Chapter 305: A Surge of Patients

They say women are the most sensitive creatures in the world. Turns out the seasoned veterans weren’t kidding.

Zhou Can had thoroughly offended her. Now that he was hoping to mend things and apologize, he realized it was going to be anything but easy.

As the news played on the giant advertising screen, a few patients and their family members recognized Zhou Can.

“Look, isn’t that young doctor on the news Dr. Zhou?”

“He looks pretty free right now! Honey, let’s hurry and register our daughter for Dr. Zhou’s clinic!”

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A sharply dressed young couple, after seeing the news about Zhou Can, left Du Leng’s waiting line without hesitation.

They rushed to the registration window and switched their appointment to Zhou Can.

After all, registering with a specialist was free, so changing their booking didn’t make any difference to them.

“No surgery, no hospitalization, and he healed that child’s broken arm just like that? Can that really be true?” An elderly man, there with his grandson, looked up at the big screen, torn.

After wrestling with the decision for a few seconds, the old man scooped up his grandson and headed for the desk to register with Zhou Can.

Not long ago, Zhou Can could barely attract a patient. But the news spotlight changed everything for him in an instant.

Patients began steadily registering under his name, coming to see him on their own.

Thinking back, it was clear why hardly anyone had signed up for his clinic before. He didn’t have a specific medical specialty.

His personal bio only mentioned being good at handling emergencies and treating odd cases.

Such a broad description lacked clarity and recognition for patients and their families. When they had better options, of course they’d pick another expert.

For example, let’s say a pregnant woman came down with a severe stomach ache after catching a chill. Sure, it counted as an emergency, but it was also clearly an obstetrics issue.

She’d come to Xinxiang Maternity and Child Hospital and look through the specialists. Zhang Bihua’s profile said she specialized in gynecology and obstetrics.

So the patient would immediately think, ‘I’m carrying a baby, so this must be an obstetric issue.’

She’d automatically overlook the emergency aspect.

Plus, Director Zhang was pushing sixty—a veteran doctor with bags of experience. Zhou Can was just a young guy, maybe even a rookie. There wasn’t anything to think about.

She’d go straight to Director Zhang, even if it meant waiting through a huge line.

Being left in the cold at his clinic forced Zhou Can to reflect on these problems.

He was still in the standardized resident training phase. In just over a year, he’d be a full attending physician and sitting for consultations by himself.

Focusing on one or two specialties would help him build an impressive personal brand.

“Dr. Zhou, would you please take a look at my daughter?”

“Sure, have a seat. What’s wrong with her?”

Zhou Can saw he finally had a patient and immediately perked up to meet the challenge.

“She hasn’t been herself since last week, started running a fever, keeps getting chills, and sometimes complains of leg pain, then her hand hurts.” The mother outlined her daughter’s symptoms.

This little girl couldn’t have been more than two. Her gaze was unfocused, her cheeks were flushed, and she was breathing hard. She looked utterly worn out.

Pediatrics is often called the “mute department.”

That’s because when young children get sick, they usually go quiet and can’t describe what they’re feeling or how it happened.

Doctors are left guessing, piecing things together on their own.

Which no doubt makes diagnosing much harder for them.

“She’s been sick since last week? That’s several days already. Why didn’t you bring her in sooner?”

Judging by how well-dressed this couple was, money clearly wasn’t a problem.

Letting their child get this bad before seeing a doctor—that was just careless.

“At first, we thought it was a regular cold. Parenting books say not to rush kids to the hospital for shots and IVs when it’s just a minor illness—it can make them medicine-dependent and weakens the immune system. She’s had colds before. We’d treat her with brown sugar ginger tea, give her plenty of warm water and rest, and she’d get better fast.”

“But this time, the illness just got worse. Her condition escalated overnight—she got the chills, clenched her teeth, was shivering. We rushed her to the community clinic, and the doctor said it was a cold and prescribed some children’s cold medicine.”

“She took the medicine, but a day passed with no change. That’s when we hurried to the big hospital. We saw the TV ad for free expert clinics at Xinxiang Maternity and Child Hospital, so we came here.”

After hearing their story, Zhou Can didn’t say much else.

He began running a few necessary checks on the girl.

Ji You helped measure her temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, and other vitals.

Zhou Can noticed the girl’s hands and feet were cold, her lips slightly blue—signs of serious illness, definitely not just a common cold.

“What medicine did you give her?”

“Here, we brought it. This is the Children’s Chai Gui Antipyretic Granule.”

That was a traditional Chinese medicine, with minimal side effects.

The doctor at the community clinic probably wanted to bring her fever down first.

Truth is, a hospital’s level pretty much decides the caliber of its doctors. Just like the most talented and hardworking kids get into top universities, while those who struggle end up in vocational schools or unknown colleges.

Hospitals filter their talent even more strictly.

Doctors with weaker qualifications or skills often work at township hospitals, community clinics, or private practices.

It’s not that they don’t want jobs at major hospitals—they simply can’t get in.

This girl’s condition was bound to get worse. The community doctor bore a bit of responsibility—if they’d realized this wasn’t an ordinary cold and taken it seriously, maybe she could’ve gotten timely, effective treatment.

At the very least, they could’ve convinced the parents to take her to a bigger hospital for a thorough check-up.

“Dr. Zhou, can my child take this medicine?”

The parents obviously trusted the big hospital’s doctors more, worried the medicine from the community clinic wasn’t suitable.

“Normally, for this kind of cold, that medicine’s fine. But with your daughter’s symptoms—it doesn’t seem like an ordinary cold.”

Zhou Can’s words made the parents’ hearts sink.

The mother’s face went pale in an instant.

“Doctor, what illness does my daughter have? Is she going to be okay?” The mother’s voice trembled with worry.

“We’ll need more tests to be sure. But take a good look at her face and fingers—they’re tinged blue. That means she’s likely started experiencing some hypoxia.”

Bluish face and fingertips are typically the most direct signs of oxygen deficiency.

When blood oxygen levels dip below 90%, you’ll start seeing blue lips, fingernails, and a bluish face—classic hypoxia symptoms.

With Zhou Can’s reminder, the young couple examined their daughter closely. Sure enough…

Her lips and nails had a blueish tint.

Panic washed over them.

“Doctor, please, you have to save my child!” The girl’s mother was already on the verge of tears, close to breaking down.

“Don’t worry. She’s only developing more serious symptoms, but it’s not beyond hope. As long as we figure out what’s causing this and treat it, she’ll be okay.”

Zhou Can calmed the parents and continued checking the girl’s body.

“Dr. Zhou, there’s a lump in her armpit!” Ji You, while taking her temperature, noticed something odd.

In the past, old pediatricians preferred to check children’s temperature rectally.

It wasn’t sanitary, and it made kids uncomfortable and less likely to cooperate.

Pediatricians these days were wiser, opting to check under the armpit.

With enough data, underarm readings were just as medically reliable as rectal temperatures.

Older doctors demanded stricter accuracy in those tougher days, since there were fewer ways to check things. Rectal temperatures were more precise.

Sometimes, a difference of just 0.1 degrees could make a world of difference for a doctor’s diagnosis.

Low and high fever are two entirely different things.

Zhou Can reached out to feel under her arm, then lifted her arm for a look.

“Her armpit lymph nodes are swollen.”

That was his conclusion.

Confronted with one abnormal sign after another, the parents grew even more frightened.

“High fever, 40.3 degrees.”

Ji You reported the temperature reading.

To avoid mistakes, you should take a child’s temperature at least twice. Responsible nurses and doctors often check three times.

Rectal temperatures, though, just need one check.

Oral temperature can also give very accurate results.

But sticking a thermometer in a child’s mouth makes parents uncomfortable. They worry about hygiene since the same one’s used for multiple kids—even if disinfected, it feels wrong.

Plus, if the child bites down and shatters the thermometer, the mercury inside is poisonous.

That risk’s too high.

That’s why, with all things considered, doctors and nurses now typically stick to underarm checks.

It’s more work, but better safe than sorry.

“Has your daughter’s urination and bowel movements been normal these past couple days?” Zhou Can pressed for more crucial details.

“Stool’s normal, but she hasn’t really peed. Especially today—not a single time.” The girl’s mother’s answer made Zhou Can’s face darken.

That was a serious warning sign.

In the ICU, if a patient doesn’t urinate for two days, it’s usually time to alert the family to prepare for the worst.

“Let’s start with a blood test! Her condition is serious—mark it urgent!”

After gathering the basic details, Zhou Can ordered the simplest test.

He didn’t do what many rookie doctors did—order a bunch of unnecessary tests just because they could.

That way, the hospital racks up charges and red tape but avoids real accountability.

Simply put, it’s less hassle and less risk for them.

But with specialists, it’s the opposite.

The better the expert, the more targeted and streamlined their test orders.

Often they start with one or two checks, then narrow it down with follow-ups.

Since Zhou Can started as a trainee, he mostly shadowed chief physicians—the best in their departments. He’d picked up their way of making targeted test orders.

Never ordering unnecessary tests, saving patients from suffering and extra costs, and making sure they spend as little time in the hospital as possible.

If you go the lazy route and order every possible test, patients might spend days just waiting for results.

And that’s not an exaggeration.

Big hospitals almost always have queues for every test.

Why? Because there are so many patients and so many doctors ordering unnecessary tests.

“Dr. Zhou… I’m not questioning your skills, honestly! But just a blood test for our child?” The parents looked uneasy that he’d only ordered a basic blood test.

“What, you wanted me to order a full suite? ECG, urine and stool tests, chest and abdominal ultrasound—the works?”

Zhou Can raised an eyebrow.

“Oh, haha, I was just joking. No offense meant!” The father’s face turned awkward and he quickly offered up a smile.

The parents took the girl to get her blood drawn right away.

“Doctor, my grandson twisted his ankle. Can it be treated?”

The grandfather who’d signed up earlier for his grandson now appeared at Zhou Can’s desk.

“Let me take a look!”

Zhou Can stood up, squatted down, and examined the boy’s ankle carefully.

The boy’s right ankle was badly swollen, with bruises and purple blotches under the skin—a sign of a hematoma.

“We’ll need to do an X-ray first! If there’s no severe fracture, things won’t be too serious. The bruising and bleeding are a concern, so we’ll wait for the test results, but don’t touch or massage the injury at all right now.”

As he ordered the X-ray, Zhou Can also listed the dos and don’ts.

Many people without medical backgrounds rely on old beliefs—if you get a swelling, just massage it and it’ll go away.

That’s not actually safe.

For ordinary bruises, massage can help promote blood flow and speed recovery.

But for ankle injuries with possible fractures, randomly massaging will just make things worse.

A mild fracture can become severe if people press too hard.

And if the hematoma’s on the head—kids are especially prone to bumps and bruises—folk remedies often call for rubbing the bump with oil or alcohol.

But doing that is very dangerous.

Children’s blood vessels are especially delicate and thin-walled.

If you forcefully massage a bruise, you only squeeze more blood out, putting the vessels at risk for rupture—and that could lead to life-threatening brain bleeding.

After finishing the paperwork for the X-ray, a line of new patients began arriving at Zhou Can’s desk.

It looked like the TV segment really was giving his clinic a huge boost.

Especially with the ad playing right there in the outpatient hall, this kind of exposure was pushing him into the spotlight.

With every patient, Zhou Can gave his careful attention and expertise.

So far, his luck was holding. He’d seen five patients already, all with clear-cut symptoms and nothing too tricky.

Just then, the first child’s blood test results came back.

“Dr. Zhou, we’ve got the results. Could you take a look?”

Worry clouded the parents’ faces.

“White blood cell count is elevated, high neutrophil percentage, but platelet count’s dropping… Has she been cut by a rusty nail or other metal lately?”

The test results startled Zhou Can as well.

“No, she’s been fine, we’d know if that happened!” the girl’s mother insisted.

“Who normally looks after her?”

Zhou Can pressed further.

He noticed the mother had said she’d never heard about any injuries—not that she’d never seen them.

That meant she wasn’t her daughter’s sole caretaker.

“Both my husband and I work during the day, so her grandma looks after her. After work and on weekends, we take turns.”

Young families in the city had to work hard to get by.

Having grandparents help was a real blessing.

Both parents could earn extra money for the family.

“Can you call and ask if she’s had any minor scrapes with rusty stuff lately?”

As Zhou Can checked the girl’s limbs for injuries, he soon found something.

In the center of her left palm was a faint red mark. Kids heal fast, and their bodies are always mending. Even surface wounds fade quickly.

It looked like she’d definitely hurt that spot recently.