Chapter 314 - 211: A Slap (2)
After he said this.
The fear in Xu Chen finally subsided. He continued, "Without an order from Leader Jiang, I acted on my own and used the rigid aspirator. I punctured Mr. Guo’s transverse colon, which caused him to go into severe shock on the operating table."
Liu Suxin was stunned.
She couldn’t process it for a moment.
Guo Chenggang, however, shot to his feet in a rage. "What did you just say?"
Xu Chen turned to Guo Chenggang. "I’m sorry. It was my unauthorized action that ruptured the patient’s intestine. That’s why he needed a colostomy and will require a second surgery for reversal in the future. I’m so sorr—"
The words had barely left his lips.
Guo Chenggang strode forward and slapped Xu Chen squarely across the face!
Han Yuan, who was standing nearby, grew anxious and started to rush over, but she remembered Xu Chen’s instructions and stopped in her tracks.
"Are you fucking playing games with my brother’s life?!" Not stopping there, Guo Chenggang grabbed Xu Chen by the collar, his fist raised to smash into his face.
"Brother, stop!" Liu Suxin cried, snapping out of her daze and blocking Guo Chenggang.
"Don’t you stop me!" Guo Chenggang roared.
"Brother! Will hitting him make Chengyu get better any faster?!"
Guo Chenggang panted heavily, his fist hovering in midair. Finally, he shoved Xu Chen away violently and jabbed a finger in his face. "What kind of doctor are you?! I’m going to sue you!"
Xu Chen tasted blood in his mouth.
He said, "I came today to take full responsibility. I will cover all of his medical expenses."
Guo Chenggang froze for a second, then his anger flared even hotter. "You think we’re hurting for your fucking money? Is my brother’s life something you can buy?!"
"I know it can’t be, but this is the compensation I have to make, regardless of the final outcome."
Guo Chenggang started to curse again, but Liu Suxin grabbed his arm.
Liu Suxin’s lips trembled slightly.
She looked at Xu Chen, tears welling in her eyes. "But... but earlier, Dr. Jiang came out and told us that Chengyu was out of danger. He said the surgery was difficult, but that he was saved."
"That’s right. Leader Jiang is an incredibly skilled surgeon, and he made the perfect diagnosis and took immediate remedial action during the crisis. Mr. Guo is, in fact, no longer in life-threatening danger."
Liu Suxin fell silent. She turned her head, her gaze drifting toward the ICU.
She was torn.
Of course, the cost of hospitalization was no small sum for their family.
But more importantly, she thought of her son.
Her son had just been accepted to the Medical University in the Capital City this year. He was a freshman studying clinical medicine.
This young doctor...
He looked to be in his early twenties, not much older than her own son.
’What if one day, my son becomes a doctor and accidentally makes a mistake like this...?’
’Most importantly, Dr. Jiang had made it clear: the patient had been saved.’
’Since he’s out of danger... and having all the ICU and future surgery costs covered would be a lifeline for their family.’
Liu Suxin’s voice was a little hoarse. "The future expenses... you’ll really... cover all of them?"
Guo Chenggang turned to his sister-in-law. "He almost killed Chengyu!"
"Brother, Chengyu is lying in there, and his medical bills are thousands a day! Haohao has to go to college! Even if you sue this doctor and send him to prison, what then? Do we all starve?"
Shouted into silence, Guo Chenggang opened and closed his mouth, then finally turned away without another word.
Liu Suxin wiped away a tear and looked Xu Chen straight in the eye. "Doctor, put it in writing. If Chengyu really pulls through safely like Dr. Jiang said, and you cover all of his future medical costs, then I won’t sue you."
At these words,
tears instantly blurred Xu Chen’s vision.
He quickly took out a pen and paper.
"I’ll write it right now!"
Xu Chen leaned over a registration counter in the hallway and wrote out the pledge.
The cost of ICU care for severe pancreatitis, plus a second surgery, would absolutely be an astronomical sum.
But as he put pen to paper, Xu Chen didn’t hesitate for a second.
’Even if it means selling the apartment his family bought him for his future marriage, or begging his uncle for a loan.’
’Even if he had to sell everything he owned, he had to take on this debt!’
He handed the written pledge to Liu Suxin with both hands, then took a step back and bowed deeply.
"Thank you... thank you."
Xu Chen was incredibly lucky.
For such a grievous medical error, he had Jiang He to bail him out on the operating table; off the table, he encountered a family member who, though pressured by their circumstances, was also deeply empathetic and granted him forgiveness.
The timing, the location, the people—if even one of these elements had been missing, Xu Chen would have been utterly and irrevocably ruined today.
...
Hepatobiliary Surgery, Office of the Independent Team Leader.
"Chief!"
Meng Shiyu came back to report. "We have a resolution on Xu Chen’s situation!"
Jiang He: "Tell me."
"The family agreed to a private settlement! Xu Chen signed a pledge to cover all the patient’s ICU expenses, and the family said they won’t hold him responsible as long as the patient recovers."
Jiang He nodded.
Xu Chen had been forgiven.
It was the best possible outcome.
At that moment, a question that had been nagging Jiang He was finally answered.
’In my past life, I had known Lin Peidong, but not Xu Chen.’
’That didn’t make sense.’
’Logically, Xu Chen was a top student from Southern Medical University’s eight-year program, highly competent, and his uncle was an attending physician.’
’A person like that, as long as he followed the established path, should have had a brilliant future at Affiliated Hospital No. 1. It was impossible for him to have remained obscure.’
’So why had I never heard of him in my past life?’
Today’s events provided the answer.
’Xu Chen was arrogant and childish to the bone.’
’Even if he hadn’t imploded in my operating room today, he would have inevitably done so in another attending’s OR in the future.’
’In my past life, when Xu Chen made the same reckless mistake, there was no Jiang He to bail him out.’
’Perhaps the patient died on the table.’
’The family was enraged. The hospital launched a strict investigation.’
’And so, Xu Chen’s career ended, and he vanished completely from the medical field.’
’That must have been the truth of my past life.’
But in this life, Jiang He’s presence not only saved Guo Chengyu’s life, but also changed Xu Chen’s destiny.
The way things had turned out was the best one could hope for.
’Hopefully, that heavy slap would be a true wake-up call for Xu Chen.’
’Hopefully, this incident would make him truly understand.’
’A doctor’s arrogance is a desecration of life.’
’Hopefully, he’ll learn his lesson. Hopefully, he’ll go on to become a truly great doctor.’
"Chief? What are you thinking about?"
"Nothing."
BEEP BEEP—
His phone rang.
Jiang He answered. It was Liu Jianbang.
"Leader Jiang, come to the ICU immediately!"
"What’s the situation?"
"Yes. Just as you predicted, Guo Chengyu’s vitals are fluctuating. The fluid in his abdominal drain has changed color, his blood pressure is dropping again, and his bladder pressure has been rising steadily for the past two to three hours. It just spiked to 22mmHg. It’s a secondary inflammatory storm."
"Liquefactive necrosis? An infection?"
"Exactly. The situation is critical. We need to perform bedside debridement immediately!"