Chapter 15: Examination

Yun Hua Hospital was one of the most renowned hospitals in Yuan Hua City. Even if you disregarded its overall strength, the strength of its Hand Surgery Department was acknowledged by people both within and outside the industry. Since Yang Hu wanted his father to do a reexamination, Yun Hua Hospital was naturally the first choice.

The hospital’s great reputation also resulted in an astonishing number of patients. Apart from Yun Hua City, there were also patients from nearby towns and other places.

Yang Hu had asked his wife to come over and register beforehand. As he pushed his father—who was in a wheelchair—and entered the place, he saw numerous patients with their hands covered. They were either holding their hands, extending their hands for the doctors to inspect, or were getting their hands bandaged.

Yang Hu could not help but feel rather dumbfounded when he stared at the bustling crowd. “Why are there so many people?”

Yang Zhongshu was rather happy. He said, “Did you think that your old man’s the only one who hasn’t been careful? People use their hands the most, so naturally it gets injured the most. I’ve made knife-cut noodles for years, and there are still times where I make mistakes.”

He got nagged a lot the night before at home, so when he saw the large number of patients in the hospital, he could not help but feel rather encouraged at that moment.

Yang Hu looked at his smiling father and said in resignation, “Dad, you only got injured because you caught the knife with your hand. After that, you even got it stitched up in a small clinic. That’s why we’re here.”

“The stitches were actually done pretty well. Didn’t the doctor in the Emergency Department say there was no problem yesterday?” Yang Zhongshu inevitably felt a little guilty.

“The doctor in the Emergency Department didn’t think that it was serious and didn’t take a proper look.” Yang Hu let out a few dissatisfied snorts and said, “You get to be the chef and owner of your own small restaurant, and you get to happily make knife-cut noodles there, but do you think that a big restaurant would want you if you wanted to become the head chef there? Can a small clinic be compared to a big hospital? The doctors in our Lower Groove Clinic can’t even hold a candle to the ones in Yun Hua Hospital.”

“Enough, enough. Is the fact that I have a small restaurant shameful to you? Haven’t I raised you and made sure that you didn’t fall ill or get infected by any diseases? Otherwise, you’d also be a regular customer in the Lower Groove Clinic.” Since he became a restaurant owner, Yang Zhongshu had never lost an argument.

Unable to win against his father in the argument, Yang Hu quickly lowered his head and pushed the wheelchair from Lower Groove Clinic forward.

When it was Yang Zhongshu’s turn, Wang Haiyang the chief physician was already rather tired. He turned, yawned, and drank a mouthful of strong tea before he opened Yang Zhongshu’s medical record. He recited it, “Non-stop bleeding in the right hand due to a laceration, reexamination after suturing… Hmm, let me take a look.”

He first checked the color and temperature of the skin, then touched it a few times with his hand. Shortly afterwards, he asked, “Do you feel discomfort anywhere?”

“No.” Yang Zhongshu shook his head.

Yang Hu immediately added, “About that, my father went to get his cut sutured in a small clinic because he panicked. So, I’m quite worried…”

“With such a serious injury, you went to get your injury sutured at a small clinic?” Wang Haiyang immediately focused his eyes and said with a frown, “You have to be responsible for your own body.”

“I know, right?” Yang Hu immediately grumbled.

Yang Zhongshu flashed another guilty smile.

Truthfully, if Doctor Xiong had been the one to do the suturing, Yang Hu would have still felt rather confident. After all, Doctor Xiong retired from a big hospital. Even though he was old, his skills would still not be too shabby.

However, since Ling Ran was the one who performed the suturing, he could not say if his father’s wound had been stitched well.

Yang Zhongshu asked softly, “Is my injury considered serious?”

He did not tell Wang Haiyang about what the doctor from the Emergency Department said the day before, in case this doctor’s diagnosis would be affected by the previous doctor.

Wang Haiyang said, “With such a deep cut, the tendons are probably torn, and your nerves are definitely injured as well. You basically can’t fully recover from this. The most important part is whether the anastomosis of the blood vessels was done well. If there isn’t enough blood supply, there will be necrosis in the distal ends—the fingers. If necrosis happens, there will be no choice but to amputate the body part.”

As he spoke, Wang Haiyang furrowed his eyebrows. He said, “How could you treat such a serious wound in a small clinic? With your injury, if you had been sent to the Emergency Department of Yun Hua Hospital, you would’ve been transferred for treatment and hospitalization in the Hand Surgery Department.”

Yang Zhongshu and Yang Hu’s expression changed at the same time.

“Doctor, I work in a knife-cut noodles restaurant. I’ll lose my source of income if my hand stops working…” Yang Zhongshu was also starting to feel regret.

Yang Hu asked, “Is there any way to save it?”

Wang Haiyang sighed and said, “Give me your hand, I’ll do a Peripheral Skin Bleeding Test.”

“Okay.” Yang Zhongshu endured the pain in his hand and extended his arm.

Wang Haiyang ordered the postgraduate student next to him to make preparations and explained, “The Peripheral Skin Bleeding Test is to test the peripheral blood supply. Blood supply includes the transport and circulation of blood. This is an important indicator of how well the recovery is going. There will be a little damage during the Peripheral Skin Bleeding Test. I didn’t do it for you earlier because I didn’t expect you to be… well, so ‘courageous’.”

“That doctor just started stitching right away,” Yang Zhongshu was so terrified that even his tone had changed.

Yang Hu impatiently said, “You let him stitch it just because he wanted to. Don’t you know how to say no?”

Yang Zhongshu gulped and said nothing.

“Let’s do the test first.” Wang Haiyang did not dwell on the subject. He gestured to the postgraduate student to begin.

From his point of view, it would be very difficult for them to get any good result from this test.

The suturing of palms was a very delicate procedure. Even for the surgeons in Yun Hua’s Hand Surgery Department, they would often need to rely on luck to be able to get good results during a surgery. It was basically impossible for the other party to recover full hand function.

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Now, the only thing up in the air was whether there was necrosis in the distal ends.

In truth, Wang Haiyang did not even regard this particular prospect favorably.

Yun Hua’s Hand Surgery Department performed many surgeries every day, and failures were bound to happen. How good can a small clinic be?

It would already be good enough if the suturing did not result in any dead space or body cavities. He had also seen wounds treated by small clinics that were not even debrided properly.

The postgraduate student drew the curtain in the corner and came out to report. “Chief physician, there’s punctiform blood coming out.”

“Is this a good or bad thing?” Yang Zhongshu and Yang Hu had anxious expressions.

“Let me take a look.” Wang Haiyang did not make an immediate conclusion. He looked at it a few times before he said, “Luck is on your side.”

Yang Zhongshu and Yang Hu breathed a sigh of relief.

“It seems that your blood supply is of a passable level.” Wang Haiyang turned Yang Zhongshu’s palm around and looked at it a few more times. He contemplated the case while he casually explained, “Ordinarily, if there isn’t any blood, or if the blood is purple, it means that there’s a problem with the blood supply. There isn’t much difference in the way you’re bleeding compared to normal people. There’s profuse bleeding in your case. It may be because your wound is in a considerably good position…”

Yang Zhongshu shook his head as he spoke, “You mentioned that there was profuse bleeding?”

“You bled nonstop,” Wang Haiyang explained in semi-professional terms. “So, the anastomosis was done quite well. I’ll take a look at the condition of your nerves.” Wang Haiyang then did a percussion test and realized that the growth of nerves was not bad as well.

Wang Haiyang was now interested all of a sudden. He asked, “Can you move your hand on your own now?”

“It’s quite hard,” Yang Zhongshu said.

“You just had your surgery yesterday, of course it’ll be quite hard to move your hand today, but you have to move it. This is called rehabilitation, and it’s quite important, too.” Wang Haiyang paused for a moment and placed his hand on the table. He said, “Follow my movements. First, we’ll try bending and stretching.”

Yang Zhongshu bent and stretched his fingers.

“Abduct and adduct your thumb,” Wang Haiyang said as he demonstrated.

Yang Zhongshu followed Wang Haiyang’s movements and moved his fingers. Even though his range of movement was rather small and slow, he managed to do it.

“Now, do this with your palm.”

Yang Zhongshu did as he was told.

“Then, do a Pinch Grip Test.”

Yang Zhongshu managed to do that, too.

Chief Physician Wang Haiyang was quiet for a long time.

“Doctor? What do we do now?” Yang Zhongshu and Yang Hu were both being very cautious.

Wang Haiyang drank a large gulp of tea and asked slowly, “You had the surgery yesterday?”

“Yes, I got it sutured in a small clinic yesterday.”

“You went to a private clinic, didn’t you?” Wang Haiyang tried to correct their views on small and large-scale clinics.

There were also doctors in Yun Hua Hospital’s Hand Surgery Department who could enable patients to recover hand functionality after surgery the day before. However, most of them could not do that.

The fact that Yang Zhongshu had managed to recover hand functionality was even more unbelievable when the facilities of both the clinic and Yun Hua Hospital were taken into consideration.

To put it in another way, it was impossible that any of the resident doctors in Yun Hua Hospital’s Hand Surgery Department could suture so well. Even among the attending physicians, only the few outstanding ones could occasionally achieve such an outstanding result.

As for the associate chief physicians and chief physicians, if one were to disregard those who were promoted because they were well-versed in theories, those who rose to power through less than proper means, or even those known for their surgical skills, there was only a twenty or thirty percent chance that such a result could be achieved.

In contrast, the odds of there being experts who worked in high-end private clinics instead of government-assigned clinics were higher.

Yang Zhongshu knew what he meant and dazedly shook his head. “It’s private alright, but it’s just a clinic in the neighborhood. It’s been around for about twenty to thirty years.

Yang Hu said, “It’s a small community clinic. People usually go there for injections and stuff.”

This time, Wang Haiyang did not even know what to say. He could only lower his head. He wrote a few bills and said, “From what I’ve seen, there’s no problem. You can go for a few more examinations.”

Yang Hu obediently took the bills. After hesitating for a while, he asked, “Are you saying that there’s no problem with the stitches?”

“Looking at it now, there’s no problem. Hmm, I’ll give you more medicine. Come back for a reexamination in a few days. You have to work hard when it comes to rehabilitation; exercise your hand.” As Wang Haiyang spoke, he wrote two more bills.

After walking out of the door, Yang Hu almost tossed the bills away when he saw the amount. “This hospital is a black hole for money!”