Chapter 1405: A Joyous Occasion in Neurosurgery

Chapter 1405: Chapter 1405: A Joyous Occasion in Neurosurgery

(Thanks to Once Little River, Baby Does Not Fail Heaven, I Love Sheep Sheep for the monthly ticket encouragement)

As for seeing someone off at the airport, Liu Banxia couldn’t take part anymore, but with Qiaoqiao and the two kids going along, Qing Kewa was getting pretty high-level treatment.

After all, when Old Qiao left back then, he went alone, couldn’t enjoy this kind of treatment.

Arriving at the emergency center, the first thing Liu Banxia did was go check the VIP ward. The old gentleman was in great spirits today, personally expressed his thanks to Liu Banxia and apologized for his daughter’s rudeness.

With things said to that extent, what else could Liu Banxia say? He just stayed a bit longer and, while he was at it, mentioned that yesterday’s surgery schedule really had been a bit tight.

Coming out of VIP, Liu Banxia started his ward round routine.

First he checked on the two patients operated on by Liu Yiqing and Huang Bo. Since you’re letting your apprentices get some hands-on practice, you’ve got to pay extra attention to their patients on normal days too, right?

Once he’d seen them he felt reassured; at the very least, things were pretty much in line with expectations.

When he got to the ward of the esophageal hiatal hernia patient from yesterday, Liu Banxia was amused.

The patient was sitting on the bed, mouth open, gulping big breaths of air.

"What act are you putting on now? Sitting on the bed cultivating your qi?" Liu Banxia asked with a laugh.

"Director Liu, this tube is so uncomfortable. I want to pass gas faster," the patient said.

"As soon as the anesthesia wore off yesterday he kept muttering nonstop. I told him if he was feeling uncomfortable he should talk less, but he just wouldn’t listen," the patient’s wife said helplessly.

"Don’t rush it, you can start moving around a bit now. Don’t walk fast, just take it slow," Liu Banxia said.

"This is to decompress your stomach. Otherwise, if your stomach gets too distended, it’s easy to stretch open the suture site from yesterday. So we have to wait until you’ve passed gas before we can remove this decompression tube."

"And there isn’t a fixed standard for when you’ll pass gas. But I’m guessing it’ll probably be sometime today; it’s already been quite a while now."

"Director Liu, is there any way to make it go faster?" the patient asked.

"You really can’t speed this up. The main reason we wait for you to pass gas is that once you do, it shows your gastrointestinal function has returned to normal," Liu Banxia said.

"During anesthesia we don’t just numb your pain nerves, we also suppress your gastrointestinal motility. What happens if the gut doesn’t move? Contents pile up and you get obstruction."

"That’s also why we always restrict your food intake before surgery, to avoid that situation. So just bear with it a little longer; once your gastrointestinal function recovers, things will move quickly."

"Got it. I thought passing gas was to clear a straight path from my throat all the way down to my anus. No wonder I kept sucking in air; I’m so thirsty now," the patient said.

"Serves you right. I told you and you wouldn’t listen, you only take it seriously when Director Liu says it," the patient’s wife said.

"Director Liu is the doctor, you’re not," the patient said with a grin.

"Alright, this guy—just had to feed us dog food again. Remember, even after you can eat normally, you still need to control your diet for a while," Liu Banxia said with a smile.

"I don’t have any other special instructions. This was a very routine surgery. Let’s try not to let it recur in the future. Whenever you feel like swallowing quickly when you eat, chew three more times,"

The patient nodded. "Thank you, Director Liu. I feel very reassured after you’ve explained everything."

Liu Banxia chuckled, then led Xu Yino and the others out.

He still had to keep rounding; there were plenty more patients.

"Hurry, hurry, come with me, to the neurosurgery ward."

They’d just gone through a few more rooms and stepped out when they saw Wang Chao shouting anxiously in the corridor.

"What’s going on?" Liu Banxia immediately got worried.

"Aiya, don’t ask yet, just come with me and you’ll see," Wang Chao said.

Liu Banxia couldn’t stay calm; he followed him straight toward the elevators.

Xu Yino and the others exchanged a look—alright, better follow along first.

When they reached the neurosurgery floor, they saw a lot of patients gathered in the corridor. That made Liu Banxia even more uneasy; situations like this usually meant some kind of doctor–patient dispute.

But when he followed Wang Chao into the ward, he froze. Neurosurgery’s Zhang Xiao and Xiao Jun, neurology’s Peng Bo and Zhang Ping were all there examining a patient together.

Peeking through the gap and seeing clearly, Liu Banxia broke into a grin and slapped Wang Chao on the shoulder.

Maybe because he was a bit excited, he slapped harder than he meant to, making Wang Chao bare his teeth in pain. Since he was in a good mood, Wang Chao decided to let it slide.

"My god, she finally woke up. How long has it been? A month and a half, right?" Once she saw clearly, Xu Yino couldn’t hold back and blurted it out.

The patient on the bed undergoing the exam was the same young woman they’d previously treated for a head injury from a fall. Back during surgery, her brain tissue was so edematous they couldn’t close the skull temporarily.

Later her family chose to keep her alive even if it meant using a ventilator. After a week in the ICU, she was transferred back to the neurosurgery ward.

To be honest, none of them, including Liu Banxia, were holding out much hope in their hearts, and they never expected her to actually wake up.

That’s also why it drew such a crowd; most of the time, this is the kind of thing you only ever see in film and TV.

"Let her rest for now. We’ll arrange to take her off the ventilator shortly. Congratulations." Zhang Xiao said to the patient’s mother.

"Thank you, doctor, thank you, doctor, I... I... thank you, doctor." The patient’s mother was overwhelmed.

"Hey, don’t rush to thank us. The main thing is that her will is incredibly strong." Zhang Xiao said.

"No need to rush the assessment. Let her recover a bit more. At the very least, her consciousness is clear now, she can understand commands—that’s a good sign."

The patient’s mother nodded hard.

"Alright, everyone don’t crowd around here anymore. This is a big happy event for us. Oh, Director Liu is here too." Zhang Xiao turned and saw Liu Banxia.

"I was doing rounds. Heard about your big good news and had to come take a look." Liu Banxia said with a smile.

"Okay, everyone, answer the call and head back to your own rooms. We need to clear some space—we still have to take her off the ventilator. Come on, make way. You can sneak back to take a look after we’re done with all the fuss."

Hearing him, the patients gathered at the door all broke into smiles.

"I really didn’t expect it, she actually regained consciousness." Liu Banxia said.

"Same here. When we heard the call, we were afraid something might go wrong, so I had everyone come over." Zhang Xiao said.

"From the exam just now, do you think there are any signs of brain function damage?" Liu Banxia asked.

"It’s still hard to judge. She just woke up, so of course her reactions will be a bit sluggish. We’ll only be able to do further assessment after she’s fully recovered." Zhang Xiao said.

"But for her, just being alive already beats everything else. At her age, if she hadn’t made it, her mother’s life afterwards would’ve been rough too."

Liu Banxia nodded.

Sometimes you really can’t afford to ask for too much. For this patient, just waking up is already the biggest surprise.

"Teacher Liu, with something this happy happening today, how about adding a few dishes for us to celebrate?" Xu Yino asked gleefully.

"What for? You all just think about taking advantage of me." Liu Banxia said helplessly.

"But that’s how it is—the emergency center has been full of good news lately. Liu Yiqing and Huang Bo made such a big breakthrough, you’ve observed so many pediatric surgeries yourself, this patient’s injuries were so severe at the time, and now she woke up..."

"Stop, stop, don’t start counting them off on your fingers. Dr. Zhang, what’s that supposed to mean?" Liu Banxia cut Xu Yino off and looked at Zhang Xiao.

"Haha, don’t look at me. I’m not getting involved with you lot. There’s barely any money left on my meal card." Zhang Xiao said with a laugh.

Then Xu Yino and the others all turned their eyes to Liu Banxia in perfect unison.

"See that? Day in and day out, instead of thinking about how to show me any respect, all they ever think about is my meal card. ’Add dishes, add dishes.’ Go finish rounding on the rest of the wards, I’ll hang around here for a bit." Liu Banxia said, exasperated.

Xu Yino and the others nodded happily and ran off toward the elevator to continue their rounds.

"Ah... with them, I really don’t stand a chance. Even Su Wenhao’s been led astray by them." Liu Banxia said.

"I think you’re too happy to complain. You’ve been performing great, the hospital leadership is keeping a close eye on you." Zhang Xiao said.

"Yeah, we didn’t go watch yesterday’s surgery, but we heard about it. Even the inpatient department is talking about them now." Peng Bo chimed in.

"So? Does it feel like a huge sense of achievement?" Xiao Jun asked with a grin.

"Honestly, yeah, there is a real sense of achievement. But sometimes it’s exhausting too—managing them isn’t easy." Liu Banxia said with a bitter smile.

"That’s for sure. So, has the hospital made any other moves lately?" Zhang Ping asked.

"I really don’t know much about that. All I know is pediatrics will be getting strengthened accordingly. I haven’t heard about anything else." Liu Banxia said.

"These days I’ve basically been drifting around outside. If you want to find out, you’d be better off asking Wang Chao directly—he definitely knows more than I do."

"I don’t know that much either. Anyway, since the hospital values the emergency center so highly, the other departments will definitely be reinforced too." Wang Chao said.

"Right now the only department that doesn’t need reinforcing is general surgery. Our general surgery service may not be able to match the inpatient department in sheer numbers, but in terms of technique we’re definitely ahead."

"That’s true. Look how well NOSES surgery is being promoted. In a little while, Liu Yiqing and the others will be able to fully take over that procedure themselves." Zhang Xiao said.

"By then we can start doing some pediatric surgeries as well. At that point our emergency center will really be something, it’ll have even more impact."

"Let me be honest with you, on pediatric surgeries I still don’t have that much confidence." Liu Banxia said with a wry smile.

"Haha, it’s fine. We trust you, we’ve got a lot of faith in you." Peng Bo joked.

That was the truth—when it came to surgery, there didn’t seem to be anything Liu Banxia couldn’t pull off.