Chapter 120 - 114: Transformation
He was shivering violently from blood loss and the cold.
"Scalp avulsion! Active major hemorrhage!"
The nurse quickly pressed a large piece of sterile gauze to the old man’s head, shouting anxiously:
"A surgeon! We need a surgeon!"
There were originally two residents near the debridement room.
But at that moment, one was performing a venous cutdown on a patient in shock, and the other was dealing with a penetrating abdominal wound. Neither could get away.
Zhao Yumin was in the red zone, and Jiang He was at the end of the hallway.
In the vast debridement area hallway, Xu Chen was the only person in a white coat with free hands.
The family’s desperate eyes, the nurse’s anxious plea for help—in an instant, all focus fell on Xu Chen.
Xu Chen froze.
Run...
The first thought that flashed through his mind was, astonishingly, to run.
’Find the director, find a senior doctor, even just get Jiang He!’
’The bleeding is so heavy, the wound is so horrific... I’m just an eight-year program student. I can’t take this responsibility!’
He subconsciously took half a step back.
The old man lay on the gurney, his eyes pasted shut with blood, leaving only a thin slit.
He looked toward Xu Chen, his gaze...
Pained. Pleading.
The impulse to run was brutally stopped in its tracks.
Xu Chen stood stunned, his thoughts churning like a turbulent sea:
’Wait... what am I doing?’
’I’m a top student in the eight-year clinical program at Southern Medical University.’
’I’ve memorized twelve medical textbooks as thick as bricks. I’ve endured countless nights in the anatomy building, choking on the stench of formalin.’
’I put on this white coat.’
’If even I’m scared, who can he possibly count on?’
In that instant, Xu Chen cast aside all hesitation and rushed to the gurney.
"Push the gurney into the treatment room! Prep a debridement and suture kit, lots of normal saline, hydrogen peroxide, and get me two hemostats, silk sutures, and lidocaine!"
Inside the treatment room.
The lights flared on.
The nurse released the pressure gauze, and blood gushed out again.
"I can’t see the bleeder!"
"Flush it with saline! Don’t stop!"
Xu Chen pulled on sterile gloves, his hands starting to tremble again.
But he stared intently at the pool of blood, forcing himself to be rational.
’The scalp has an extremely rich, web-like blood supply.’
’It’s primarily composed of branches from the internal and external carotid artery systems.’
’Right now, there’s arterial spurting from the frontal and temporal regions...’
’It was in the textbook, we did it in the practical labs!’
’I can do this!’
’Just treat it like a competition!’
’Right, a competition!’
’Hell, I still have to beat Jiang He! What’s a little difficulty like this?!’
Xu Chen focused, drawing on his many years of study.
He observed carefully, analyzing meticulously.
Finally...
’Found the bleeder!’
The hemostat dove down, then flipped.
CLICK!
The nurse looked up in surprise. "The arterial bleeding has stopped!"
Xu Chen let out a long, heavy breath, only then realizing his back was completely soaked in a cold sweat.
But he didn’t stop.
He had taken the first step. What remained was what he, as a clinical Intern, did best.
"Debride, irrigate the wound, and prepare for suturing."
Xu Chen picked up the needle holder and clamped the curved needle.
"Sir, this will hurt a little. Please bear with it. It’ll be over soon."
Xu Chen gently reassured the old man.
Then, he used the forceps in his left hand to lift the edge of the wound.
The needle holder in his right hand pierced the skin with precision.
Through the scalp, the subcutaneous tissue, the galea aponeurotica.
A flick of the wrist, pull through, tie the knot.
One, two, three...
Under the lights, Xu Chen could no longer hear the outside world.
In his world, there was only the patient before him and the suture weaving in his hands.
’Where does a surgeon’s confidence truly come from?’
’It’s not from having your name in a core journal, not from the praise of your attending physician, not from spouting cutting-edge theories.’
’It’s about whether you can save a life when blood is splattering on your face.’
SNIP.
He snipped the last suture.
Xu Chen carefully wiped away the blood around the wound with an iodophor cotton ball, covered it with a sterile dressing, and finally applied a pressure bandage with tape and gauze.
It was all done in one smooth, continuous motion.
He straightened up, and as his gaze passed through the half-open glass door of the treatment room, it met Jiang He’s.
Xu Chen paused for a moment.
Had this been a few hours ago, upon seeing Jiang He, he would have subconsciously straightened his back.
His eyes would have held hostility and defensiveness.
He would even have been mentally calculating how to outperform Jiang He, how to imitate that effortless confidence of his.
But now, all those feelings were gone.
After walking through Hell and personally pulling a life back from the brink.
Xu Chen suddenly felt that everyone in this hall was doing the most noble thing in the world.
There was no high or low, no winning or losing.
There was only reverence for life.
Xu Chen looked at Jiang He and gave him a solemn nod.
Jiang He nodded back and turned to leave.
On this stormy night.
Some collapsed in the face of death, while others completed a metamorphosis in a baptism of blood.
"Dr. Jiang! Jiang He!"
An urgent shout came from the other end of the hall.
The young nurse who had gone to make a call earlier ran over, panting.
"I found him! Director Yang Xu is in Operating Room 3 on the second floor!"
"Director Yang said he’s short-handed on the table—he needs an assistant. The patient’s condition is too severe. Multiple abdominal organ ruptures combined with a serious, comminuted pelvic fracture. They can’t stop the bleeding. He said for you to scrub in and get up there immediately!"
Jiang He immediately turned. "The patient’s name?"
"Wu Wanning," the young nurse blurted out.
Jiang He’s steps came to an abrupt halt.
An image of the girl in the muddy school uniform, her face streaked with tears, flashed through his mind.
It formed a stark contrast with the cold, shadowless lamps of the operating room.
On one side, endless regret and waiting.
On the other, the Grim Reaper’s scythe was already hanging over a neck.
’I have to save her...’
’Otherwise...’
’That girl will be tormented by guilt for the rest of her life.’
Jiang He let out a heavy breath, looked up, and said:
"Take me there."
He endured the intense pain, his steps firm.
Because—
’I want to give that girl the chance to put a coat on her mom’s shoulders herself, and to tell her mom "I love you" with her own lips.’