Chapter 114: Chapter 114: Percussion

Just like how sailors have a taboo against saying the word “sink” and you’re not supposed to flip a fish over while eating it, hospitals—places people don’t want to go but have to—also have their own taboos.

In a hospital, the foremost taboo is “death,” which translates into the number “4.”

That’s why some hospital inpatient buildings don’t have a fourth or fourteenth floor.

And in each ward, beds are not numbered “Bed 4,” “Bed 14,” “Bed 24,” and so on, all to accommodate the superstitious psychology of patients and their families.

However, the Affiliated Hospital’s inpatient building did have a fourth and a fourteenth floor, and they didn’t deliberately avoid the number 4 for their bed numbers, either.

This was because the Affiliated Hospital had enough confidence to back it up.

Countless patients were lined up waiting for a bed. Take it or leave it!

The hospital’s medical staff also had a taboo against saying things like “slow,” “quiet,” or “nothing’s happening,” believing these words were jinxes that couldn’t be spoken.

Because the moment you said them, something would happen. It was practically a universal law.

It wasn’t just what you said; there were also rules about what you ate.

When on duty, you couldn’t eat mangos or anything related to them, like mango juice, because of the fear of getting “busy.”

Nor could you eat things like strawberries and blueberries, for fear of getting “unlucky.”

Some people would even piously arrange apples and bananas: four apples plus two bananas arranged in the shape of the character for “eight,” to symbolize being “safe and sound.”

Besides these so-called taboos, Yan Feifan had also been taught a few rules by his seniors that he absolutely had to pay attention to.

First, if a male patient needed emergency treatment requiring a family member’s signature for consent, and the only person who brought him to the hospital was his wife…

in this situation, Yan Feifan had been instructed to strongly advise the patient’s wife to call other family members over.

For example, their son, or the man’s brothers and parents.

This was a necessary precaution, a lesson the hospital had learned through blood and tears.

Because, in reality, the status of women in most families wasn’t actually that high.

Past experience had shown time and again that if the wife was left to make the decision on her own, disputes were very likely to arise.

But if the situation were reversed and a female patient needed surgery, having just the husband present to give consent was sufficient.

There was another thing that showed the difference in status between men and women.

When a male patient became brain-dead and entered a vegetative state, the female spouse would generally hand over the decision of whether to continue or stop treatment to the man’s parents and brothers.

Yan Feifan was also told by his seniors that, as long as it didn’t interfere with medical treatment or hospital order, they could let patients use their so-called “secret remedies” that they’d scrounged up from who-knows-where.

For certain special individuals, if the Bureau of Religious Affairs gave its approval, they were even allowed to perform religious rites at the Affiliated Hospital.

This was because life was too miraculous; the more you understood, the more you felt a sense of awe.

There were those diagnosed with incurable diseases, essentially given a death sentence, who made miraculous recoveries.

And there were those with only minor, common ailments who ended up losing their lives.

Beyond medical skill, things like luck, mindset, and spiritual strength could also, to some extent, determine a patient’s life or death.

It was just like the dozen or so injured people brought in this afternoon after a scaffolding collapse.

One worker had been impaled by three steel bars, one of which had even pierced his heart, yet after emergency surgery, he miraculously survived.

Among them was an injured man in a sharp suit and leather shoes, said to be a boss who had come to inspect the construction site on a whim today.

He had just gotten out of his car, reportedly twenty or thirty meters away from the collapsing scaffold, but was hit in the head by a flying brick.

At the time, the boss only felt a bit of a headache and some dizziness, so he had his driver take him to the hospital just for a precautionary check-up.

The result was that this boss never made it out of the emergency department.

This led everyone in the ER to sigh with emotion. Fate was truly fickle…

The afternoon in the ER had started with a rare moment of leisure, but from then until evening, it was a blur of non-stop, overwhelming work.

At eight in the evening, Yan Feifan still managed to carve out some time to go to the plastic surgery center to check on the progress of Yo Jiayong’s muscle bundle grafting.

The results were quite satisfactory to both Wang Chuan and Yan Feifan; less than five percent of the muscle bundles had failed to take.

They had already accounted for this possibility during the last surgery and had grafted a few extra muscle bundles as a buffer.

The two of them then removed the bundles that hadn’t grafted successfully, as well as the surplus ones.

After that stretch of work, by the time Yan Feifan returned to Zuimo Court, it was already past ten o’clock.

When Yan Feifan returned to his apartment, he was surprised to find they had guests.

“Ladies, allow me to formally introduce you. This is my genius little brother, the youngest resident physician at the Affiliated Hospital, Yan Feifan!”

Yan Ziruo grabbed her brother, who was trying to escape back to his room, and pulled him in front of two young women who were quite easy on the eyes.

“Feifan, let me introduce you.”

“This is…”

Yan Ziruo pointed to a woman with a slightly tan complexion, a neat short haircut, and a very sunny disposition.

“My fitness instructor from the Blue Sky Club, Nie Qing!”

“And this is…”

Yan Ziruo then gestured to the girl next to Nie Qing, who looked a bit pale and had a very elegant and quiet demeanor. “A friend I met at the gym, Xue Yali!”

“Nie Qing, hello! Xue Yali, hello!”

Yan Feifan gave a casual greeting, then added perfunctorily, “I just got back from a busy shift at the hospital, so I’m a little tired…”

“Tired and hungry, right?”

Yan Ziruo quickly interjected, “I figured you’d be back soon, so I ordered some takeout for a late-night snack.”

“But I didn’t get anything to drink.”

“Feifan, could you make us some wontons?”

His sister had spoken, so Yan Feifan had no choice but to comply.

He changed out of his coat, went to the kitchen to prepare the wontons, and Yan Ziruo followed him in.

She leaned close to Yan Feifan and whispered, “So, little brother, what do you think? They’re both pretty cute, right? And they have great figures, you know.”

“Which one do you like more? Your big sis will help you out!”

Yan Feifan placed the stockpot filled with water on the stove and turned on the flame.

“Sis, you can just focus on finding your own rich second-generation heir. Don’t worry about my business.”

“I leave early and come home late. What time do I have to date anyone?”

Yan Ziruo curled her lip dismissively. “By that logic, all the interns and residents at the hospital should be single forever.”

“But plenty of them have girlfriends.”

Yan Feifan said with a straight face, “They’re them, I’m me. I’m not like them.”

“What’s so different? Are you not a man?”

Yan Ziruo shot back sarcastically. Suddenly, she heard a knock on the door and hurried out of the kitchen…

About ten minutes later, Yan Feifan came into the living room carrying a tray with four bowls of wontons and saw that a few side dishes had already been placed on the coffee table.

Yan Ziruo, Nie Qing, and Xue Yali hadn’t touched their chopsticks yet; they were all waiting for him.

As Yan Feifan set down the tray, he couldn’t help but twitch his nose and glance at Xue Yali, who was nearby.

He smelled a faint but familiar scent.

A metallic smell, faintly like rust.

He then noticed Xue Yali’s pale complexion and that her hands, as she accepted the bowl of wontons, were trembling slightly.

“Are you not feeling well?”

Xue Yali gave an embarrassed smile and was about to respond when Nie Qing, who was beside her, spoke up. “Yan Feifan, you’re so observant. A genius doctor indeed.”

“Something came up for her suddenly tonight.”

Yan Feifan let out a soft “oh” and looked again at the slightly embarrassed Xue Yali. “Do you have issues with menstrual cramps?”

Xue Yali shook her head. “No, but it’s a bit painful this time. It might be because I exercised too strenuously earlier.”

“Is it very painful?” Yan Feifan asked again.

Xue Yali said quietly, “It hurts a bit, but it’s bearable.”

“Did it come on time this month?”

Being pressed on such a private topic, Xue Yali felt a little displeased, but considering he was a doctor and his gaze was professional and clear…

She answered patiently, “It was two days earlier than I calculated. It’s usually on time or a day or two late.”

“A first time, an exception—both signify something unusual.”

Yan Feifan said this with a serious expression, then got up, went back to his room, and came out with a stethoscope and a blood pressure monitor.

Seeing him get into a doctor-examining-a-patient posture, Xue Yali could only cooperate helplessly.

Nie Qing also leaned in, watching with great interest.

Yan Feifan first measured Xue Yali’s blood pressure: 107/64 mmHg. Normal.

Next, Yan Feifan used the stethoscope to listen to Xue Yali’s heartbeat, lung sounds, and bowel sounds.

Considering she was a girl and had her period, Yan Feifan listened very carefully to her abdominal sounds with the stethoscope.

He tapped on Xue Yali’s lower abdomen while discerning the sounds coming back through the stethoscope.

This is called percussion.

Through the stethoscope, Yan Feifan heard a characteristic dull sound.

This indicated there was fluid in the abdomen, and quite a lot of it.

When a patient has abdominal fluid, tapping on their abdomen causes the vibration frequency to change, resulting in a different pitch heard through the stethoscope.

An experienced clinician can determine if a patient has abdominal fluid based on this pitch.

Yan Feifan took off his stethoscope and said gravely, “Xue Yali, you have a significant amount of fluid in your abdomen. My judgment is that it’s most likely accumulated blood.”

“You need to go to the hospital for an abdominal ultrasound right now…”

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