“Move aside!” Dr. Guo suddenly pushed Shen Xingkong away. He was quite strong and nearly knocked Shen Xingkong over. His expression was full of disdain as he added, “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re up to. You’re just here to pad your resume, aren’t you?”
“What resume?” Shen Xingkong didn't argue with Dr. Guo for the moment, mainly because he didn’t understand what Dr. Guo meant.
“Hmph!” Dr. Guo’s disdainful expression deepened, and he didn’t even bother looking at Shen Xingkong. “You’re just a second-year student at a vocational college, and yet you’re here interning with Professor Shi. Who knows what kind of relationship you have with him? You must be some relative of his, here to get some experience under your belt so you can get a medical license later and become a doctor. I get it, so stop pretending with me. Just do whatever you’re supposed to do. No need to put on a show in front of me.”
After saying his piece, Dr. Guo opened the door to the ward and walked in, leaving Shen Xingkong standing at the doorway, feeling both amused and exasperated. It turned out that Dr. Guo thought he was just another person pulling strings to get ahead. It wasn’t surprising, really. For a second-year college student to be interning under someone as prestigious as Professor Shi at a hospital was highly unusual. Dr. Guo’s suspicions were somewhat justified.
With a shrug, Shen Xingkong decided not to bother explaining himself. Even if he did, Dr. Guo probably wouldn’t believe him. He followed Dr. Guo into the ward, deciding to be smarter this time and not interrupt the doctor while he was conducting routine checks on the patients. Instead, Shen Xingkong approached another bed in the room. If he wanted to know what was wrong with the patient, why not just ask directly?
This was a three-person ward, with three beds, though only two were occupied. Dr. Guo was examining the patient near the window, while Shen Xingkong headed toward the patient near the door. The middle bed was empty, with only some personal belongings of the patients placed on it.
“Sir, what kind of illness do you have?” Shen Xingkong asked the elderly man on the bed, smiling warmly and speaking in a friendly tone.
“Are you a doctor?” The old man asked Shen Xingkong with a puzzled look.
“Uh... sort of,” Shen Xingkong replied.
“I’ve been in this hospital for a month, and you doctors still don’t know what’s wrong with me?”
“Well...” Shen Xingkong was at a loss for words, feeling a bit unlucky to have run into such a difficult patient.
At that moment, the patient Dr. Guo was examining suddenly started yelling, his tone full of aggression as he pointed his finger almost to Dr. Guo’s nose.
“Stop giving me all this nonsense. I came to this crummy hospital because it’s affiliated with the medical college, and I thought the doctors here would be skilled. But what have you been doing? I’ve been lying here for half a month, and all you tell me is that I need rest? Are you playing games with me?”
“Haha, Mr. Sun, please don’t get upset. Your condition is quite serious. If you don’t rest here and go home, there’s a real risk that it could relapse, which could be life-threatening...” Dr. Guo tried to soothe the patient with a smile, completely different from how he had treated Shen Xingkong earlier.
“What life-threatening risk?” Mr. Sun interrupted Dr. Guo, clearly unimpressed. “Stop trying to scare me. I just feel a bit dizzy. You think that’s going to kill me? I know what you’re up to—you just want to keep me here to spend more money. This place is a rip-off!”
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“Mr. Sun, it’s not just dizziness; you have a blood clot in your brain. If you don’t rest for a while to dissolve and remove the clot, the next time it flares up, it could easily...”
“Stop wasting my time. Get my discharge papers ready now,” Mr. Sun said, cutting Dr. Guo off and throwing back the covers as he prepared to leave the hospital and go home.
These kinds of disputes between doctors and patients are common in hospitals. Patients often don’t believe that they’re seriously ill, ignore the doctors’ advice, and do as they please, only to regret it later when it’s too late. Of course, it must be said that many hospitals today lack integrity, deliberately exaggerating conditions to make patients spend more money.
However, Shen Xingkong believed that with Professor Shi in this hospital, there shouldn’t be any shady practices.
“Mr. Sun, you can’t...” Dr. Guo, acting impulsively, reached out to stop Mr. Sun.
This made Mr. Sun even angrier. He violently shook off Dr. Guo’s hand and, in a fit of rage, swung a punch at Dr. Guo’s face.
A fight breaking out between a doctor and a patient would be a major incident. Shen Xingkong hesitated about whether or not to intervene, but before he could make a decision, Mr. Sun’s angry fist suddenly lost its strength in mid-air, and then he himself collapsed to the floor with a thud.
Dr. Guo was stunned on the spot. He quickly knelt down to check Mr. Sun’s condition. Mr. Sun’s eyes were closed, his lips twitching, and no matter how much Dr. Guo called his name, there was no response.
“Nurse, nurse, quickly... get the emergency kit ready!” Dr. Guo, an experienced doctor, didn’t panic under pressure and shouted for the nurse with all his might.
The nurses rushed into the ward, bringing in a mobile stretcher. They lifted Mr. Sun onto it and quickly pushed him towards the emergency room. Dr. Guo, who was a general internist, sprinted to the emergency room at top speed, ready to start emergency treatment for Mr. Sun.
Seeing this situation unfold in the ward, Shen Xingkong realized he couldn’t just stand by and watch. He helped the nurses get Mr. Sun to the emergency room and then stepped outside. He wasn’t a doctor yet, and certainly not an emergency doctor, so he wasn’t qualified to stay inside the emergency room.
Not long after, Mr. Sun’s family members were notified and rushed to the hospital, where they gathered outside the emergency room, crying their hearts out. Mr. Sun’s wife was so overwhelmed with grief that she fainted.
There was nothing Shen Xingkong could do about it, and he couldn’t leave either. So, he stayed outside the emergency room, waiting to see if there was anything he could do to help. To have something like this happen on his first day of internship at the hospital was quite unlucky. Feeling bored, he sat on a bench in the hallway, watching as some of Mr. Sun’s relatives learned that Mr. Sun had collapsed during an altercation with the doctor. They were so angry they were threatening to sue the affiliated hospital of the medical college.
Above the emergency room door, there was a red light. When doctors were working inside, the red light was on, warning unauthorized personnel to stay out. When the doctors finished their work, the red light would turn off, usually indicating a successful outcome. But if the red light stayed on while the doctors came out, it was a bad sign, meaning the patient inside was close to death.
About two hours later, Dr. Guo and a few nurses walked out of the emergency room, their faces filled with helplessness. The red light above the emergency room door was still glaringly on.
“I’m sorry, we did our best. Although his heart hasn’t stopped, there’s no brain activity. You should start preparing for the worst,” Dr. Guo said with a hint of unease. This was because Mr. Sun had collapsed during his altercation with Dr. Guo, which had caused his heart rate to spike and his blood pressure to rise, leading to a stroke and loss of consciousness.
If Mr. Sun’s family decided to pursue the matter, Dr. Guo could be held accountable for causing a medical accident. Although the hospital would bear the responsibility, his career would essentially be over.
The only thing that could possibly save Dr. Guo now was Shen Xingkong. If Shen Xingkong was willing to testify that Dr. Guo hadn’t provoked Mr. Sun or that Dr. Guo’s actions hadn’t directly caused Mr. Sun’s medical crisis, then perhaps Dr. Guo’s responsibility could be minimized or even dismissed entirely.