Chapter 54: Chapter 54: Kneeling Rescue

A ruptured carotid artery is an extremely critical medical emergency.

When the carotid artery ruptures, blood gushes out due to the high arterial pressure. Its proximity to the heart means the pressure is immense—comparable to a main water supply pipe, if not even more forceful than a fire hydrant smashed open on the side of the road!

Once the carotid artery is severed, arterial blood can no longer supply oxygen to the brain, which is immediately deprived.

After more than three minutes without oxygen, the brain will suffer irreversible damage.

After six minutes, it’s definitely game over.

However, if the carotid artery is left to spurt blood freely, the person will die from shock due to excessive blood loss in less than a minute.

This rescue was, therefore, a race against time.

“The patient’s neck was pierced by glass shards. We performed a simple dressing…”

The blood-soaked doctor explained hurriedly as he led Yan Feifan at a full sprint, “The ambulance got stuck in traffic right as we reached the hospital entrance.”

“The patient’s neck suddenly started gushing blood…”

“We used hemostats to stop it temporarily…”

By then, Yan Feifan had already run out of the hospital’s south gate. He saw two cars in the westbound lane, nose to nose as if they’d kissed.

Two women were also rolling around on the road, tangled up in a brawl.

At least a few dozen cars were stuck behind them.

Yan Feifan immediately spotted the ambulance, trapped more than forty meters away.

If there had been time, Yan Feifan would have definitely gone over and given each of the brawling women a swift kick.

’Fucking hell, of all the places to start a fight.’

Yan Feifan had just sprinted about ten meters when he saw two people jogging toward him on the sidewalk ahead, carrying a stretcher.

The person in front was even wearing a white coat!

The blood-soaked doctor’s heavy breathing sounded in Yan Feifan’s ear again. “That’s Mr. Gao. They’re carrying the patient over…”

As the two groups approached each other, they were about five or six meters apart when Yan Feifan’s eyes met those of the sweat-drenched Mr. Gao.

“You got this?”

“Suture kit?”

The disparate questions left their lips at almost the exact same time.

Yan Feifan and Mr. Gao both heard and understood each other.

Next, Mr. Gao gently placed the stretcher on the sidewalk.

Yan Feifan approached the stretcher and saw the patient: unconscious, his face and body covered in blood.

He saw the man’s neck was wrapped in blood-soaked gauze.

He saw two suture kits and two bags of saline solution on the stretcher.

The next moment, to get a better angle, Yan Feifan knelt directly in front of the stretcher and ripped away the gauze from the patient’s neck.

Inside the gash on the neck, a thick, three-to-four-centimeter-long section of a major blood vessel, clamped by two hemostats, was immediately exposed to Yan Feifan’s view, trembling slightly.

He discovered a diagonal tear, over a centimeter long, on this section of the carotid artery.

This was much less severe than the worst-case scenario Yan Feifan had imagined—a complete transection of the artery.

He estimated that at least one-third of the vessel was still connected.

Yan Feifan held out a hand, and an opened bag of saline was placed into it.

With one hand, he massaged the ruptured area of the vessel; with the other, he poured saline, crudely but effectively flushing out the residual blood from inside.

During this process, Yan Feifan felt no glass fragments or other foreign bodies inside the vessel.

He tossed the saline bag aside and extended both hands. A needle holder and pointed surgical forceps were placed in his left and right hands, respectively.

The entire process was almost instantaneous.

In this race against the clock, Mr. Gao and the blood-soaked doctor, serving as his temporary assistants, performed their roles perfectly.

Vascular suturing, especially of major arteries like the aorta, requires special techniques to withstand high pressure.

For Yan Feifan, however, this was one of his most basic skills.

His fingers moved as nimbly as a fluttering butterfly. The suture needle darted in and out on both sides of the tear, and the black suture line extended forward like centipede legs, securely locking the wound shut.

After quickly tying the knot, Yan Feifan didn’t even bother to trim the excess thread. Moving both hands at once, he directly released the two hemostats.

During this process, the small amount of air trapped in the sutured vessel would be carried by the blood to the brain and other parts of the body.

This amount of air was too minimal to cause any significant harm.

To cause a fatal air embolism, at least one hundred milliliters of air would have to be injected into a major blood vessel within a minute.

From the moment Yan Feifan knelt down to when he released the hemostats, the entire procedure, performed with crisp efficiency, took less than fifty seconds.

This left Mr. Gao and the blood-soaked doctor utterly astonished.

Especially when they saw the sutured vessel instantly swell and twitch a couple of times, their hearts leaped into their throats…

Once, twice, three times…

The vessel pulsed rhythmically four or five times without any sign of gushing or even seepage. The blood-soaked doctor couldn’t help but cry out, “It worked! It actually worked…”

Yan Feifan shot him a glance and said, “It’s not time to celebrate yet. Get him to the hospital, quickly.”

At his urging, the patient was lifted up again.

Only then did Yan Feifan realize a crowd had gathered around them, with many people holding up their phones to take pictures or record videos.

He even noticed a couple of people whose faces were pale, clearly disturbed by the bloody scene, but who were still craning their necks for a better look.

Yan Feifan was left speechless.

’Aren’t they afraid of having nightmares?’

He gathered the discarded saline bag, bloody gauze, and other items from the ground, then jogged to catch up with the stretcher.

When they reached the hospital’s south gate, Yan Feifan saw the two disheveled women with messy hair being led to the side of the road by a police officer.

The man on the stretcher’s neck wound was still untreated, completely exposed to the air.

His face and body were also covered in blood.

And then there was the blood-soaked doctor. The sight of it all made the police officer stare, wide-eyed.

“What happened here?”

“Officer…”

Yan Feifan pointed back at the ambulance still stuck in the lane and replied loudly, “The patient started bleeding out while the ambulance was blocked.”

“If this man doesn’t make it…”

Yan Feifan abruptly pointed a finger at the two brawling women, who were now standing meekly to the side. “They will be the ones who indirectly killed him.”

At his harsh accusation, the color instantly drained from the two women’s faces, leaving them deathly pale…

The patient on the stretcher was taken to the emergency hall and immediately handed over to an attending physician from the emergency department.

Back in the emergency hall, Yan Feifan learned from a nurse what had happened.

A nearby mall had hired a celebrity for a promotional event, but a billboard had collapsed.

More than ten people were hit on the spot.

In the ensuing chaos, a stampede occurred, injuring several more.

Fortunately, the peak of the emergency had now passed, and there had been no fatalities so far.

As Yan Feifan was silently sighing in relief, he saw Mr. Gao and the blood-soaked doctor walking over.

“Gao Linxian, attending physician in neurology!”

“Tong Yu, medical intern!”

“Yan Feifan, resident physician.”

Yan Feifan introduced himself as well.

Their introductions made him understand why they couldn’t perform the arterial suture themselves.

For internal medicine doctors, their initial training upon entering the hospital includes surgical skills.

However, the standard for passing their surgical training is merely the ability to perform minor, level-one surgeries, like a traditional appendectomy.

Coupled with years of not being in an operating room, it was normal for their clinical surgical skills to be rusty and for them to be unable to suture a major artery.

As for an intern, that went without saying…

At 5:20 PM, Liu Jin, who was still at work in his office, received a visit from Qu Ying, the deputy director of public relations from the president’s office.

“Mr. Liu, your prized student has performed another great service.”

“I just saw a video shot by a netizen of him kneeling on the ground to perform the rescue.”

“With a bit of handling, this is enough to make our hospital go viral again.”

Liu Jin watched the video she showed him on her tablet, contemplated for a moment, and said, “The kid’s still a resident. It’s not good to give him too much exposure. It could interfere with his studies and training.”

“Mr. Qu, shift the promotional focus to the other two doctors.”

Qu Ying put away her tablet, a smile spreading across her face. “Alright, we’ll do it your way…”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep