I am an ICU doctor.

In my career, I have successfully rescued hundreds of patients and died many patients.

That happened 3 years ago.

(1) Critical patients need emergency consultation in the hospital

That was the last day of the holiday. I was on duty. I was the only doctor in the whole ward and several nurses. I was busy all day during the day and went to bed before 9 o'clock in the evening. I tried to squint my eyes in case something happened in the second half of the night. This is a habit I have developed over the past few years.

As soon as I got to bed, the phone rang and I cursed inwardly, "It's so unlucky, it seems that I've never been to bed tonight."

I picked up the phone and answered. It turned out to be our director. He asked me if I had rested. I reported truthfully that I was going to take a break and had not fallen asleep.

That's good, the director said, just now, Director Pang of the Hematology Department called me and said that there was a serious ill in their department and had a fever for several days. The reason was not very clear. Today, he suddenly became very short of breath and the condition was progressing rapidly. Director Pang had notified the medical department and asked the hospital to organize consultations with experts, but I am still in my hometown and can't come back. They will notify you later. You can go over and help me and report to me in time if there is any situation.

After receiving the director's instructions, I never fell asleep that night, as if I was sitting on pins and needles. What a critical patient. Although today is the last day of the holiday, it is still a holiday after all. Maybe many department directors are not in Guangzhou. It is probably very difficult to organize so many experts to discuss a patient's situation.

As soon as I hung up the director's phone number, the doctor on duty in the hematology department called and said that a patient had to consult the whole hospital, and that the ICU must go to the department and asked me to consult.

On the way I was muttering that this festival is a big holiday, there are probably not many big guys who will be there. But when I went to the hematology department, I was stunned. The office was filled with people. Chief Zhao of the Medical Department, Director Tang of the Respiratory Department, Director Qian of the Cardiovascular Department, Director Qian of the Chest Surgery, Hepatobiliary Surgery, Gastroenterology Surgery, and Director Pang of the Hematology Department. All the big guys gathered together, but they all arrived. We were the director of the ICU department and didn't come, so we entrusted me as the doctor on duty to come.

The head of the medical department first said, saying that it was really hard work, all the directors, and you didn’t let you have such a good holiday, and you even called you back in the middle of the night. I’m really sorry. But because the patient’s condition is really critical, and according to Director Pang, the patient’s condition is complicated and involves many departments, I had to ask you to come back temporarily to help you take the details.

Several directors were busy and complained with a few words. Director Tang of the respiratory department said that the subsidy for this consultation should be doubled, which made people laugh.

Director Pang of the Department of Hematology thanked everyone for coming and then began to introduce the patient's condition. I sat in a small corner and listened quietly.

Director Pang said that this is a 48-year-old middle-aged man. He was admitted to our department because of a fever. At first, he thought it was a blood disease, but he did not look like it after undergoing relevant examinations. The patient still had a fever these days in the hospital. The reason was unknown. He was fine, but the patient's condition suddenly worsened this afternoon.

The patient had upper abdominal pain and his breathing became rapid. A chest X-ray showed that there was pleural effusion on the left side, but the amount was not large. Logically speaking, it would not cause such rapid breathing. We also considered whether it was caused by heart failure. However, the patient had no history of hypertension, coronary heart disease, diabetes, etc., and the chest X-ray showed that the heart was not very large, and it seemed that it did not support heart failure. What causes shortness of breath and upper abdominal pain? It was hard to understand.

After Director Pang finished speaking, he paused and continued, "If it weren't normal, I wouldn't be so anxious to ask everyone to come back, but this patient is really special and progresses very quickly. My intuition tells me that he is not good."

Besides, he is so young, if there are any problems, we can't explain it clearly. To be on the safe side, I still made suggestions to the medical department and asked Section Chief Yang to come forward to ask all the brothers and sisters to come back and help give advice and see if I can overcome the difficulties.

Director Pang said sincerely, not only briefly introduced the condition, but also expressed gratitude for everyone's arrival, which made people feel comfortable to listen to.

But just these words made the atmosphere on the scene become solemn.

Director Pang is an experienced expert, and her intuition should not be wrong.

Go to the bedside to see the patient. After understanding the basic situation, several directors were ready to go and showed great interest in this medical record.

When I first saw this patient, I felt that I was a very stout middle-aged man.

He was half lying on the bed, breathing a little hard, and he took a mask to inhale oxygen. Through the mask, he could see that his lips were pale. The electrocardiogram monitoring on the head of the bed prompted that his heart rate was very fast, 120 beats per minute, and his blood pressure was still normal.

He was a little nervous when he saw so many doctors pouring into the ward, and they were all old doctors.

There were two people sitting next to the hospital bed, a middle-aged woman, probably her lover, and a girl in her early 20s, probably her daughter. They were chatting in a soft voice, but suddenly they saw us rush in one by one, stood up, nodded and greeted us.

Director Pang first spoke and introduced to the patient that this was an expert from various departments of our hospital. I came to see you tonight. You don’t have to be nervous, just cooperate with us. Director Pang always smiled and said softly, which made people feel comfortable.

So several directors asked about the patients' basic clinical situations with each other.

From the patient's birth address, to his occupational job, to his diet and daily life, I finally asked many questions that I could not imagine. It can be said that everything is fine and complete, from head to toe.

I sincerely admire it. As the doctor with the least qualification that night, I remained silent and watched quietly. This was the first time I have seen so many department directors gathered in front of a patient at the same time, and asked about the patient's condition seriously like a resident doctor.

After asking about the relevant situation, everyone started to check the body, from the head, face, chest, abdomen, limbs... every part of the patient's body was not spared.

Several directors kept silent and chatted with the patients from time to time. The purpose was to relieve the patient's nervousness. After the examination, everyone returned to the office.

Before leaving the house, the patient's daughter called Director Pang and asked in a stutter, "How is my father's condition? Is it important?" Director Pang comforted her and said, "Don't worry too much for the time being. We will tell you if it's better after discussing it."

I saw expectations in the eyes of the patient's family of three, and the desire to survive, and the fear and anxiety.

They are not fools. It is definitely not a good thing to have so many experts suddenly coming in the middle of the night! There is only one reason, that is, the condition is complicated and critical.

After returning to the office, everyone was talking about it, thinking that judging from the current clinical data, it is indeed difficult to explain what causes the disease. There was no obvious abdominal abnormality in CT, and the cause of abdominal pain is hard to say.
Chapter completed!