CHAPTER 132: 132 MAINTAIN AWE

What Wang Shuqiu actually needed was not Du Heng’s advice, but more of his attitude and support.

So after the date ended, Wang Shuqiu headed to the small bedroom with her phone, and the call she made lasted for more than an hour. During the conversation, arguments could occasionally be heard.

Du Heng didn’t say much; he just picked up the book beside the bed and began to read, soon falling asleep. As for how Wang Shuqiu’s call went and when it ended, Du Heng had no idea.

When they woke up in the morning, the two of them tacitly avoided mentioning the previous night’s events.

While eating the fried eggs Wang Shuqiu had made for him, they chatted about interesting things they had encountered at work. Accompanied by their laughter, they left the house and headed towards their respective workplaces.

They muddled through a busy morning, feeling like they’d accomplished a lot, yet also like they’d done nothing at all.

In the afternoon, Du Heng took some time to visit the Hospital rooms, only to find Wu Buwei also busy there.

However, that day he wasn’t performing acupuncture on patients but giving them massages.

Du Heng coughed lightly and asked softly, "Buwei, why aren’t you performing acupuncture for the patients?"

Wu Buwei looked a bit embarrassed. Du Heng had been rather fierce the previous day, and Wu Buwei suddenly didn’t have the same courage as before. "I wanted to wait for you to arrive before I started."

Seeing Wu Buwei’s expression, Du Heng knew he had scolded him too harshly the day before, but he didn’t say anything. For this job, it was necessary for Wu Buwei to have a sense of reverence.

"Alright, go get your things now, and we’ll start right away."

Wu Buwei responded before getting up to fetch the needle tool kit.

The needles used in the Health Clinic were old-fashioned stainless steel ones, including fine needles, three-edged needles, skin needles, and intradermal needles, with fine needles being the most commonly used.

The old-fashioned fine needles felt smooth to use. Each time they were used, they had to be disinfected with an alcohol cotton ball of 75% or higher, or even by high-temperature sterilization. As for Du Heng and his colleagues, each had their own set of needle utensils. After each use, they would first disinfect them with alcohol. Then, they would place them in a pressure cooker, along with the needle tool kit, to boil in water for more than half an hour.

So, there was no possibility of cross-contamination, unless there was untimely disinfection or inadequate management.

But with this kind of old needle, long-term use would cause the needle body to bend or the needle tip to become hooked or blunt, so maintenance was a rather time-consuming affair.

Now, the idea of using one needle per person was becoming popular, and patients also had such demands. Should they consider using disposable acupuncture needles? But if they used such consumables, it would indirectly increase the expenditure of the Health Clinic. In the past, the Health Clinic had been poor, entirely dependent on local government finance and Township Finance. However, these funds had only covered basic salary expenses, fixed water and electricity fees, and the replenishment of basic medicines. As for consumable equipment like this, there was no way they would have been provided. Mainly because there weren’t many patients; they were hardly needed. Things had improved now; the Health Clinic had patients and its own income, so Du Heng was considering replacing the needles. It wasn’t expensive, and it would solve a lot of problems.

Du Heng thought that this issue could be discussed in the next week’s regular meeting to hear everyone’s opinions.

In a short while, Wu Buwei returned and began that day’s acupuncture. As he administered the needles, he was much more focused than he had been the previous day.

Du Heng saw all this and was quite pleased.

Skill was one aspect; professional attitude was another.

There was a clinic next to the Zhonghu Town Government building. The resident doctor there, Dr. Zhang, was said to have resigned from a certain hospital, although Du Heng had always been skeptical about it. However, Dr. Zhang truly could treat patients, and his medical skills were significantly better than Zhang Jinlian’s.

Accurate diagnosis, potent prescriptions, and quick results were Dr. Zhang’s characteristics. His fame throughout Zhonghu Town was considerable; it was even said that people came from the city specifically to see him.

So the clinic basically stayed open from morning till night, with a constant stream of people. When the seasons changed and the common cold was more prevalent, the clinic was even more crowded.

This was quite ironic for the nearby Health Clinic.

The more patients he had, the more money he made. And, with no incidents occurring over a long period, Dr. Zhang became complacent.

It happened during the May Day holiday when a man with a severe cold came to his clinic.

A severe cold wasn’t a big problem, so Dr. Zhang didn’t take it seriously. He still treated the patient with an infusion, as before, because the treatment was effective, yielded quick results, and allowed him to charge more.

After the patient was hooked up to the IV, he went to sleep on a Sick bed in the clinic.

Dr. Zhang and a nurse were busy prescribing medicine for other patients. They occasionally glanced at the patient’s IV drip, always assuming the patient on the Sick bed was just sleeping.

When the infusion was finished and it was time to wake the patient, they realized something was wrong; he could not be roused.

At this point, they didn’t send him to the hospital but rather tried to revive him themselves. After struggling for half a day and having no other choice, they sent him to the nearby Municipal First Hospital.

But by then, it was too late; the man died shortly after arriving at the hospital.

Ultimately, it was discovered that the patient had diabetes and hypertension, and Dr. Zhang had administered a large bottle of saline solution.

Now, the patient’s family was making a fuss, demanding more than 700,000 in compensation.

Fortunately, this clinic and the Health Clinic had no hierarchical relationship, nor one of business guidance or supervision; otherwise, the Health Clinic wouldn’t have escaped blame either.

In fact, this incident could have been completely avoided, and he had three chances to do so.

First, when the patient came for consultation, Dr. Zhang could have asked an extra question. With his medical expertise, he would have known that sodium ions can raise blood pressure and should not be used for patients with high blood pressure.

The second chance was during the infusion. If either he or the nurse had gone to check on the patient’s condition, they would have discovered that something was wrong.

But the problem was, neither of them went, because they had never encountered any problems with patients due to infusions before.

It was typical inertial thinking that caused suffering for both the patient’s family and themselves.

The third chance was during the resuscitation attempt.

Similarly, if he had sent the patient to the hospital immediately, the patient might have had a chance of being saved. But Dr. Zhang tried to handle it himself, wasting that opportunity.

Du Heng suspected that Dr. Zhang had perhaps been afraid of taking responsibility and hadn’t chosen to send the patient to the hospital right away, instead trying to save him on his own. However, what he hadn’t expected was that the responsibility he eventually had to bear would be even greater. Or maybe Dr. Zhang had great faith in his own medical skills and thought he could save the patient. Or perhaps he had never even considered that the patient might have been suffering a cerebral hemorrhage. Of course, these were all conjectures, but the final outcome was a ridiculous and tragic medical accident that had happened because Dr. Zhang had lost his sense of reverence and had only cared about money.

After finishing a lot of work in the Hospital rooms and realizing that he didn’t have to be on duty for the next two days, Du Heng thought it was the perfect time to catch up on some owed favors. So he called Ma Zichen to invite him and his father out for a meal.

Ma Zichen readily agreed and soon called back, saying yes, his father was available.