Four in a single night

Zhang Fan started his work in the cardiovascular department. Here, the most important thing was that one needed to be steady. What did that mean? It meant that you had to be capable of working for long periods of time. In the morning, you would have to check up on the patients, which was followed by analyzing patients' liquids, offering updated medical advice, and starting all sorts of new laboratory test reports on patients' liquids.

Internal medicine doctors would often have to spend a great deal of time typing on a computer, looking through medical textbooks and discussing a patient's situation with another doctor when necessary. The cardiovascular department also had the additional treatment type of interventional radiology. The doctors here were really busy. A lot of energy would be used up working here.

The women of the cardiovascular department had forcefully managed to successfully develop the interventional radiology center despite the lack of support from the former superintendent Huang Yun. Now that Ouyang Hong was the new superintendent, she greatly supported the interventional radiology center, and many new doctors were added here.

Director Ren Li no longer worked in interventional radiology. A newer doctor was put in charge there. Ren Li had worked hard in interventional radiology for several years, and absorbed too much radiation. Her white blood cell count was now low. Nowadays, she only directed others on how to do their work while staying behind lead plates.

Zhang Fan's teaching doctor, Ye Jing, was completely unwilling to go work in interventional radiology. She didn't want to be harmed by the negative effects of radiation. Although the doctors had protective equipment, there would still be harmful side effects. She directly refused Director Ren's recommendation that she go work in interventional radiology.

Ye Jing only wanted to be an ordinary doctor. She had no interest in studying anything further to improve herself. She would simply treat the patients that she was able to. For patients with more difficult medical situations, well, she would leave them to the higher-ranking doctors. There were several higher-ranking doctors far more knowledgeable than she, after all. If she was unable to help with a patient's medical situation, she would simply give that patient to someone else.

However, one of her strengths was that she had good attention to details. It was quite rare that any problems would arise with her patients. She would also listen exactly to whatever higher-ranking doctors told her to do. She would follow their directions to the letter, without any thoughts of her own.

She had quite a lot of free time for an internal medicine doctor, not being busy all the time like the others. She wasn't competitive or forceful at all. Ye Jing counted as a nice person in the cardiovascular department. She would take care of any patients that were assigned to her, but would never care about competing over obtaining more patients when she had few patients.

Since her husband's income was excellent, she wasn't under any pressure to make a high income of her own. While she would of course be happy with more money, she didn't really mind if she didn't make too much money. Thus, she was unmotivated to work hard. Ye Jing was basically the invisible type in the cardiovascular department. She was never called by the hospital for any emergency treatment patients, either. Still, she was quite happy with this.

Currently, Ye Jing had seven patients whose respective condition was quite stable. They only needed ordinary treatment, nothing special. Ye Jing was delighted that she had been assigned a new doctor, which meant that she could leave writing the medical reports to Zhang Fan.

Ye Jing instantly left after her work shift was over. Zhang Fan still needed to write medical reports and obtain the patients' laboratory test results. He also had to occasionally help other doctors with errands such as performing an electrocardiogram.

The next day, Ye Jing was scheduled for a 24-hour work shift. Zhang Fan worked quite excellently during the day, recording all the medical reports and laboratory test results and finishing all the patient checkups.

After the day shift doctors went home, Ye Jing took Zhang Fan to check up on the patients. There were some patients in serious condition that other doctors had notified her about before they left.

Checking up on the patients three times a day was an ironclad rule at Chasu City Hospital. Most of the patients had been here for quite a while, so they were quite clear on the treatment procedures at the hospital. Some patients even knew the procedures better than the rotation doctors did. Such patients would instantly go to the doctors' offices to find a doctor if the checkup was even a few minutes late.

Ye Jing immediately started frowning after she finished the checkups. Although Zhang Fan wasn't very knowledgeable about internal medicine, even he could see that several of the patients were in very poor condition.

For the patients in the cardiology department, even one minute's delay could be fatal. An cardiovascular emergency medical situation that wasn't taken care of instantly would quite often result in the patient's death.

Patient deaths would be especially common in the cardiovascular department. Someone who seemed alright just a moment ago might suddenly start trembling and suffer from heart pain. It was common for the patient to die before the doctor could even rush to the patient's room.

That was why cardiologists all needed to have strong hearts and swift legs. They needed to be strong at working under pressure and running quickly.

Ye Jing frowned while saying, "This night shift will be a difficult one. It's likely that medical emergencies will arise." Even though her medical skills were only average, she was still a veteran doctor with more than a decade of experience. She could still tell when a patient was in very bad condition.

Zhang Fan had no such experience. He had never interned or worked in internal medicine before. He was also currently unable to access any internal medicine courses in his System. Thus, he was a bit confused.

"Oh! We'll just have to pull an all-nighter without sleeping, then," Zhang Fan stated naively.

Ye Jing turned to smile bitterly at Zhang Fan. "It wouldn't be much of a problem if things could easily be taken care of by not sleeping. I really regret my lack of knowledge while I was younger, choosing the cardiovascular department. It's really so hard working here."

'You're too old to regret your choice now,' Zhang Fan thought to himself while pouting.

Ye Jing was quite generous to Zhang Fan as she purchased meals and water for him. This was all in order to make Zhang Fan happy with her so that he would work properly on writing the medical reports, obtaining laboratory test results, and other such menial errands. She no longer had to do such work now that there was a new doctor assigned under her.

"Little Zhang, where are you from? Do you have a girlfriend?" Zhang Fan was currently writing a medical report. Ye Jing had nothing to do, so she chatted with him to relieve her boredom.

"I'm from S Province. I'm still currently single."

"Oh, are you used to the border province? You didn't have a girlfriend back in the college? I see that many of the new doctors came here already as couples. During the previous rotation, a male and female doctor who were a couple came to our department together."

"I'm doing alright." Zhang Fan didn't want to talk. He felt that Ye Jing was too gossipy.

"I heard that you've already been chosen by a surgical department. Which one? It really is nice in surgery; you have nothing to do when there's no surgeries. It must be so free every day."

This was something only an outsider to the surgical departments could say. A surgeon at a Class A hospital would have quite a lot of free time? That would only be the case for the department director or a retired surgeon.

Zhang Fan could only helplessly reply, "It's about the same, it's pretty busy. There's so many surgeries that sometimes there's not even enough time to eat."

"What? I see that the surgical department has dinner parties almost every night, and often goes out for karaoke together. I've seen it so many times at our hospital." Of course, Ye Jing also often went to dinner parties and karaoke, yet she was talking about others! Sheesh!

"Really? I just joined Chasu City Hospital recently, so I still don't know things here well." Zhang Fan truly didn't know what he was supposed to say. He didn't dare to say too much. He felt that this woman was ridiculously talkative.

"You'll find out once you're permanently assigned to a department. Internal medicine truly isn't good to work in. Women have so much drama. People will talk so much if you as much as wear some pretty clothing. It's really annoying."

"Oh." Zhang Fan had originally intended on finishing the medical reports as quickly as possible so that he could study some internal medicine textbooks afterwards, but with Ye Jing constantly chattering near his ears, he was unable to concentrate, and often made typos on the medical reports, slowing him down even further as he corrected them.

Finally, Ye Jing went to take a shower at midnight. Zhang Fan finally obtained the silence he wanted. He still had three more medical reports to finish at this time.

Ye Jing then went to sleep at the doctors' resting area. Zhang Fan was unable to go there to rest himself. The patient rooms of the cardiovascular department were all occupied, so there were no empty rooms to sleep in. Neither had Ye Jing said that Zhang Fan could rest.

Just as Zhang Fan was hesitating about what he should do, a nurse ran over hurriedly. "Hurry! Patient #5 is in an emergency situation! Where's Doctor Ye?"

"The doctors' resting area."

"Go call her! Hurry!"

The nurse immediately ran back to the patient's room. Three night shift nurses were on duty, while Ye Jing was the only official doctor on night shift at the cardiovascular department tonight.

Zhang Fan immediately ran to the door of the doctors' resting area, calling out, "Doctor Ye, Patient #5 is in an emergency situation! The nurse is calling for you!"

*Clang!* Something unknown created a loud sound inside the doctors' resting area. Ye Jing came out with her hair all messy. She commented as she ran, "I knew it! I knew it! Tonight definitely won't be an easy shift. Hurry and go push the bedside electrocardiogram."

When Zhang Fan arrived at the patient's room while pushing the electrocardiogram, Ye Jing had already begun chest compressions for the patient. She was panting as she said, "Come do the chest compressions, I don't have the strength to do any more. I'll perform the electrocardiogram."

Chest compressions required you to press down five centimeters at a rate of 100 times per minute. This physical task would be impossible for anyone in poor physical condition. Chest compressions would also commonly result in accidentally fracturing a patient's rib. This was because chest compressions required great force.

Zhang Fan hurriedly took over performing chest compressions from Ye Jing. "Give the patient cardiac stimulant via intravenous injection, the largest dosage allowed. Hurry!" Ye Jing commanded the nurse.

The patient's family members were all kicked out of the room, so they pressed themselves up against the glass window to look inside. Patient #5 was an elderly man in his sixties. His wife's face was already covered in tears, while several of their children supported her while looking expectantly at the doctors in the room.

*Beep! Beep! Beep!* The bedside monitor began to issue a warning that the heartrate was flatlining.

"He's gone. Just finish a final electrocardiogram. You can stop the chest compressions now," Ye Jing said to Zhang Fan as she stopped her efforts.

They slowly left the patient's room. There wasn't much left to say. The patient's doctor had previously informed the patient's family already that the patient was in such a condition that he might pass away at any moment.

Before Zhang Fan could even get a few minutes of rest, the night shift nurse ran over again. "Patient #9!" She then immediately ran back to the patient's room. Zhang Fan pushed the electrocardiogram machine while running after Ye Jing.

"Nurse! Nurse! Please come! I think my mom is dying! Please hurry!" Patient #23's daughter shouted at this time.

"You go to patient #23, I'll go to patient #9. Perform an electrocardiogram first," Ye Jing told Zhang Fan.

Just as they were working to save patients #9 and #23, an emergency situation arose with patient #18. Zhang Fan didn't even have the time to rush over to perform an electrocardiogram before patient #18 passed away. He was extremely busy all night all the way until it was light out, but patients #5, #9, #18, and #23 all ended up passing away that night.

Zhang Fan didn't even get a chance to rest afterwards, because the morning was filled with writing the death reports, as well as adding on to the medical reports about all the efforts to try and save the patients.

Zhang Fan didn't even get any time to mourn for the patients as he finished his first 24-hour work shift in the cardiovascular department.