CHAPTER 478: 478 SO HAPPY THAT I WANT TO SPEND RECKLESSLY

"Everyone, keep it up, the day is about to end," Liu Banxia clapped his hands.

"Although the Spring Festival is coming up, and we can’t enjoy it at home, there won’t be many patients in the hospital either. Many patients have already been discharged today."

"For us, this is also a holiday. I will adjust everyone’s rest time accordingly so that everyone can get sufficient rest, even during working hours."

At his words, everyone became cheerful.

President Liu is pretty good. He lets everyone order their favorite dishes and arranges work flexibly, which is excellent.

The Spring Festival is unique, unlike other holidays.

"Teacher Liu, Teacher Liu, the test results for the sepsis patient are out! It’s AB bacteria," Liu Yiqing called out loudly.

"What medications are they sensitive to?" Liu Banxia asked anxiously.

"Carbapenems," Liu Yiqing said happily.

"Good, very good! Excellent! I announce that tonight, everyone gets extra pig’s trotters! Yiqing, go to the canteen and tell Zhou Qiang. If there aren’t enough pig’s trotters, he needs to braise a new pot for me, even if he has to do it on the spot," Liu Banxia also shouted forcefully.

"Dr. Liu, what’s going on? Why are you so happy?" a passing patient’s family member asked curiously.

"How could I not be happy? Today’s surgeries were all successful, we’ve identified the bacteria infecting a sepsis patient, and we’ve found a drug it’s sensitive to. We can likely pull him back from the brink of death," Liu Banxia replied.

"These past few days, the patients’ conditions have been suffocating me. Now, at least, I can breathe a bit easier. Your father should be discharged soon, right?"

"He’ll be discharged tomorrow, then he’ll go home for the Spring Festival. Today’s blood test showed normal white blood cells, so there’s no more inflammation," the patient’s family member answered, smiling.

"That’s great. He’ll need to be careful when he gets home. Although diabetes isn’t a very severe disease, its complications are. Otherwise, your father would have been discharged much earlier. Just be careful in the future," Liu Banxia advised.

"Don’t worry, this incident really frightened us. You seem busy, so I’ll head upstairs now," the patient’s family member said.

He was in a good mood too. He hadn’t expected Dr. Liu to know the details of his father’s condition; he had assumed only the attending physician was aware.

"Qiaoqiao, you’re finally here! Your Liu Banxia was so happy today he was practically throwing money around, treating us to pig’s trotters. Just for that, I’m definitely eating dinner at the hospital tonight," Wei Yuan chimed in with a smile.

"What happened? Any good news?" Qiaoqiao asked curiously.

"Hehe, we isolated the infecting bacteria in a patient on ECMO. There’s hope now!" Liu Banxia said with a grin.

"I thought it was something else," Qiaoqiao said.

"Don’t underestimate this. The key is that we found a medication it’s sensitive to; otherwise, it would have all been pointless," Liu Banxia said.

"Okay, okay, let me know when it’s time to eat. I’m going upstairs to see Tang first," Qiaoqiao waved her hand.

"Oh, then you go ahead. I’ll call you later," Liu Banxia said hurriedly.

The onlookers were greatly amused. Just moments ago, Liu Banxia had been so spirited, but now he was like a mouse that had seen a cat—incredibly meek.

As fellow medical staff, they naturally understood the source of Liu Banxia’s delight; it was because AB bacteria are notoriously aggressive.

AB is short for Acinetobacter baumannii, a Gram-negative bacterium. This bacterium is particularly formidable due to its extremely strong vitality and high drug resistance.

Due to the misuse of antibiotics, AB bacteria have developed resistance rates of 63% to 89.9% to third- and fourth-generation cephalosporins. Their resistance to four types of aminoglycosides and ciprofloxacin has already reached 96.3%.

Although these are merely current routine statistical data, and some drug sensitivities still exist, this is enough to prove how truly formidable it is.

This bacterium’s drug resistance is constantly increasing, and the root cause remains the misuse of antibiotics.

The fact that this patient is sensitive to carbapenems is truly a stroke of luck in a dire situation, especially since resistance to this class of drugs is also on the rise.

Otherwise, even if the bacterial strain was isolated, if there were no drugs capable of treating it, wouldn’t all the effort be in vain?

Besides, it’s not over yet. We still need to observe the bacteria’s sensitivity to the drug during the course of treatment. If the efficacy is not good, we’ll need to find a drug to which it is more sensitive.

That’s why he said he could pull the patient back from the brink of death, and it was the main reason he was so happy that he started to splurge.

He’d accumulated a lot of negative emotions recently and needed to vent. Treating everyone to pig’s trotters wasn’t a huge expense, and it benefited everyone. It was a good deal.

After waiting for a while, Wang Chao and Qing Kewa came out of the elevator.

"The patient has been moved to the ward. It went well, but they’ll have to spend the Spring Festival here with us," Wang Chao said.

"Good work, keep it up," Liu Banxia said.

"Why do I get the feeling that something’s off? Why is everyone so happy?" Wang Chao asked after taking a look around.

"Teacher Wang, the AB bacterium was isolated from the sepsis patient, and it’s sensitive to carbapenem drugs. Teacher Liu was so delighted he decided to treat everyone to pig’s trotters," Xu Yino said.

Wang Chao laughed. "Qing Kewa, we get to eat pig’s trotters today!"

"Doctor Wang, do you still owe me a trotter?" Qing Kewa asked seriously.

Wang Chao was stunned. He could only nod in acknowledgement.

If it were someone else, they wouldn’t have asked. After all, there were pig’s trotters to eat, regardless of who bought them. But it was different with Qing Kewa; this girl, like Qiaoqiao, was also very straightforward.

This was certainly good news for the emergency center, and everyone was cheerful during dinner. After all, only the emergency center had such communal meals, offering either chicken legs or pig’s trotters; the inpatient department didn’t have such lively occasions.

After dinner, Liu Banxia and Shi Lei remained on duty in the emergency center. The others either went to the observation room or went to observe the temporary ectopic forearm reimplantation surgery.

Truth be told, Liu Banxia was itching to go too, but it wasn’t feasible; if he left, several people would have to be pulled from their posts to cover. That was likely why neither Wei Yuan nor Qi Wentai were in a hurry to rest—they also wanted to observe.

Although this patient’s surgery was somewhat delayed, the current low outdoor temperature meant it wouldn’t adversely affect the severed arm.

"How about I stay here on watch, and you go up and have a look?" Shi Lei suggested with a smile.

"No need, it’s the same on the screen," Liu Banxia shook his head.

"It’s actually my first time watching Doctor Wang perform surgery. His skills are really impressive. No wonder he could become a certified chief physician; they’re all highly skilled."

"What did you expect? That they all just faked their way into their positions?" Shi Lei said.

"Actually, I’m still not quite used to it being this quiet. How’s it going with recruiting the interns? You need to keep at it; we don’t have your silver tongue."

"Boss, don’t needle me about it. It’s really hard to say how it will turn out," Liu Banxia said, his eyes fixed on the screen.

"Right now, only Liu Yiqing has made a clear commitment. Su Wenhao’s situation is a bit special due to some family factors, so he needs to consider it himself. We can’t let our desire to keep talent influence his decision."

"As for the remaining four, it’s really hard to say, especially Xu Yino. That girl can be a bit of a handful sometimes and isn’t that easy to manage."

"Look who’s talking. Take a good look at how you used to be. If Su Wenhao takes after me, then Xu Yino is the one most like you. The others are similar; their personalities are all starting to lean your way a bit," Shi Lei added with a grin.

"You’ve been corrupted; you’re no longer the Chrysanthemum Prince I once knew," Liu Banxia said, sounding a bit mournful.

"Alright, it seems your mood has mostly recovered. Adapt as best you can, and don’t let too many patients get to you," Shi Lei said.

"As we continue to grow bigger and stronger, the number of emergency patients and those who come to us proactively will only increase. Looking at the current momentum, I estimate we’ll have to open the fourth and fifth emergency rooms."

"After the Spring Festival, the department will probably expand, right? Cardiac surgery and orthopedics will also get some reinforcements. With so many patients then, it’s possible we might lose many in a single day."

"Boss, I actually understand that, but it still affects me. Maybe it’s because I haven’t experienced enough; I need to grow along with these interns," Liu Banxia confessed sincerely.

No wonder Shi Lei had so much to say today; he was actually trying to counsel me.

My personality used to be somewhat volatile and impulsive; I wasn’t always calm when faced with problems. After training in the emergency center for so long, I thought I had adjusted enough, but it seemed reality was different.

I’m often driven by my emotions, which usually brings great passion. However, when encountering obstacles, if I can’t face them with equanimity, it also creates problems in my practice.

If someone didn’t genuinely care about me, who would bother saying all this? Wouldn’t it be easier for them to just watch the surgery peacefully?

One shouldn’t assume that just because it’s an orthopedic surgery, there isn’t much for general surgery to learn. Every surgery has many commonalities; the differences primarily lie in the fine details of the procedures.

Take Wang Bo’s current surgery, for example. It’s being done very meticulously because he needs to ensure the normal restoration of blood flow in the patient’s arm. This will affect the assessment of the arm during re-transplantation; otherwise, all the suffering today would be in vain.

As the hemostatic forceps were released and the severed arm slowly regained its color, everyone both inside the OR and those observing from outside spontaneously applauded.

However, Liu Banxia and Shi Lei missed this scene. They had only watched the first half of the operation before drunk patients arrived, requiring their services.

With the Spring Festival approaching, alcohol-related cases had once again become more frequent.

It was perfectly normal for those visiting friends and family to have a few rounds of drinks in advance. Not everyone starts their holiday on the afternoon of the Spring Festival itself; some people get their holidays early.