Chapter 554 - 554: Gravely Injured, Could Die at Any Moment

"I want to stay and help," the man replied.

"Help?" Zhao Yuan raised an eyebrow. "What can you do to help?"

The man answered, "I am a doctor… uh, okay, I'm not a full-fledged doctor yet, just an intern, but I just finished my rotations in surgery and the emergency department. I think I should be able to help."

As he stated his identity, the man seemed a little embarrassed.

As a doctor, his duty was to save lives, but his earlier behavior had been quite disgraceful.

But then again, the incident had happened so suddenly. He had been scared witless, forgetting his identity and duties as a doctor. His only thought was to escape with his life, which was only human. Moreover, after Zhao Yuan slapped him back to his senses, he had calmed down, first helping to maintain order and evacuate the trapped passengers. Now, by proactively staying behind to help despite the danger, he was atoning for his earlier failure and fulfilling the duties and obligations of a doctor.

"Do you know first aid?" Zhao Yuan asked.

"I've studied it, and I got practical experience during my ER rotation," the man quickly replied.

Zhao Yuan nodded. "Alright, you can stay."

There were now six severely injured people still inside the bus. Zhao Yuan couldn't possibly handle them all by himself!

Zeng Rui had emerged from the Ghost Residence as soon as Zhao Yuan started rescuing people through the window. She'd slipped into the bus and begun examining the six severely injured passengers. Now, she floated before Zhao Yuan, reporting on the condition of the six patients.

"Among the six severely injured, three have less critical wounds—limb fractures and multiple contusions and abrasions. It looks frightening, but their lives aren't in immediate danger. Another person has an injured femoral artery; their condition is more serious."

"The most critical are an adult and a child who were sitting by the window on the side struck by the boulder. The adult is a woman in her thirties with multiple injuries: a cerebral laceration, a torn branch of the left superior vena cava, and a ruptured uncinate process of the pancreas. She's lost a lot of blood! The child is around six years old, suffering mainly from a traumatic brain injury and a ruptured left carotid artery, and has also lost a lot of blood! Their vital signs are extremely unstable; they could die at any second!"

While listening to her report, Zhao Yuan activated his Qi Observation Technique. He swept his gaze over the six severely injured individuals and confirmed their conditions were exactly as Zeng Rui had described.

The three patients with fractures were manageable; they wouldn't be in great danger even if their treatment was delayed. But the patient with the injured femoral artery, as well as the adult and child with the most critical injuries, required immediate first aid. They had to be transferred to the county hospital as quickly as possible for further treatment, or their lives would undoubtedly be at risk!

Zhao Yuan made an instant decision. He turned to the Bone Woman and commanded, "Get the door open!"

"Yes!" the Bone Woman answered, her voice low.

The man's face soured. "The bus door was bent out of shape by the rockfall. There's no way to open it."

Zhao Yuan knew the door's condition, but he was confident the Bone Woman would find a way to open it.

Turning back, he asked the man, "What's your name?"

The man quickly replied, "My name is Su Chi."

Zhao Yuan nodded and asked, "Do you know the proper first aid for a hemorrhaging femoral artery?"

Su Chi replied rapid-fire, "I do. Apply pressure to the wound with cotton pads and gauze to reduce bleeding. Simultaneously, be proactive in treating for shock, transfuse blood as soon as possible, and prepare for surgery…"

Zhao Yuan cut him off. He took a roll of sterile gauze from his Storage Ring Space and handed it to Su Chi. "Alright, that's enough," he instructed. "We have limited resources here. Go bandage the patient in the last row with the femoral artery injury and stop the bleeding!"

"Huh? How did you know he was the one with the femoral artery injury?"

Su Chi froze, stunned. He couldn't understand how Zhao Yuan knew the patient's condition without even checking, nor could he fathom where Zhao Yuan had 'magically' produced the roll of gauze from.

Zhao Yuan had no time to explain. "I just saw it," he urged. "Now go."

"Yes sir!" Su Chi snapped back to reality. Understanding the urgency, he asked no more questions and hurried to the last row to bandage the patient's femoral artery and stop the bleeding.

Zhao Yuan, meanwhile, went to the side of the two most critically injured patients: the adult and the child.

They appeared to be mother and child. When the boulder struck the bus, the mother had thrown herself over the child, shielding him with her own body, which was why she was so badly injured. But despite her protection, the child had been unlucky. A piece of rock, sent flying when the window shattered, had struck his head and neck, injuring his brain and carotid artery!

A quick examination revealed the child's condition was even more severe. His vital signs had dropped to a critical low. He had to be treated first.

However, before performing first aid on the child, Zhao Yuan first took out several Golden Needles. He inserted them into several of the mother's acupoints—Shuigou, Zusanli, Neiguan, and Yinlingquan. He then performed Spiritual Snake Probing the Moon, a technique from the Spiritual Snake Nine Probing Needle Technique. The Golden Needles seemed to come alive, twisting and thrusting within the acupoints to stop the bleeding and replenish her Qi. This was to keep the mother hanging on, to prevent her from dying while he was busy saving her child.

The mother had already lost consciousness, but the Acupuncture brought her back. As she opened her eyes, her first words to Zhao Yuan were, "Don't worry about me… save my child first… I'm begging you, please save my child."

Zhao Yuan spoke softly. "Don't worry, I'm about to save him now. But you have to hold on, too. If not for yourself, then for your child! You must know how miserable a child's life is without their mother."

The mother was already incredibly weak, but after hearing Zhao Yuan's words, a powerful will to live flared in her eyes. She nodded with all her might and said in a faint voice, "I will hold on. I absolutely won't let my child grow up without a mother."

"That's the spirit." With that, Zhao Yuan turned his attention to saving the child.

Seeing that no one was paying them any mind, the other three seriously injured patients grew anxious and fearful. "What about us?" they yelled. "We're injured too!"

Without looking up, Zhao Yuan said, "You just have fractures. Your lives aren't in immediate danger. Just don't move. Once the door is open, I'll have people carry you to a safe area to await rescue."

Just then, everyone inside the bus heard a loud CRASH. They turned to see the twisted, deformed bus door get shoved open by the Bone Woman before it toppled to the ground.

Everyone, except for Zhao Yuan, was stunned. They couldn't comprehend it. 'How did this beautiful woman break open a door that a bunch of us couldn't budge even with all our strength? How in the world did she do that?'