Overpowered Resident Doctor

Yan Feifan’s shout was a beat too late.

To be precise, the man with the crew cut either didn’t listen or simply didn’t hear him out of fear and panic.

He yanked the bamboo skewer out in one go.

A fountain of blood immediately spurted out, following the skewer.

When Yan Feifan saw that the extracted skewer was nearly twenty centimeters long, his heart sank.

This guy’s chances were slim to none.

Analyzing the skewer’s length and the angle of extraction, Yan Feifan was certain.

The skewer had gone through the man’s oral cavity, passed through the atlantoaxial joint space, pierced his brainstem, and embedded itself in his cerebellum.

Leaving aside other injuries, the brainstem is the body’s life-sustaining center, responsible for regulating both respiration and circulation.

An injury in this area could easily lead to respiratory and circulatory failure.

Furthermore, judging by the amount of blood gushing from his mouth, it was clear a blood vessel had been hit—and one in the brain, at that.

Yan Feifan knew that the blood vessels in the pierced part of the oral cavity couldn’t possibly bleed this much.

Before Yan Feifan could even reach the man with the crew cut, he saw him spray another mouthful of blood before collapsing face-first onto the ground.

By then, Yan Feifan had reached the man’s side.

He didn’t rush to turn the man over. Instead, he first pried open his mouth, allowing the blood to drain out and prevent it from blocking his airway.

However, Yan Feifan quickly realized his efforts were futile.

The man with the crew cut had already stopped breathing.

This meant the worst had happened: respiratory arrest caused by severe brainstem trauma.

He then felt for a carotid pulse, but there was none.

Yan Feifan sighed softly, abandoned any thought of resuscitation, and stood up.

Just then, two young women who looked like college students rushed out from the crowd of onlookers.

One had a round face and a ponytail; the other had straight hair and was wearing tasteful, light makeup.

The two of them hurried over to the man’s side, dropped the snacks they were holding, and knelt to check his breathing and heartbeat.

When they found he wasn’t breathing and had no pulse, the two girls quickly rolled him onto his back.

Ignoring the filth on the ground, they knelt down and prepared to perform CPR on the man.

Yan Feifan didn’t want them to waste their energy. He tried to dissuade them, saying, "He’s no longer breathing and has no pulse. He can be declared dead."

"There’s no need to try and resuscitate him."

The round-faced girl with the ponytail said urgently, "He’s been down for less than a minute. There’s still a chance."

"We’ll do CPR. We just need to keep him going until the ambulance gets here."

With that, the round-faced girl leaned down to give the man a rescue breath, then began coordinating with her straight-haired friend to perform chest compressions and CPR.

However, every time the straight-haired woman performed a chest compression, blood would well up from the man’s mouth, severely interfering with the round-faced girl’s attempts at rescue breathing.

But the round-faced girl was quite patient, showing no sign of disgust or fear on her face.

She would clear the blood from his mouth and then, during the pauses between the straight-haired girl’s compressions, quickly give him a rescue breath.

Although their CPR frequency was off at first, they found a good rhythm after two or three cycles.

Moreover, their technique for both the rescue breaths and chest compressions was quite proper.

’They must have received proper CPR training,’ Yan Feifan analyzed.

"He suffered a brainstem injury, which triggered respiratory arrest."

Yan Feifan continued to explain, "His brainstem was penetrated by a four-millimeter-diameter skewer, and a major cerebral blood vessel was hit. With injuries this severe, the chances of survival are extremely low."

"The contaminated skewer also brings a high risk of intracranial infection..."

At that moment, the straight-haired woman, panting from the chest compressions, interrupted Yan Feifan. "No matter how low the chances are, we have to keep trying to save him."

"Life itself is full of miracles."

"If we give up, his chance of survival is zero."

The straight-haired woman looked at Yan Feifan and declared passionately, "Whether or not he can be saved is a matter of ability, a matter of luck."

"To try to save him or not—that’s a matter of attitude."

"You seem to know a lot. Are you a medical student?"

Before Yan Feifan could even respond, the woman ordered in a commanding tone, "Life is priceless! What are you blathering on about? Get over here and help!"

’Getting lectured by a college girl...’ Yan Feifan was speechless.

Still, they were acting from a sincere desire to save a life, and their attitude was certainly commendable.

With that in mind, Yan Feifan decided to just take it.

To Yan Feifan, however, life wasn’t priceless.

He had seen plenty of patients and families at the hospital who were forced to give up treatment because they couldn’t afford it.

Some critically ill patients were even abandoned at the hospital by their families.

For these abandoned patients, the hospital couldn’t just let them die, but it would only provide the bare minimum of life support.

If their condition became critical, resuscitation efforts were always withheld...

At the same time, as a doctor, he had developed a sense of reason that outsiders might see as almost cruel and cold-blooded.

Yan Feifan continued to reason with them. "You have to respect the objective facts."

"I’m a doctor at the Affiliated Hospital—and a pretty good one at that. I can tell you for a fact that even if you keep him alive until he gets to the hospital and receives treatment..."

"...his fate is already sealed."

Just then, Yan Feifan saw several property security guards and two police officers hurrying over.

He stopped trying to convince them, stepped back into the crowd of onlookers, and left with his sister.

"Feifan, was that man really a lost cause?"

In response to his sister’s question, Yan Feifan nodded. "If he hadn’t pulled out the skewer, there might have been a slim chance."

"But the moment that skewer was pulled..."

Yan Feifan shook his head. "A penetrating brainstem injury, cerebellar damage, a torn cerebral blood vessel, and on top of that, no breath and no pulse..."

"If there were even a sliver of hope, I wouldn’t have given up."

"Unless I could teleport and instantly move him into an operating room for surgery, then maybe there’d be a tiny sliver of hope..."

Yan Ziruo sighed. "Accidents really can happen anywhere. To think, a skewer right through the head."

"After seeing that, I think I’m going to be traumatized the next time I eat barbecue."

"Sigh..."

Yan Ziruo asked curiously, "Did you happen to see how he got stabbed with the skewer?"

Yan Feifan shook his head. "I didn’t notice."

"It was so crowded. Someone in front of or behind him probably just bumped into him."

Yan Ziruo said with a sigh of lament, "Causing someone’s death by accident... that person will probably go to jail, right?"

"It’s true what they say: you never know if tomorrow or an accident will come first..."

「The siblings returned to Zuimo Court just after ten.」

Standing in front of their apartment door, Yan Feifan felt himself growing inexplicably nervous again.

He looked to Yan Ziruo for help. "Sis..."

Yan Ziruo comforted him, "Feifan, it’s just an act. Just pretend she’s a patient’s family member and handle it like you always do."

Yan Feifan took a few deep breaths, gritted his teeth, and pressed his index finger to the fingerprint lock...