Chapter 1290: Too late

Xie Wanying glanced at Teacher Xin’s pale face, knowing that the teacher’s mindset might be on the verge of collapse. The teacher’s responsibilities were far greater than those of the students. Cautiously, she took the phone from Teacher Xin’s hand and reported to Teacher Li, "The patient is suspected to have a foramen magnum herniation. Breathing has turned into Cheyne-Stokes respiration, requiring emergency neurosurgery. The patient is now at the entrance of the Xuanwu Hospital Emergency Department. We need a neurosurgeon who can perform surgery immediately."

"At the entrance of the Xuanwu Emergency Department? Weren’t you supposed to pick up an internal medicine patient? How did it become a trauma case? Why is the patient at the hospital entrance your responsibility to rescue?"

Teacher Li was cool-headed enough to remain calm, seamlessly reading all the additional information, as Xie Wanying nodded.

"Tell me, who is the patient?" Li Chengyuan asked.

"Sister Seo."

"Did the ambulance get into an accident?"

"According to Master Zhang, it was rear-ended while parked," Xie Wanying replied.

Listening to her report, Li Chengyuan thought to himself how straightforward she was, while others were probably too shocked and panicked to speak. She seemed unaffected, systematically reporting without being intimidated by his yelling, slowly and steadily recounting the entire event.

Sometimes being straightforward is really good.

The witnesses, Xin Yanjun and Yue Wentong, also thought it was great to be so unaffected while being straightforward.

Wiping her face with the back of her hand, Xin Yanjun retrieved her phone and asked her colleague, "Can you reach Dr. Cao? Maybe he knows someone in the Xuanwu Neurosurgery Department."

"He’s in the operating room. We can try reaching him first to see how we can handle Sister Seo’s injury on-site. Our hospital’s ambulance isn’t functional, is it? So let Xuanwu’s ambulance bring the patient back to our hospital for surgery," Li Chengyuan said.

The best course is to have surgery at one’s own hospital if a colleague requires it. Besides, Guoxie’s Neurosurgery Department is quite competent nationally.

The sound of wheels rolling echoed at the entrance of the Emergency Department. Master Zhang rushed into the hospital to call for help, and Xiao Yang brought a nurse to push out a gurney to assist.

"What’s the patient’s condition?" Xiao Yang asked upon arrival.

"We need to contact neurosurgery," Xin Yanjun said, asking him, "Is your hospital’s ambulance available?"

"No, it’s on a call. Not sure when it’ll return. So when you brought the patient, our internal medicine doctors weren’t here," Xiao Yang said.

With Xuanwu’s ambulance unavailable and their own hospital’s ambulance out of commission, they could only call 120 to dispatch a vehicle.

"No, it’s too late!" Xie Wanying looked up and said to the teacher, "Waiting for an ambulance to transfer to our hospital will take over an hour. Her breathing and heartbeat are nearly gone, and it’s simply too late."

Xin Yanjun knew her student was right, almost feeling her knees buckle, but she firmed up and asked Xiao Yang, "Which neurosurgeon is on duty tonight at your hospital?"

Now, hope might rest on the colleagues saving the patient.

"I’ll call them and have someone come down to assess the situation," Xiao Yang said, instructing the nurse to contact Xuanwu’s Neurosurgery Department.

The nurse turned to run.

"Wait, administer mannitol first," Xie Wanying called out.

Doctors and teachers at the scene recalled this critical step. The nurse dashed in to get the medication, alerting other colleagues to assist.

On-site, they administered mannitol to lower brain pressure, then moved the patient onto the gurney and transferred her into the Emergency Department resuscitation room.