Chapter 216: Scary near-death experience

The government leaders sent a leader who was in charge of medical matters to stay at the hospital. Luckily, it was currently winter vacation for the schools, so the students were all at home. Otherwise, the flu epidemic would have been even more severe. It was almost New Year's, so the streets should have been quite bustling, yet all the shopping malls were quite empty as everyone was staying at home due to the flu epidemic instead.

The other hospitals in and around Chasu City didn't have enough medical personnel to deal with the large influx of patients with the flu. Not only that, the patients didn't think that they could trust the smaller hospitals, so they all gathered at Chasu City Hospital.

A flu prevention team was established with a government leader in charge of health as the team leader. This team's job would be to arrange for other relevant government branches to assist with the hospital's work. The vice team leader was Superintendent Ouyang, who was in charge of overseeing Chasu City Hospital's medical treatment. Other smaller squadron leaders included the leaders of the Bureau of Health, Quarantine Bureau, and so on.

Being a team leader or squadron leader really wouldn't be easy. If you did your job well, it would be considered only natural, but if the flu epidemic couldn't be controlled, these leaders would be the first to take the blame. Exceptional measures would be required in exceptional times. This was quite effective for Chasu City.

At Superintendent Ouyang's command, regular clinical treatment was stopped, and other ordinary patients were transferred to other hospitals. Chasu City Hospital would no longer accept non-flu patients apart from emergencies. Additionally, all doctors who were lower in rank than attending physician would be joining the temporary flu prevention team.

The benefits of the rotation doctor system soon showed. The rotation doctors didn't need additional training or to learn anything. They were immediately able to help treat the flu. Patient beds were arranged in an orderly fashion in the main hallway of the hospital. Patients who were in severe condition were brought to the ICU department, patients who were older and in weaker condition were brought to the respiratory department, and the youngest patients were brought to the pediatrics department.

China would always mobilize a government meeting whenever something major occurred, but unlike during most other government meetings, all of the leaders were sitting down in a circle, while Superintendent Ouyang was the only one who remained standing up on stage.

"Comrades, a severe flu has struck us. There's a tremendous number of patients, and the epidemic is severe to the point where we can't afford to wait around. As comrades fighting for the sake of health, now is the time for us to be at the forefront. At such a time, there's no possible reason to back out, unless you're willing to abandon your job! I think that there won't be a single person who runs away in this time of crisis here. From today onwards, nobody will have a single day of vacation, unless you have collapsed!" Superintendent Ouyang spoke in an ice-cold tone. She didn't try to sound motivational at all. At such a time, there was no logic or reason to use here.

This was the special nature of health care. Normally, Superintendent Ouyang was someone who was highly protective of her own. Everyone already knew about her personality. Sometimes, Superintendent Ouyang could be unreasonably overprotective. This was because she was someone who had worked her way up from being the lowest-ranking doctor before. She knew how difficult it could be in this job.

But at this moment, it was time for her to be using a butcher knife. Were there people who wanted to retreat from the flu epidemic? Of course there would be. It was only human nature to be afraid. Many private clinics and hospitals had already closed down during this flu epidemic. The staff there preferred to rest at home instead of treating patients. It wasn't like anything could be done about that, could there? However, things would be different at a public hospital.

"Hospital general affairs department, begin issuing the equipment," Superintendent Ouyang calmly told the general affairs director as she looked at all the doctors and nurses below the stage.

What did equipment refer to here? That would be surgical masks. Everyone had to wear thick surgical masks. Any doctor in the ICU department was also issued protective goggles. Everyone wore suffocating, heavy surgical masks instead of the typical blue one-time-use surgical masks as they went about work in the hospital.

After Zhang Fan rested for one day, he was assigned to the respiratory department again in his confusion. The respiratory department was currently receiving patients who were in bad condition, but not bad enough to be hospitalized in the ICU department.

Respirators and monitoring equipment were at the ready. Every doctor had a bottle of hand sanitizer with them in order to disinfect themselves at any moment. The rotation doctors and resident doctors all gathered together. Each resident doctor would be in charge of managing five to six patients. The rotation doctors who didn't have a medical license yet would be in charge of running errands for the other doctors.

Since Zhang Fan already had his medical license, he needed to be independently in charge of his patients. At such a time, no matter if you had connections or not, or if you were feeling unwell, you would absolutely have to become part of the medical team, unless you had collapsed as well due to the flu.

Wang Yanan, Wang Zipeng, Tong Lili, Lu Shuyan, and other such young doctors all had to work directly to clinically treat the patients, just like Zhang Fan was. Zhang Fan was assigned three elderly patients and two young adult patients.

The high fevers caused by this flu strain were quite vicious. The fevers reached 39 degrees Celsius on average. Any adult who reached such a temperature would basically be withering. If the virus's development couldn't be contained, then the patient's symptoms would only worsen even further.

The flu virus began to harvest the lives of the weak and elderly. In just one day, six patients in the respiratory department passed away due to complications from the flu. The human body was in a way similar to dominoes. If just one organ failed, it would usually lead to a chain reaction with many other organs failing as well.

"Zhang Fan, your patient #9 is starting to suffocate!" A nurse in the respiratory department loudly called out for Zhang Fan. His patient #9 was a skinny old man who would always have to hospitalize himself in the respiratory department every winter. This year had been no exception.

Zhang Fan swiftly ran over to patient #9's room, where he immediately could tell that this was a major problem. The old man had been running a high fever due to the flu. His throat was really swollen, and he had a lot of phlegm, reaching the point where his respiratory tract actually became blocked.

"Hurry, give me the sputum aspirator!" Zhang Fan said to the nurse standing nearby. Since the patient was suffocating, he was struggling severely, and was unable to cooperate with sputum aspiration.

"Don't struggle! Hurry and open your mouth so that we can drain the phlegm for you. Listen to us!" the young nurse nervously shouted at the patient.

However, the patient was in no condition to cooperate right now. He violently struggled and shook his bed as he tried to find an appropriate position from which he could breathe precious air.

Zhang Fan saw that the patient's face was becoming ever paler, so he immediately stated, "This is no good. Prepared for an incision. Hurry! I need more people to help hold him down." As the head nurse of the respiratory department heard this, she hurriedly brought several nurses over. Currently, all other doctors were busy with their own patients, so only nurses were available to help Zhang Fan.

The patient was having extreme breathing difficulties by now. He was on the verge of suffocating to death. Zhang Fan needed to perform a tracheotomy. Time was far too critical here, so there was no time at all to contact the patient's family for permission to begin the surgery or to sign any paperwork.

Zhang Fan administered lidocaine to the patient while telling the respiratory department head nurse, "Hurry and take the other patients out of the room."

Due to the flu epidemic, there weren't enough medical personnel to go around. Meanwhile, this patient room was supposed to only have three patient beds, but an extra two patient beds had been squeezed in for the epidemic. Five patients were currently in this patient room meant for only three. They were all elderly patients who had difficulties moving.

Moving the other patients was a slow process, but Zhang Fan's patient #9 didn't have any time to wait around for them to leave. Any further stalling would surely cause him to suffocate to death. Zhang Fan couldn't be bothered about any patient who still hadn't left yet. Several nurses helped him to forcibly press down the patient as if the patient was a pig about to be slaughtered. Zhang Fan swiftly pinched the thyroid cartilage with his left hand, and cut open the skin, tissue, and muscle, reaching to the windpipe.

After Zhang Fan made sure that he was touching the tracheal wall, he used his surgical knife to directly cut open the windpipe and swiftly insert a tracheal tube. Zhang Fan was incredibly swift at performing this surgery. He used only about 30 seconds, which was extremely fast.

But as for the patient, 30 seconds would seem like an eternity, or as if it was several centuries. He felt nothing but pure suffocation on top of all the nurses forcibly holding him down. Such discomfort had caused him to despair!

The elderly patient finally showed signs of being able to breathe normally again. The nurses let go of his limbs. The old man tightly grabbed onto Zhang Fan's surgical outfit, not wanting to let go after that brush with the feeling of suffocating to death. Tears kept streaming down the old man's face due to his extreme tension. He wasn't actually crying. The tears were because he had been so scared! Actually, this old man was quite resolute already. Not only would tears come out of a patient who was suffocating to death, it was quite common that the patient would even pee and poop as well.

What was one of the scariest feelings in the world? Still having a clear consciousness while also clearly sensing yourself suffocating to death. That was just far too scary. Anyone who had experienced death approaching them while their consciousness was perfectly clear would never forget the experience for the rest of their life.

"How are you?" Zhang Fan asked the patient.

"Huff! Puff!" The sound of heavy breathing could be heard through the tracheal tube as the old man nodded. He kept grabbing on to Zhang Fan's surgical attire as if he was a young child. His legs were bent and curled up under him. He was truly afraid. At this moment, he was at his weakest. Due to the tracheal tube in him right now, he was unable to speak. Just as Zhang Fan was about to sew things back up, another old man on the next bed over who hadn't managed to leave in time suddenly fainted!

"Hurry and check that patient's condition! I'll do the sewing by myself!" Zhang Fan hurriedly told the nurses.

The nurses who had just finished suppressing Zhang Fan's patient then turned to help the patient who had fainted!

"Call for another doctor! I can't deal with him right now!" Zhang Fan was sweating profusely. With so many medical emergencies, his hands which were always so steady actually started shaking slightly!

An elderly patient fainting would be no simple matter. It might be that the patient would never wake up again!