As a person who advocated western medicine and had always regarded traditional Chinese medicine as a pseudoscience, he also paid attention to the video of Ding Ning’s treatment that day. In his opinion, there was no scientific basis for setting a broken bone without surgery, connecting the nervous system, and the anesthetization of traditional Chinese medicine. These were absolutely pseudoscience.
Although he didn’t know how Ding Ning pulled it off, he was always skeptical and thought that it was likely that the guys who were engaged in traditional Chinese medicine put on a show together.
In addition, his intern Wang Bo stirred up trouble and called Ding Ning a liar who liked to be deliberately mystifying, swindle and engage in feudalistic superstition at school. That left him with a bad impression of Ding Ning.
“Who do you think you are? What does my identity have to do with you?” Ding Ning angrily rebuked the doctor with a cold voice.
He despised people who took advantage of their seniority.
“Ding Ning, what did you say? Do you know who you’re talking to? Doctor Liu is the authority when it comes to brain surgery.”
Displaying the manner of a lackey, Wang Bo reproached Ding Ning with anger. Doctor Liu was angry with Ding Ning’s insult. When he heard Wang Bo call him the authority of brain surgery, he immediately became proud of himself. He narrowed his eyes at Ding Ning.
“The authority? Bah! Just an attending physician who can’t even help a patient wake. What qualifications do you have to show your strength here?”
Ding Ning didn’t have a good impression of doctors who liked flattery. He refuted Wang Bo’s words without holding back.
“Outrageous! Who do you think you are? You’re just a fraud who only knows how to swindle. This is Renhe Hospital, not somewhere you can act wildly. Get out of this place now,” Doctor Liu said with a dark expression.
He was furious.
“Do you own this hospital? You’re just a doctor working here. What right do you have to ask me to leave? I’d like to throw the words back at you.”
Ding Ning glanced at him and curled his lip. He looked like he was staring at an idiot.
“You… Just wait and see. Wang Bo, call the security guard to come and toss him out.”
Doctor Liu was so angry that he was shaking. He roared with anger, drawing the attention of curious onlookers.
“Xiaoniu, is this your friend? Tell him to apologize to Doctor Liu. Doctor Liu is Yongjin’s attending physician.”
Han Li nervously tugged at the clothes of Niu Xiaoniu’s clothes after seeing his friend have a fallout with the doctor. Being the patient’s family member, she was naturally in awe of the doctor and dared not offend him.
Niu Xiaoniu shook his head firmly. “Sister-in-law, believe me. I asked him to cure the old squad leader. If not even he can cure the old squad leader, then there’s nothing Doctor Liu can do.”
“He can cure Yongjin? H… He’s still so young.” Han Li looked at Ding Ning’s young face in surprise. Her face was full of suspicion.
“I’m here to visit my friend. Even if you’re the attending physician, what right do you have to toss me out? Today, I’d like to see what rules of Renhe Hospital state that friends can’t visit patients? Do you make the rules around here, Doctor Liu? Your words are more effective than your dean’s.”
Ding Ning deliberately raised his voice so that the bystanders could hear him.
“You…”
Doctor Liu was so angry that he was shaking. He pointed at Ding Ning, speechless for a long time. Ding Ning was right. He was visiting a patient during visiting hours. What right did he have to drive Ding Ning away?
Wang Bo rolled his eyes and sneered. “No one will toss you out if you’re just here to visit a patient. But… You deliberately bring someone here to make trouble and break Doctor Liu’s glasses. Naturally, we have every right to toss you out. You said you’re friends with the patient Qian Yongjin. Does his family member know you?”
Refreshed, Doctor Liu looked at Wang Bo in appreciation. He turned to look at Han Li and asked proudly, “Ms. Han, do you know this person?”
Han Li was stupefied. Her face was red and she couldn’t say a word. How could she, a woman, have her own mind? She didn’t dare to offend the attending physician but Xiaoniu gave her a helping hand when she needed it the most. He was like her own brother. There was no way she would help others berate Xiaoniu. She looked at Xiaoniu for help with tears welling in her eyes.
“You don’t have to look at other people. Just say whether you know this person.”
Doctor Liu urged impatiently.
“What does it matter if my sister-in-law doesn’t know him? He’s my friend. Can’t my friend come and visit my older brother?”
When Xiaoniu saw that his honest sister-in-law was forced close to tears, he felt a stab of anger. His face was red and he roared with rage.
“Hmph! Is Qian Yongjin your older brother just because you say it is? I even suspect that you and Ding Ning are colluding to cause trouble in the hospital. You beat Doctor Liu up as well and these broken glasses can prove it.”
Wang Bo insidiously smiled and told a nurse behind him, “Call the security guards to come and arrest these two people who came to the hospital to make trouble.”
“Wang Bo, Wang Bo, you really can never change your nature. You tried so hard to make life difficult for me back when we were in school and I had always been too lazy to respond. Now you have the ability? You have learned to slander and frame others. Fine. Just call the police and have them deal with it. Slandering isn’t a big crime but it’s quite possible to have your qualification as a medical intern forfeited.”
Ding Ning spoke in a leisurely manner. He intentionally glanced at the CCTV in the corridor.
Wang Bo’s face became stiff and confusion flashed in his pupils. He was so focused on giving Ding Ning trouble that he forgot that there was CCTV that recorded exactly what had just happened outside the intensive care unit.
“Let’s go!” Doctor Liu’s face was gloomy. He angrily turned around and stormed away.
A reluctant Wang Bo glared at Ding Ning before running off after Doctor Liu.
“What the hell!”
Niu Xiaoniu spat while watching their retreating figures. Then, he turned around to introduce Ding Ning and Han Li with a smile. “This is my sister-in-law, Han Li. Sister-in-law, this is Doctor Ding Ning. His medical skills are very good.”
“Hello, sister-in-law!” Ding Ning greeted with a smile.
Han Li was a little uneasy and reluctantly smiled. She asked Xiaoniu with a low voice, “Doctor Ding is so young. Can he really cure Yongjin?”
Xiaoniu hesitated for a moment and scratched his head uncertainly. “I’m not sure. But he’s definitely much better than that Doctor Liu.”
Ding Ning had excellent hearing. He couldn’t help shaking his head and smiling wryly to himself as he listened to their whispered conversation. His youth was both an asset but also a liability. If he was now 40 or 50 years old, perhaps the patient’s family would be more confident in him. However, he would have to wait until he examines the patient to know whether he could cure Qian Yongjin. He immediately said, “Sister-in-law, Xiaoniu, let’s discuss further after we go in and check on Brother Qian!”
“Okay. Thank you for your help, Doctor Ding,” Han Li said politely.
Her face was filled with a smile. Although she found Ding Ning to be too young to be reliable, it was Xiaoniu who introduced them. She had to show him the necessary etiquette.
Ding Ning walked to the hospital bed and saw that Qian Yongjin was a man in his early thirties with thick eyebrows and a tall nose. His head was wrapped with white gauze. His eyes were closed at the moment. He was hooked up to a ventilator, an intravenous drip consisting of normal saline to supplement his nutrition, and an ECG monitor. There were tubes going in and out of his whole body. His vital signs were stable but he remained unconscious.
“This is brain CT and MRI. The doctor said that it was a craniocerebral injury when Yongjin was sent to the hospital. There was a hematoma in the skull. Then, they did the craniotomy. However, more than ten days have passed and he’s still unconscious until now. The doctor said that his cranial nerve is seriously damaged, leaving him in a deep coma. He can’t guarantee when Yongjin can wake up. What should my kid and I do?”
Han Li handed Ding Ning the case history such as brain CT and MRI reports. She briefly introduced the state of Yongjin’s illness and began to sob bitterly while speaking.
“Sister-in-law, don’t worry. Tell Doctor Ding about the old squad leader’s condition first.”
Xiaoniu quickly comforted her so that she wouldn’t disturb Ding Ning. Han Li choked with sobs and nodded. She wiped her tears and looked at Ding Ning with hope.
Ding Ning picked up the case history and read it carefully. Qian Yongjin’s cerebral hemorrhage was caused by his intracranial vascular breaking after a violent external impact. His left temporal lobe brain had a contusion. The base of his skull and right temporal bone were also fractured. So there was hydrops which caused intracranial hypertension. At present, he already took the craniotomy to clear the hematoma.
He had to admit that despite how hateful Doctor Liu was, he was still very good. He had taken a series of treatment means such as reducing intracranial pressure and nourishing nerves in the bleeding area. It wasn’t great but not bad either. But he had no way to repair nerves and could only rely on external stimulation to stimulate the body’s self-healing ability and autonomously repair damaged neurons.
This was the difference between western medicine and traditional Chinese medicine. Western medicine treated the patient’s head if he had a headache and the patient’s foot if he was experiencing pain in his foot. They had no way of dealing with problems on the microscopic level.
In theory, there was no disease that couldn’t be cured by traditional Chinese medicine. It was a matter of the doctor’s capability.
Qian Yongjin’s brain waves were normal, which meant that he still had his own thoughts. Ding Ning peeled Yongjin’s eyelids open to check his pupils. Then, he took out a silver needle and pricked him on the arm. Ding Ning smiled when he saw no reaction from Yongjin.
“Doctor Ding, can Yongjin wake up?”
Han Li, who had been watching Ding Ning’s expression all this while, questioned him nervously when she saw him smile.
“There should be no problem but I’ll have to conduct further examinations. But the current situation seems very optimistic.”
Ding Ning didn’t say anything in absolute terms. After all, Qian Yongjin was different from Wang Guoliang. Wang Guoliang suffered from nerve damage in his thigh while Qian Yongjin suffered from damage in his central nervous system, where the nerves were most concentrated.
“Doctor Ding, the doctor said that the old squad leader is in a deep coma. Is deep coma the same as PVS?”
Xiaoniu knew nothing about medicine but he still asked questions with an open mind.
Ding Ning shook his head and patiently explained, “The patient will be in a deep coma when there’s serious dysfunction in his cerebral cortex, causing him to have slow or loss of responses to external stimuli. But this patient’s breathing and heartbeat are intact. PVS is called an agrypnocoma, where the patient can freely open and close his eyes. Yongjin’s eyeballs are in a purposeless roaming state, which can easily be mistaken for consciousness. However, the truth is that the patient has lost his thought, judgment, speech, memory, as well as the ability to respond to things around him. He can’t understand anything, execute any instructions, and react actively to stimulus. This situation indicates a loss of cortical function of the patient’s brainstem. So it’s difficult for him to wake up.”
Xiaoniu was utterly confused. He scratched head and asked worriedly, “The old squad leader isn’t in a PVS, is he?”
“It’s hard to say now. There are three development forms of deep coma: healing, vegetative state, and brain death.”
Ding Ning thought over his words before slowly saying, “Brother Qian is now in a state of deep coma. There are three directions for development. He can either wake up at any time, descend into PVS, or have brain death.”