Yang Zhigang was struck by a sense of impending doom and the world spinning as he heard his wife was critically ill. His legs gave out, and he nearly collapsed.
Fortunately, Yang Chen reacted quickly, grabbing his father and supporting him.
"Dad, don't... don't worry, the doctors are here!"
"Right... right!"
Yang Zhigang clutched Huang Hai's hand tightly, pleading, "Doctor Huang, please save my wife!"
"If you want to save someone, let go!"
Huang Hai shook off Yang Zhigang's hand and strode towards the ward, with Yang Chen and his father following closely.
Upon entering the room, they were met with the piercing alarm of the life monitor by the bedside, and nurses had already brought the rescue cart to the patient's bed.
On the bed lay a pale, emaciated middle-aged woman, her eyes tightly shut, frothing at the mouth, and her body convulsing intermittently.
Mom!
This was the first time Yang Chen had seen his mother, Zhang Suqin, since he became lucid. Tears streamed down his face uncontrollably.
"Head Nurse, what's the situation?"
"Doctor Huang, the life monitor shows the patient's blood pressure and heart rate are rapidly declining. Blood pressure is currently 85/60, heart rate is 55 beats per minute, and the ECG shows ST segment elevation..."
Huang Hai listened to the report, stepped forward, pried open Zhang Suqin's eyelids, and shone a flashlight. He shook his head and said, "Preliminary suspicion is that the brain tumor is pressing on an artery, causing a massive intracranial hemorrhage... She's beyond saving, declare her dead."
Boom!
Huang Hai's words were like a thunderclap, exploding in Yang Chen and his father's minds.
"The mother of my child..."
Yang Zhigang lunged to the bedside, let out a mournful cry to the heavens, unable to catch his breath, and collapsed limply onto the ground.
"Dad!"
Yang Chen quickly helped his father up and instinctively used his thumb to press Yang Zhigang's philtrum.
Huang Hai and the surrounding nurses were taken aback: this simpleton actually knew first aid?
A moment later, Yang Zhigang slowly regained consciousness. Yang Chen quickly comforted him, "Dad, don't get worked up. My mother can still be saved... Please, don't get worked up!"
He then turned to Huang Hai and urgently said, "Doctor, my mother can still be saved... You can't declare her dead, please save her quickly!"
"Simpleton, what do you know!"
Huang Hai said with disdain, "Even for a normal person, the chance of survival from a massive intracranial hemorrhage is less than half. Moreover, your mother's condition is caused by a brain tumor pressing on an artery, leading to massive bleeding. The chance of rescue is less than one in ten thousand, so there's no need to waste medical resources."
As it was almost time to clock out, Huang Hai didn't want to waste his time on a rescue with no hope.
Besides, he had a date with a new nurse tonight, planning to have a few drinks and then book a room.
"Doctor, please, just try."
Yang Zhigang, despite just regaining consciousness, pleaded breathlessly, "Please, save my wife!"
"Your son is foolish, and you're foolish along with him."
Huang Hai said impatiently, "Such a rescue is meaningless. By the time the patient is pushed into the operating room, before we can even drill into her skull, she'll probably be dead. You're better off saying whatever you need to say to her while she still has a breath left."
Seeing the despair on Yang Zhigang's face, Huang Hai quickly signaled to the head nurse, who understood and handed over a form, saying, "Here, sign the 'Refusal of Rescue' form."
"This... this..."
"Sign it quickly," Huang Hai urged. "If you sign the form, I'll give your wife a shot of adrenaline. Perhaps she'll wake up for a minute or two, and you two can say goodbye."
Yang Zhigang reached out his trembling, calloused hand to take the pen, but Yang Chen snatched the form and pen away.
"Dad, you can't sign it, we can't give up!"
He then turned and tugged at Huang Hai's sleeve, saying, "Doctor, no matter how slim the chances, we want to try and save her!"
"Let go!"
Huang Hai tried to shake him off several times, but Yang Chen's grip was like iron, unyielding. Enraged, he shouted, "Simpleton, why can't you understand what I'm saying..."
Indeed, he was a simpleton and couldn't understand.
"Yang Zhigang, make your simpleton son let go!"
"What's going on?"
At this moment, a middle-aged man with graying hair and a stern expression entered the ward from outside. He frowned and asked, "Huang Hai, this is a hospital, not a market. How can you disturb the rest of other patients!"
"Director Ma!"
Huang Hai saw the newcomer and moved to greet him. Yang Chen, however, was still clinging to his hand, so he could only say, "This simpleton insists on dragging me to save a dead person. I... I can't explain this clearly..."
"She's not dead, my mother isn't dead!"
Yang Chen interrupted, "You're the director, right? Please... please save my mother, she's still breathing... she's not dead!"
Director Ma glanced at Zhang Suqin on the bed, then at the life monitor, and frowned. "Huang Hai, what's the patient's condition?"
"She's a brain tumor patient... likely it's pressed and ruptured an artery... The tumor is located in the subarachnoid space..."
To avoid being found negligent, Huang Hai described the condition as severely as possible, causing Director Ma's brows to furrow into the character "川".
"Why are you saying all that? I asked you to save her... Save her! You two, hurry up and give my mother medication!"
Yang Chen couldn't understand the medical jargon. He only felt that the longer Huang Hai delayed, the more dangerous his mother's condition would become. Frustrated, he walked to the bedside, took his mother's hand, and shouted, "My mother is still breathing, her hands are still warm, she can be saved..."
As he spoke, a diagram of meridians appeared before his eyes. These meridians, connected by acupoints on the body, resembled flowing rivers. A faint green gas circulated within the meridians.
"What are those black dots?"
Yang Chen soon noticed several acupoints on his mother's body that were black dots. These black dots were like dikes, blocking the flow of the faint green gas.
"Right, when I was giving President Li a massage earlier, she also had these black dots on her. Later, I massaged them away with my fingers, and she felt better."
"If... if I can massage away the black dots on Mom and let the gas flow smoothly, will Mom get better?"
He didn't have time to ponder further. Yang Chen extended his fingers and began to point and press on Zhang Suqin's body.
"Son, what... what are you doing?"
Yang Zhigang was bewildered, watching Yang Chen poke and prod his wife as if playing with acupressure. He assumed Yang Chen's illness had relapsed.
"What else could he be doing? Your son must be having another fit. If he continues like this, your wife will die with regrets!"
Huang Hai said contemptuously, "Head Nurse, notify security to come and take this lunatic away!"
"Yes!"
"Slow!"
Just as the head nurse was about to turn and call security, Director Ma suddenly commanded, his eyes fixed intently on where Yang Chen's fingers were falling, as if afraid to miss any step.
"Director, this simpleton..."
"Be quiet!"
Director Ma raised his hand to interrupt Huang Hai, his eyes following Yang Chen's every move, and said coldly, "Every point he touches is one of the 108 major acupoints on the body. His accuracy in identifying these points is something even I can't achieve. You say he's not smart!"
What?
Huang Hai's gaze followed Yang Chen's. He was poking and pressing like a madman, and occasionally rubbing the patient. This technique looked less like saving a life and more like a child abusing flesh.
Huang Hai and several nurses exchanged bewildered glances, all thinking, "Is Director Ma going senile? The simpleton is messing around, and he thinks it's saving a life?"
Ding...
At this moment, the life monitor suddenly let out a sharp alarm. Huang Hai, agitated, said in a low voice, "Head Nurse, is the life monitor malfunctioning? Turn it off, it's annoying!"
"No... no..."
"What do you mean 'no'? I told you to turn it off, why so much nonsense!"
"The life monitor isn't broken, it... it shows the patient's blood pressure and heart rate are rising!"
"This isn't broken? How can a dying person's blood pressure rise..."
However, before Huang Hai could finish speaking, Director Ma's voice rang out, "The patient's eyes are open. Who said she's dying!"