At the Qinbei's Hospital, a red banner fluttered as the winter breeze passed through. On the front courtyard, the staff lined the grass with an outline of the stage as another group of staff scrambled to unpack boxes full of paper cutouts and decorations for the 30th Anniversary celebration. They had a week before the local leaders and new reporters flooded the courtyard to film the event.
While the staff was busy decorating, the medical staff dealt with the aftermath of New Year's Eve. More than a dozen ambulances arrived during the night carrying in patients with alcohol poisoning. Doctor Hao, who got the short end of the stick, ended up in charge of the ER during one of the busiest times of the year. He didn't even have Nurse Yuen to help him. Luckily, the good nurse had the foresight to stock the supplies for the week. Although it wasn't as big as Lunar New Years, the time between Christmas and New Year was increasingly popular for people to go out drinking and partying.
22 hours into the shift, Doctor Hao was becoming increasingly delirious. He was laughing like a crazed maniac and making bizarre jokes to a comatose man. Even some of the residents were avoiding him. At seven in the morning, he noticed Li Yun heading into the ER.
"Aha, Doctor Li! Why are you here?" Doctor Hao asked as he dragged his feet toward the entrance. "Isn't today your day off?"
"I went out to visit friends and family during the weekend, so I might as well work on a lively Monday morning," Li Yun replied. He had returned to his parent's apartment on Friday, spent time with Rouxi on Saturday, partied with his friends on New Years Eve, and decided to return to the hospital on New Year.
After a few weeks of studying Qivi, there were still a lot of things he had to study and he needed live bodies to confirm some of his theories. The cardiovascular system was connected to every part of the body except for the cornea. Unfortunately, there were other limitations. Just because he was able to see the cardiovascular system like a 4D model, it didn't mean much if he didn't understand what he was looking at.
Other than the heart, he didn't have a complete view of the other organs. He had to rely on anatomical knowledge of every vein, artery, and capillary to discern the location of the organs. Otherwise, it would simply look like tree roots.
The rete venosum and subpapillary network near the outer layer of the body supplied blood to the skin, so it was easy to tell where the skin was located. The shape and pattern of organs could also be deduced by the layout of the blood vessels.
"You're a strange one Doctor Li!" Doctor Hao finally spoke as he reached for Li Yun shoulder and steadied his weight, but almost fell over during the process.
"Doctor Hao, go take a break, I'll take over," Li Yun suggested after seeing the sorry state that Doctor Hao was in.
Doctor Hao felt relieved; he could finally take a break. On that thought, they heard another ambulance parking in front of the entrance. Although the worst part of the night was over, ambulances continued to rush in with inebriated patients throughout the early morning. He looked to Li Yun, who nodded at him to rest. As Li Yun rushed off to receive the patients, Doctor Hao crashed on a vacant bed in the ER.
The EMT pushed an unconscious woman into the ER. A friend was following closely from behind, but her eyes were a bit hazy. They were dressed in tight and expensive party dresses, so it was obvious that they were out partying all night.
"What happened?" Li Yun asked.
"We were walking home, and she collapsed," the friend nervously replied. "I called the ambulance right away."
Li Yun glanced at the unconscious woman on the stretcher and then the friend, who was also in rough shape. At least she was conscious enough to call. Li Yun immediately placed an oxygen mask over the unconscious woman.
"Prepare the dialysis machine," Li Yun ordered the nurse.
"Is she going to be okay?" Her friend asked.
"Her alcohol level is pretty high, we'll need to treat her with dialysis," Li Yun replied.
Before Li Yun could continue, he quickly grabbed a trash bin. The friend grabbed onto her mouth, feeling sudden discomfort in the chest and stomach. Li Yun hurled the small trash bin in front of the friend. She emptied out into the bin a mixture of expensive mixed drinks, which had decomposed into a dangerous substance called acetaldehyde.
Li Yun held the friend to stabilize her. With a simple touch, he used Qivi to inspect her. Qivi had a very useful zoom function. It required a lot of energy, but not as much as looking into the other person's dantian. Although he could only zoom into the cellular state for 10 minutes before feeling drained, he only needed a few seconds to analyze the blood. The woman's alcohol content was lower than her unconscious friend, but she had an even bigger issue.
"Do you have a boyfriend?" Li Yun asked the friend.
"Look doc, you're a good looking guy, but not the time to ask," the friend looked a bit of a mess. Although flattering, she wasn't in the mood to get hit on.
Li Yun gave out an exasperated sigh. "I'm just wondering because you're four weeks pregnant."
He didn't usually need Qivi to confirm a person's pregnancy as there was a pulse pattern classical doctors could recognize in pregnant women. However, the woman was a bit intoxicated, so her pulse pattern was a mess. He had to use Qivi to detect hCG in her blood.
During the past few weeks, he had been reviewing the different cellular appearances of bacteria, organisms, and viruses. Despite reading a lot of books, he had to look through them again to ingrain the cellular structure of every possible cell in the bloodstream. With only 10 minutes of usage a day before Qivi drained his energy, the quicker he recognized the cell, the better.
"If you want to keep the baby, don't drink again," Li Yun warned the friend.
"Doc, are you serious?" Her face looked horrified. She was only nineteen.
"You can go to the obstetrician to confirm, the nurse will take you," Li Yun suggested.
He could tell she wasn't expecting it. She backed away a little, still in a bit of denial. As the nurse approached them, she agreed to go to the obstetrician. Li Yun guessed that she was planning an abortion.
"Can you look after her, doc?" she asked.
Li Yun nodded. Although the two friends were irresponsible, at least they have each other. He focused back on the unconscious woman. The resident and nurse lifted her onto a bed, and Li Yun inserted a non-cuffed tunneled catheter into her internal jugular vein by the neck and hooked it to the dialysis machine.
"After two hours, give her a blood test," Li Yun told the nurse.
The nurse nodded. Although she was used to following Li Yun orders, she was amazed by how quickly he had determined to use dialysis rather than using the IV drip. Li Yun could make quick judgments before, but he wasn't always quick to perform emergency procedures unless everything was confirmed.
After Li Yun finished taking care of the unconscious friend, he checked on the other patients that Doctor Hao had admitted earlier. They were all recovering slowly. At around noon, the delivery man arrived with packages for everyone. The nurse sorted through the mail and found a large box for Li Yun.
"Doctor Li, the materials you had ordered are here," said the nurse.
Li Yun thanked the nurse and carried the box into the resident's suite. Li Yun looked at the rotational atherectomy kit and the disposables he spent 25k yuan on. It was enough to fit a suitcase, but it was better to put the kit in his car for an emergency. With his ability, he should be able to help out in an emergency situation but only as a last resort.