor, hesitating.

The condition is simple and clear, but whether to perform a hysterectomy or not is the biggest problem.

Su Yun stood beside the patient's bed, her White Coat as white as snow, holding a blue medical record folder in her hands, a stethoscope draped over her shoulder, expressionlessly gazing at the many directors.

"I suggest we go to the office to discuss. Time… probably only ten minutes. Little Su, do the preoperative preparations." said the ICU director.

The many directors filed out one after another; Su Yun noticed Zheng Ren standing at the back of the crowd, unnoticed, essentially imperceptible.

He gave verbal orders, and the nurses carried them out hurriedly.

Leaving the monitoring room, they came to the second room on the corridor; here the windows were bright and the tables clean, several desks pushed together to form a large square table, with a dozen or so chairs arranged around it.

"We have nine minutes left now." the ICU director said, glancing at his watch.

"I think there's nothing left to discuss." Obstetrics Director Su adjusted his black-rimmed glasses and said firmly, "We've tried all kinds of hemostatic methods, all ineffective. If we delay further, the patient's hemorrhagic shock symptoms will worsen to the point where surgery can't be performed."

"Sigh." the Anesthesiology Department Director sighed, wanting to speak but stopping.

"Old Wang, what do you want to say? Speak quickly, don't just sigh here." The ICU director was in an irritable state, unable to tolerate even a speck of sand in his eyes.

"If only we still had an Interventional Department doctor." Anesthesiology Department Director Wang voiced everyone's pain.

"Ask the Cardiology Department, see if they can come help."

The ICU director's expression was indifferent: "Today the three cardiology departments received eighteen myocardial infarction patients, all on the operating table."

Once a myocardial infarction occurs, if surgery is not performed promptly, the only outcome awaiting the patient is death; there is essentially no choice.

Unlike the pregnant women in ICU, who at least still have the option to preserve the uterus or remove it.

In the hospital, such a sharp contradiction occurs almost every day—whose life is more noble? No one. In the face of life and death, everyone is equal; inequality lies only in social differences.

Even if cardiology doctors had time, letting them embolize the uterine artery—if something went wrong, whose responsibility would it be? The physician's license states the scope of practice; that is the law. Among all departments, only the Emergency Department is relatively broad in scope.

Everyone fell silent.

Zheng Ren stood in a corner, as if in this large-scale emergency resuscitation hospital-wide consultation, he, an Inpatient Chief, basically had no part to play.

If Director Pan hadn't insisted, and others hadn't given him face, Zheng Ren wouldn't even have been able to enter the room.

He knew where everyone's dilemma lay—to preserve the uterus while stopping bleeding, the only way was through interventional treatment.

However, interventional treatment involves significant radiation exposure, so after an Intervention Department doctor at City First Hospital contracted a large B lymphoma, the hospital basically halted normal outpatient interventional procedures. Later, doctors either transferred or went to cardiology to perform heart stent surgeries; in any case, the Intervention Department now has no doctors.

That sigh from Anesthesiology Department Director Wang was precisely for this reason.

As soon as interventional treatment was mentioned, Zheng Ren suddenly recalled that the system had once 'tempted' him, letting him choose interventional surgery as treatment.

Perhaps I could give it a try? Zheng Ren felt some movement in his heart.

Only a few minutes remained; he had to seize the moment.

He immediately entered the System Space, opened the System Mall; upon seeing the item for purchasing Surgical Training Time for interventional surgery, he hesitated a moment.

Zheng Ren wasn't hesitating about whether to learn; if he could save a person, or let a woman retain her fertility, what were a few experience points?

What he hesitated about was whether he could actually learn it.

Since acquiring the system, Zheng Ren's memory has been comprehensively enhanced. Together with the advancement of the General Surgery Department Skill Tree, his understanding of anatomical structures has become even more thorough than before.

Recalling, the interventional treatment for placental abruption seemed to require embolizing just one uterine artery; it is the simplest among interventional surgeries.

Then… let's do it this way.

Once Zheng Ren made a decision, he hesitated not at all; his finger tapped onto it.

In an instant, the Operating Room rose from the ground; Zheng Ren felt a sudden heaviness, a set of lead clothing already on him. An experimental subject lay before him, and Zheng Ren held a puncture kit in his hands.

What should I do?

Zheng Ren dazed.

【【If choosing to learn interventional surgery, please first increase interventional skill points.】】

The system's mechanical female voice appeared coldly, reminding Zheng Ren—you idiot, if you want to do interventional surgery, first max out the skill tree, okay? A bare-chested outsider wanting to learn interventional surgery?

Zheng Ren broke into a sweat, then immediately used a skill book, upgrading interventional surgery to the advanced peak, i. e., a 1000‑point skill state. He then invested another 1 point of skill, reaching expert level.

His speed was very fast, and he immediately felt as if a bolt of lightning had struck from the heavens, landing on him, his whole body going numb.

Soon, his mind became clear and bright, and many unfamiliar memories surfaced in orderly fashion.

While climbing the General Surgery Department Skill Tree, Zheng Ren never felt any change to be qualitative in nature. That's because he himself is a General Surgery Department doctor, and his usual exposure is to the various diagnostic and therapeutic items of that department. Even when a point gained improvement, or even when skill rose to over 2000 points, Zheng Ren merely felt it was impressive.

Interventional surgery, however, was different—it was a skill from nothing to something, making Zheng Ren increasingly feel the system's miraculousness.

Expert-level interventional skill ready, he had a total of 189,920 experience points, equivalent to over 52 hours. Zheng Ren directly exchanged it for 50 hours of surgical intensive training time; the remaining experience points… let's just keep them for self‑defense.

Interventional surgery intensive training, officially begin!