Chapter 203: Law of the jungle

Was life cruel? Life would be incredibly cruel. Actually, anyone who was born into this world would already be incredibly lucky because it meant that they had already grabbed onto the most important opportunity of all, competing with countless other unborn siblings for the right to be born. After that, it would be a long and difficult process in the womb and growing up to reach adulthood! There would be countless dangers and difficulties along the way. Yet, you had bravely surpassed such difficulties already! So, you shouldn't feel that anything else was that difficult! That was because you were already the winner amongst several billion competitors trying to be born!

The principle of babies was actually the law of the jungle, survival of the fittest. With so many scientific developments, there were now many outside factors which would try to influence this process. Whether this was a good or bad thing? It would be difficult to say.

For instance, if there was a problem with an unborn child, and both parents were still young and had a good chance of a future pregnancy, and the doctor knew the parents quite well, the doctor would typically recommend against trying to save the baby. Things would be left up to heaven's will instead. Although this might sound harsh and difficult to accept, it might actually be the best choice.

Li Hui was three years older than Zhang Fan. He had been rather naughty while growing up, and had poor grades. He failed his first college entrance examination, but that finally motivated him to start working hard at studying. Li Hui's wife was also three years older than he was. Now that she was bleeding for no apparent reason, her family became really anxious. This was because she was already in her 30s, so she wouldn't have many more opportunities for pregnancy. As the old saying went, it would be best to have children while still young. This was actually quite logical!

A group of people was standing outside the gynecology department when Zhang Fan arrived. This was because Li Hui's wife had many older brothers. It was really cold in Chasu City during winter. Almost all of them were wearing leather jackets. Although nobody was saying anything, it appeared obvious that the atmosphere here wasn't very good.

Li Hui was dejectedly crouching in a corner. As the husband, he was the most worried of all. This was only natural!

"What happened?" Zhang Fan walked up and patted Li Hui on the shoulder.

"Old Wang told me that my child's development isn't going well. The gynecology director also arrived. She just went inside," Li Hui said rather dejectedly. He now seemed to be someone completely different from his usual youthful and exuberant self. Old Wang was an attending physician in the gynecology department. Since Li Hui was a resident doctor of Chasu City Hospital, Old Wang felt that she should pay extra attention to this. She gave Li Hui quite a lot of face by even informing the gynecology director of what had happened. The gynecology director then personally came from her own home to carefully check on the situation.

"Oh, let's just wait for the news then. I don't think there will be any problems." It was awkward for Zhang Fan to ask the specifics right now. And for such a thing, Zhang Fan could only give Li Hui a little consolation. Zhang Fan couldn't do anything to help him.

"I'm too much of a bastard. Her bleeding might be because I smoke and drink. Otherwise, why would she suddenly start bleeding for no reason!" Li Hui was blaming himself for this. Now that this had happened, he would only get a chance to regret things if the heavens gave him one.

"Why talk about such useless things right now? You should raise your spirits. While you may be feeling bad, your wife will be feeling even worse. What will others think of you upon seeing you like this? As a man, even if you want to cry, you should swallow your tears. The person who needs consoling the most right now is actually your wife!" Zhang Fan was rather angry after seeing how Li Hui was behaving. Although Zhang Fan also sympathized with him, Zhang Fan felt that now wasn't the time to be looking for a reason. Even if Li Hui found it, what could be done about it?

Gynecology Director Chen Hong was at the top of the field in gynecology and obstetrics in all of Chasu City. She soon exited the examination room. Li Hui's wife's brothers all instantly swarmed her. However, they felt that it would be inappropriate for them to speak up first, so they gave the chance to speak first to Li Hui, since Li Hui was also a doctor at Chasu City Hospital.

"Director Chen!" Li Hui pitifully waited for Chen Hong's diagnosis. Zhang Fan stood right next to Li Hui. Director Chen nodded to Zhang Fan before she told Li Hui, "The cervix hasn't opened. The fetal membrane isn't broken. There's no significant difference between uterine size and menstrual cycle."

These were all good news. Li Hui felt slightly reassured and his tense shoulders loosened up slightly since he also understood medicine.

"However, the fetus is indeed slightly underdeveloped. This time, what happened was a miscarriage warning sign. It's possible to continue with this pregnancy if she gets some good rest. However, there will be some risk with the pregnancy. It's also difficult to say if the fetus can catch up to normal development level or not. You should think things over properly and discuss with your family what to do."

Chen Hong then went back inside to wash her hands. Li Hui's brothers-in-law all looked directly at him. It would be up to Li Hui to decide whether to try and keep this unborn child or not.

Li Hui blankly stared at his brothers-in-law before turning around to look at Zhang Fan. Li Hui then grabbed onto his hair and started crouching in the corner again. This was such a difficult decision for him!

If he chose to keep the baby, it would indeed be possible to continue with the pregnancy with modern medical technology. However, the director's statement that the fetus was underdeveloped was critically important! It would be good if the fetus could catch up in development by itself, but what if it didn't?

For fetal development, it would be critically important for the fetus to meet normal development standards. Otherwise, the child would typically be born with some sort of defect or underdeveloped organ. In the later stages, since underdevelopment would usually mean missing a critical period of hormonal secretion, it would become common for deformities to appear.

If Li Hui chose against keeping the baby, then that would be simple. Some medicine would be used to perform an abortion and clean out his wife's uterus. His wife would then be able to soon return home after some simple observation. All of this would be really simple. However, Li Hui felt too pained to make this decision. Not to mention, his wife would soon pass the best childbearing age. He really didn't dare to imagine if something bad occurred again!

"How about we try and keep the baby?" After several minutes of frustration, Li Hui raised his head and looked at everyone else. In China, only the husband would have the right to make such a decision due to the law. Although Li Hui's wife's brothers were all right here, according to Chinese law, the opinions of direct relatives, even siblings and parents, were all irrelevant compared to the opinion of the husband.

Li Hui's wife's brothers all sighed, with none of them saying anything. Li Hui then turned to look at Zhang Fan. He knew that Zhang Fan was highly skilled, so he really wanted to hear Zhang Fan's recommendation. Zhang Fan mulled things over before saying, "It's like this. Director Chen has already explained everything quite clearly. You should also be able to understand what she means. You should first go and console your wife. Once both of you emotionally calm down, the two of you should then have a good talk. It's not urgent to decide right now whether you'll keep the baby or not."

"That's right! That's right! There's no rush! No rush!" The wife's brothers all agreed.

Li Hui's wife's brothers were all really muscular. They lifted Li Hui's wife from the examination room to the patient room. Li Hui followed after them. Before he left, he thanked Zhang Fan with tears still in his eyes. Zhang Fan felt rather helpless about all this. Although he wanted to help, there was nothing he could do.

Zhang Fan reported to work at the ICU department on the next day. Director Lin Long had interacted with Zhang Fan many times before. The two were quite familiar with each other and already on good terms, so they would speak directly with each other.

"Doctor Zhang, there's no need for anyone here to be your teaching doctor. Take a few days to get used to things in our department. After that, you can independently take shifts by yourself."

"You should still find someone to be my teaching doctor!" Zhang Fan said out of politeness.

"No need for that! You don't have to be polite with me. Just observe and get accustomed to things here. Whenever you're the primary doctor on duty, I'll also assign a rotation doctor under you. Otherwise, you might suddenly get called to perform a surgery one day. That would mean trying to find someone to suddenly cover your shift."

"Oh! Sorry for the trouble, Director Lin!" Zhang Fan awkwardly scratched his head.

"It's no trouble at all. Only an expert like you wouldn't want to come to the ICU department. Most normal fresh graduates are trying their hardest to get assigned here permanently!" Lin Long declared proudly.

Actually, the ICU department wasn't all that popular with new doctors. This was mostly because there were now more and more medical students, especially those who were graduate students with a master's degree. The hospital departments were now becoming pickier about recruiting new doctors. Although the undergraduate students could still manage to join the hospital through various channels, it would be quite troublesome for them if no hospital department at all wanted to hire them after their rotations finished.

Undergraduate students were different from graduate students. It was common for graduate students to already have a department that they would be permanently assigned to the moment that they signed a work contract with a local Class A hospital. Meanwhile, if no department was willing to recruit an undergraduate student after the end of rotations, then the undergraduate doctor could only accept whatever department the hospital wanted them to join.

The influence of connections in Chinese hospitals was extremely obvious. If you had connections, then you didn't have to worry so much about your work. You could simply spend some money on joining the department that you wanted to. But if you had no connections, and still didn't work hard or do a good job, then at the end of rotations, the hospital leadership would typically assign you to either a really unpopular department or a department with really difficult work.

For example, for two undergraduate doctors who entered Chasu City Hospital in the same year, one might be sent to the infectious diseases department, while the other was sent to a major department. In just a few years... for example five years later, there would be an obvious difference between the two doctors! There would be a tremendous difference in income, connections, and accomplishments, with the doctor in the major department having major advantages.

The ICU department of Chasu City Hospital wasn't actually considered a major department. This was because this department was still far too young. The work in this department also relied heavily on medical equipment in comparison to work in other departments. This meant that achieving major accomplishments would be far more difficult in this department. It would be quite difficult to accomplish anything with all this medical equipment around unless you were at least a doctorate degree student!

Although work in the ICU department was tiring, the work here was still far easier in comparison to work in the emergency department or infectious diseases department. This was why any rotation doctor who hadn't managed to get recruited by a major department would work their hardest in here. They were forced to by their situation. If they didn't work hard here, they would be assigned to either the infectious diseases department or emergency department. Getting transferred out of those departments would be almost impossible, unless a major physical problem occurred with their body! Or, they would have to try to find a job at another hospital! Otherwise, they would be stuck in such a department until retirement.

Since Zhang Fan was so familiar with the ICU department, he greeted the other doctors, and then immediately went to go check up on Bayan, who was currently in alright condition. However, Zhang Fan couldn't just rest assured. For electrocution injury, cardiac electric disturbance would be a highly common aftereffect. Thus, it couldn't be said that Bayan was no longer in any danger.

Also, two of Bayan's fingers on his right hand had been carbonized by the electrocution. Once his condition was completely stabilized, then immediate surgery would be required to amputate the dead fingers. Bayan actually counted as being quite lucky. Yes, he had lost two fingers, but at least he still had his life.

Patients in the ICU department would all be in severe condition. There were all sorts of them, such as comatose patients, patients with organ failure, patients who required all sorts of tubes to be stuck in them, and so on. At any rate, such patients needed constant care and supervision. Obviously, this meant that they would often be in a highly dangerous health situation.

Additionally, the patients who were in the ICU department were all patients who didn't want to give up yet, or their family members didn't want to give up on them yet. If a patient was in severe condition and conservative treatment would be ineffective, the doctor would typically recommend to the patient and their family to either transfer to the ICU department, or to give up entirely and wait for death!

In such a situation, the patient's family would either give up on treatment and sign an agreement indicating their understanding that death was highly likely, and wait for the patient's death in a regular patient room, or simply take the patient home with them and wait for death, or pay and send the patient to the ICU department.

The scariest part of working in the ICU department was that emergency treatment would often be required. It was said that right when the ICU department was established in Chasu City Hospital, there was immediately an incident where six different patients all required emergency treatment simultaneously! That was quite scary to think about.

It would also be difficult for patients in the ICU department to see their family members. Visitation hours were limited to only 30 minutes in the morning. Family members were typically forbidden from visiting during all other times. Thus, if a patient died, even if the doctor had warned the patient's family about the likelihood of death beforehand, there would still be many people who couldn't accept that the patient had died. Communication between doctors and the patient's family was quite difficult in the ICU department.

Zhang Fan got accustomed to the ICU department's work after just three days. Just as how there were more expensive private rooms amongst ordinary patient rooms, the ICU department was no exception. There was a VIP room which was separated from other ICU department patient rooms with glass. No ordinary person would be able to afford to stay here, as the cost was exorbitant. Also, the VIP room would have a nurse watching over the patient here 24/7, focused only on the VIP room.

Li Hui and his wife talked many times over several days. The two of them gritted their teeth and decided to keep the baby. Although keeping the baby sounded quite nice, the process required would actually be incredibly difficult. Li Hui's wife would be required to stay at the hospital for medical treatment. She would need to eat, drink, pee, and excrete all from her hospital bed. This might sound nice if you felt that she didn't have to do anything, but it would actually be quite torturous. It would be quite difficult for any ordinary person to remain stuck in bed for 48 hours straight. Not to mention, Li Hui's wife would have to remain in the hospital bed for bedrest all the way until her fetus was healthy. It was so difficult to be a woman!

In less than one week's time, Zhang Fan saw several patients in the ICU department pass away. Money wouldn't be capable of solving every health problem. However, no patient who didn't have money would even be able to afford staying in the ICU department. There was one nurse in the ICU department whose only job was to collect the hospital fees from every patient every day. Every morning, Zhang Fan would hear her saying to another patient something like this: "Patient #9, very little money is left in your account. You need to hurry and pay up, otherwise you won't be able to continue your treatment in the ICU department!"

The atmosphere in the ICU department was quite tense as the patients were in severe condition and at risk of dying. The doctors and nurses here could only try to resolve the tension by themselves by telling jokes to each other while they were free, chatting about gossip, and resting whenever they could. The eight-hour shifts in this department were far too hard. It was also common that a doctor would have to work lots of overtime if a patient suddenly required emergency treatment.

The money bonuses for nurses in the ICU department were higher than in any other department. However, it could be said that the nurses here were exchanging youth for money. The head nurse of the ICU department was a young woman who liked to tell the most brazen of jokes as a way of dealing with the pressure of working here. She also really loved to tease Zhang Fan because everyone could tell that Zhang Fan was a highly skilled doctor with great potential.

"Doctor Zhang, come give this old sister a leg massage. I've always heard that orthopedic surgeons have great hand strength. I want to try for myself." The ICU department head nurse had a seductive look even though she was wearing a surgical mask. Zhang Fan could imagine her fiery lips.

"Head nurse, usually the doctors in charge of massaging on television shows are named Little Li, Little An, and so on!" commented a slightly older nurse.

"Haha! How do you know that Doctor Zhang is or isn't small? Have you tried him already?"

"Oh! Sisters, could we please have a regular conversation? We're all in the medical field. Such a joke is rather boring!" Zhang Fan said rather helplessly. There was really no helping it. The rotation doctors had taken over all of the doctors' workstation computers as they had to write medical reports. Zhang Fan felt too awkward to try and fight over a computer with them, so instead he was borrowing a computer at the nurses' workstation to look over medical reports.

"Haha! He's embarrassed. Doctor Zhang, I hear that you have a girlfriend?"

"Yeah!"

"Is she beautiful? Is she as pretty as our Little Cheng?" Little Cheng was a nurse in the ICU department who was especially beautiful. She had an excellent figure and amazing looks. Also, it seemed that she was a relative of the head nurse.

Zhang Fan felt too awkward to answer. Little Cheng was nearby, filling out a temperature chart! Although she was working on paperwork, she was actually paying attention to this conversation and listening as well. Little Cheng herself would be too embarrassed to joke around so directly like this, but of course she would still want to listen when the topic was about herself!

"Um, both my girlfriend and Little Cheng have their advantages! They're equals!" Zhang Fan answered rather vaguely. The nurses in this department really were quite direct with their jokes. The head nurse wasn't a doctor, so she was able to naturally suppress the younger doctors in this way.

"You probably haven't even seen what's out there. How about you break up with your girlfriend and romance our Little Cheng instead!"

"Um, head nurse, I'll be busying myself with work now!" Zhang Fan hurriedly escaped. Actually, the head nurse would only tease someone like Zhang Fan with such jokes. It would already be quite something for the head nurse to politely speak with the other rotation doctors.

The head nurse could only make such jokes in order to ease the heavy atmosphere of the ICU department. Otherwise, the suffocating nature of working here would easily crush all the personnel.

During the second week of Zhang Fan's rotation in the ICU department, a rather special patient arrived!