Chapter 139: The Medicine Relay

The prescription is written. Getting the medicine to the patient is another matter.

Once the prescription had been written, the others stayed outside to wait.

Leo had thought a little further ahead. “The hospital's decoction room is quite a way from here…”

Du froze too. Of course. How had he forgotten that?

These days, people mostly went to Chinese medicine doctors for chronic conditions, or for other illnesses. Whatever they came for, the Chinese medicine doctors at this hospital had no part in emergency resuscitation.

The prescribed herbs were left to simmer slowly in the decoction room, and the resulting medicine was brought over for the patients to drink. Many patients simply went home and came back later to collect it.

For rural patients who couldn't easily make another trip, the hospital even offered a delivery service: the decoction was packed into sealed pouches and sent by courier.

There was nothing wrong with that under ordinary circumstances.

But this was an emergency. The herbs had to be decocted quickly over high heat and given as they brewed. The decoction room was several hundred meters away, with several flights of stairs between it and here. How were they supposed to get the medicine over? They could hardly bring a gas stove to the door and light it there. Besides, where would they find one right now?

For a moment, Du didn't know what to do.

The young Chinese medicine doctors behind Leo spoke up. “Director Du, why don't we deliver it?”

Du looked over.

“Yes. We can't do much to help treat her, but we can run medicine over,” one of them said.

“There are plenty of us,” another added. “If we take turns going back and forth, we can make sure she keeps getting it.”

Looking at these eager young men, Du gave a firm nod. “All right.” Then he turned to Evan. “What do you think, Dr. Xu?”

Evan nodded too. “Good idea. But remember, ladle out only two spoonfuls each time. Once one person has arrived, the next brings another two small spoonfuls.”

“Understood!”

The young doctors all rushed off to the decoction room.

Evan watched them go for a long moment, then went into the resuscitation room.

“Why bring so little at a time?” Guo asked, puzzled.

“Rapid decoction over high heat is an emergency measure when there's no other option,” Du explained. “At first, the herbs haven't been boiling long enough to release their full strength, so we give the medicine as it brews.

“If we bring too much at once, we'll have a whole bowlful that's too weak to do enough good. Also, with only two small spoonfuls in the bowl, it will have cooled during the run and can be swallowed as soon as it gets here.”

Guo nodded in understanding.^[1]

Du gave the official another look.

Soon a young Chinese medicine doctor came running up, puffing hard, with two small spoonfuls of decoction. He ran straight into the resuscitation room. He had taken the stairs; he hadn't dared wait for the elevator. The climb had worn him out.

Evan took the medicine as soon as it arrived and fed it to the patient.

Once she had swallowed it, the young doctor took the bowl and ran back out.

Then another young doctor came up the stairs with two more small spoonfuls.

They were running a relay, each panting harder than the last. It was the stairs that exhausted them. The hospital had elevators, but at a time like this, none of them dared use one.

More and more people gathered outside the resuscitation room. They were a little stunned by what they were seeing. They had never witnessed an emergency resuscitation using Chinese medicine in real life.

It seemed that Guang'anmen Hospital was the only hospital in the country with a Chinese medicine emergency department, and they had never been there to see it.^[2]

Leo hurried to keep order again.

Although a crowd had formed at the door, everyone left a broad passage clear—a lifeline for the young doctors carrying the medicine.

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They all knew who the patient inside was. She deserved to die, but the happiness of hundreds of families now depended on her staying alive.

She couldn't die yet!

The young doctors weren't merely trying to save a human trafficker. They were trying to save countless families, and the unfortunate people who had been abducted and sold.

“Keep going!” someone called from the crowd.

The young doctor carrying the medicine was startled.

“Keep going!”

“You can do it!”

More people took up the cries, encouraging the runners and Evan as he fought to save the patient inside. Keep going!

The young doctors were deeply moved. Their vision even began to blur. Amid the calls of encouragement, they kept bringing medicine into the resuscitation room.

The medical staff nearby were moved too.

“Need a hand?” someone else called.

One of the young doctors shook his head as he jogged past with the medicine, panting. “No, thanks. You don't know the way, or what's happening in the resuscitation room. Leave it to us. We can do it!”

Du, Leo, and the others felt themselves caught up in it too.

Leo rolled up his sleeves and ran off. “I'll fetch some too. I can still run.”

Once again, Marcus stared at his older brother. Leo was usually timid and forever cultivating useful connections. Yet whenever something like this really mattered, he acted like a man.

Du stepped forward too. “I'll help. I'm in better shape than these youngsters.”

He glanced around the resuscitation room entrance and muttered, “Once this is over, I'm getting a decoction room put in here, no matter what!” Then he went to help.

Guo sighed. He wanted to help too, but at his age, he was afraid he would only get in the way.

Still more doctors and nurses joined in.

Whether they practiced Chinese or Western medicine, they were all doctors. They were all there to save a life.

The seconds and minutes passed.

Everyone kept watch outside.

Inside the resuscitation room, Evan calmly watched the changes in the patient. In his mind, he kept seeing how the simulated patient had responded to the medicine during his resuscitation practice in the treatment training room.

This was his experience in using the medicines and in resuscitation.

Each bowl held only two spoonfuls of decoction, but Evan gave them frequently, keeping the medicine's effect going while watching her condition closely.

He appeared utterly calm, but he was under enormous strain. With a patient this close to death, he was far from certain he could save her. Life or death could be decided in a moment.

As time went by, he gradually slowed the pace at which he gave her the medicine.

The doctors and nurses running the relay outside finally had a chance to catch their breath.

After nearly half an hour, the patient had taken almost half the medicine. Her violent gasping was easing, and so were her wheezing and coughing.

Evan felt her elbows and knees. The cold in her hands had receded to the elbow area, and the cold in her legs was easing too. Her limbs were beginning to warm.

He was delighted.

Another young Chinese medicine doctor ran in with medicine.

“Keep bringing it,” Evan told him. “We can't stop the medicine.”

“All right.”

Without another word, the young doctor hurried back out.

The activity outside picked up again. The relay resumed.

Evan continued giving her the decoction. Another ten minutes or so passed. It had now been well over half an hour, and she had taken two-thirds of the full batch.

Her violent gasping had eased considerably, and the spasms of coughing had stopped.

The icy cold in her limbs was receding. In her arms, it was now below the elbows, and warmth was beginning to return.

Evan quickly checked her pulses. The wrist pulse, which had been scattered and threadlike, was much steadier. The three pulses at her feet and ankles felt stronger beneath his fingers too.^[3]

He let out a long breath. As the tension eased, sweat broke out across his forehead and back. He slowly got to his feet and walked toward the door in short steps.

He opened the resuscitation room door. Everyone was looking at him.

One of the young doctors had just arrived with medicine, drenched in sweat from running up the stairs.

Du and Leo had just returned too.

They all watched Evan.

A faint smile appeared on his pale face. He looked around at them and said slowly, “She's largely out of immediate danger.”

There was silence.

Then the corridor erupted in cheers.

Evan swayed and quickly caught himself against the wall. His head had already been aching unbearably, and the strain had been immense. Now he was terribly dizzy.

Reader Notes

Reader Notes

1. ↩︎ Decoction and small, repeated portions. A decoction is the liquid obtained by boiling medicinal materials in water. The hospital normally prepares and packages it before collection or delivery. Here, Du explains the unusual relay as a way to give small portions while the herbs continue brewing. This follows Evan's emergency order in the preceding chapter. The health department's general preparation guidance describes a different, staged process and notes that particular materials need special methods. It does not establish the safety or effectiveness of this fictional rapid preparation. Source: Hong Kong Department of Health — Preparing Herbal Decoctions.
2. ↩︎ Chinese medicine in emergency departments. The passage preserves the observers' uncertainty about how widely such services exist. Guang'anmen Hospital's official history dates its emergency department to 1980 and describes an integrated Chinese and Western medicine service. Longhua Hospital in Shanghai also describes an emergency department founded in the 1970s, with Chinese medicine and integrated care. These accounts do not support a literal nationwide monopoly. The novel gives no exact year here; neither hospital's present-day services establish the rules at the fictional county hospital. Sources: Guang'anmen Hospital — Emergency Department (in Chinese); Longhua Hospital — Emergency Department (in Chinese).
3. ↩︎ Cold limbs and pulse examination. In traditional descriptions, cold hands and feet can include cold extending toward the elbows and knees. The wrist pulse is felt in the cunkou area over the radial artery. The three lower pulse sites refer back to Evan's examination of Fuyang, Taixi, and Taichong; they are not three needle treatments. Here, warming limbs and stronger pulses form part of his assessment of improvement. The narrative does not supply new temperature measurements or establish recovery of the patient's underlying lung disease. Source: WHO — TCM terminology, entries 740 and 855–856.