Chapter 444: Midnight at the Emergency: New Faces in the Operating Room

But the bolder these people were, the thicker their skin seemed to get—beyond anything you could imagine.

“Excuse me, who are you?”

Zhou Can looked at the woman, his face full of ‘confusion.’

Aren’t you the one who’s shameless? Fine, let’s see who can outdo whom tonight.

The woman instantly looked both excited and awkward. She’d expected Zhou Can to refuse, but she never thought he’d hit her with this act.

She instinctively studied Zhou Can, confirming he really did look confused, as if he genuinely didn’t remember her.

Trying to keep her composure, the woman explained, “I brought my son to see you this morning—he broke his left hand. You told us to get a head CT to check for internal bleeding. I didn’t agree and even yelled at you… Do you remember any of that?”

She could only patiently retell the story for Zhou Can.

She figured doctors see countless patients a day—if he forgot her, that’d be normal.

Besides, her son wasn’t there now, and after a whole day of running around, she looked disheveled and worn-out. No wonder Zhou Can barely recognized her.

“Oh… Vaguely rings a bell! Sorry, I’ve got to get to the night shift soon. As for yelling at me, don’t worry about it. Family members shouting is a regular thing. We’ve gotten used to it.”

With that, Zhou Can turned and walked away without a backward glance.

He left the woman standing alone, watching him go. Her mouth opened a few times, but she couldn’t bring herself to call out.

With an obvious look and attitude of ‘we barely know each other,’ Zhou Can made it clear he had no memory of her—and just like that, he crushed any hope she had of asking him for help.

When you’ve dealt with too many family members like this, whether you’re a doctor or a nurse, the best policy is to steer clear. No one wants trouble.

As Zhou Can entered the operating room area, he saw several patients already lined up in the corridor, waiting for their turn.

Since anesthesia was required for many surgeries, most patients had been fasting and off water.

The prep for surgery usually demanded an eight-hour fast.

Kids digest food faster than adults, so sometimes the standard could be loosened a bit. The main reasons for the fasting rule before surgery were twofold.

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First, to stop patients from vomiting under general anesthesia which could lead to food blocking the airway and causing fatal suffocation. Second, to prevent accidents like incontinence on the table.

In fact, it’s not uncommon for surgery patients to lose control of their bowels or bladder during the procedure.

Not only does it contaminate the operating room, it grosses out the medical team.

During the night shift, some patients had been admitted that morning. After the eight-hour window, they’d be ready for surgery—which meant more general anesthesia cases piled up at night than usual.

Given how many patients Zhou Can’s team could process, the department would sort the cases for him, making a sensible arrangement.

You’d never see a night shift packed with multiple major surgeries.

“Dr. Zhou, I really made it this time!”

A tall, lean man had been waiting at the door for a while. When he caught sight of Zhou Can, he hurried over.

“Welcome, welcome! Come on in with me!”

Zhou Can hadn’t expected that after chatting yesterday with Dr. Yang Zhi from the Anorectal and Colorectal Surgery Department, the guy would actually show up today to help.

Seems like he was ready for Zhou Can’s test.

Bringing Yang Zhi into the operating room, Zhou Can didn’t see Dr. Xu yet—probably out grabbing a bite.

For minor surgeries, Zhou Can was plenty qualified on his own. No need for the attending physician to be present.

“Whoa, boss brought a helper today!”

Luo Shishen noticed Zhou Can entering with another male doctor and paused in surprise.

“Hang on, aren’t you the one from yesterday?” Ma Xiaolan’s sharp eyes instantly recognized Yang Zhi.

“Haha, I’m impressed you remember me! I’m hoping to join Dr. Zhou’s surgical team, so I came specifically to be evaluated today.”

Yang Zhi was refreshingly direct, hiding nothing. That upped Zhou Can’s opinion of him.

“This is Yang Zhi, a surgical doctor here at the hospital. During the operation, I’ll assign him some tasks. Xiaolan, could you fill in as an instrument nurse for Yang?”

Zhou Can turned to Ma Xiaolan.

“No problem! But just so we’re clear, I’ve been training less than a year—if I fumble a bit, Dr. Yang can’t yell at me!”

Ma Xiaolan joked, only half-serious.

She’d been a part of Zhou Can’s surgery team for nearly a year now. Back when she started, she was so cocky, always showing off to the veteran Qiao Yu—until a little reality check from Zhou Can brought her down to earth.

Sure, she still had flaws, but her dedication and attitude were more than enough to please Zhou Can.

And her progress was clear for all to see.

Besides, working with Zhou Can meant handling a crazy volume of surgeries every month. That led to a handsome payday with solid bonuses.

Honestly, how much you earn really changes your temperament and mindset.

Look at Ma Xiaolan for a textbook example.

She was obviously more humble these days, and her confidence now genuinely came from within.

Compared to her old, empty bravado, this inner confidence was a huge improvement.

“Let’s get prepped! I see a long line of patients in the hallway—we need to move quickly.”

Zhou Can gave his orders, setting the team into motion.

This meant things were about to get intense.

Seeing lines of patients waiting for surgery outside the ER was something you’d hardly ever witness in other departments.

Maybe some specialist clinics would have a backlog like that.

But you’d never get anywhere near this many surgical patients in one go.

Even if they did, the specialized departments would find ways to stagger surgeries.

Elective surgery was the go-to choice for them.

They’d tell the patient, ‘Sorry, no free beds. You’ll have to wait a day or two,’ or have them stay under observation, maybe even send them home and call them back—pretty standard procedure.

As for the ER, Zhou Can had long since suggested a new approach to Dr. Xu and Director Lou.

Make the care as fast and efficient as possible for the patients.

It’s like shopping online. Once you order, you can’t wait for your package; three days is reasonable, but any longer and you get antsy. If it arrives the next day, that’s amazing.

Seeking treatment feels a lot like that for patients.

When you’re in pain, all you want is to get treated as soon as possible.

Zhou Can always understood that urgency, so he’d made a bold proposal: all admitted patients should have their surgeries done within twenty-four hours.

Most of the time, the ER admits patients in the morning and manages to finish surgeries the very same day.

For the rare major case that needs extra tests, things might be put off until the next day. But almost always, surgery happens within a day.

This super-fast turnaround has given the Emergency Department a stellar reputation.

Honestly, there’s not another hospital in the province that can compete with this kind of efficiency in their surgical departments.

Yet at Tuyu, the Emergency Department, thanks to Zhou Can’s ‘Rapid Surgical Technique,’ kept pushing the bar for quicker surgeries.

This unique advantage helped the department shine in a fiercely competitive field.

In the past, the ER relied on front-desk staff convincing patients to stay. Now, many patients sought it out by name, even begging to have their surgeries there.

Some came just for the department’s reputation, but because their cases were too tricky or their standards for equipment and environment too high, sometimes they had to be redirected to specialists. Those patients and families often weren’t happy about it.

No wonder Zhou Can’s role in the department kept getting more important.

He’d pretty much become the engine—the very heart—of the Emergency Department.

In no time, Ma Xiaolan brought in the first patient.

She was a young woman, maybe twenty-five or twenty-six, slender build. The trouble was a big lump on the front of her left forearm, close to the wrist.

She’d said at first it was tiny, but over time it just kept growing—now it was the size of an egg.

It bulged out high and looked genuinely scary.

“Where’s the scan? Let me take a look.”

Since surgery was on the agenda, scans were a must. At the very least, a CT for a lump like this.

Seasoned doctors still preferred to reference X-ray images.

It should be said, X-rays were the earliest scan tech and definitely not as precise as CT. They work for fractures, but—

For tumors, if the X-ray caught it at all, it was usually really big.

So when screening for internal tumors, never rely on X-ray alone.

For example, if you suspect a liver or lung tumor, an X-ray might say all’s clear. But the chest CT could reveal a small tumor hiding there.

Doctors these days got more training on this, so things are improving.

There were plenty of tragedies in the past, though.

Like patients reporting discomfort in their lungs, getting an X-ray, then being told everything looked normal.

Patients walked away relieved, with nothing but some cough or pain medicine to take home.

Then nearly a year would pass.

The cough would get worse—they’d head back to the hospital,

and would naturally request to see the same doctor, thinking they’d already built trust from before.

So for the second visit, it was the same doctor again.

Again, another X-ray is prescribed.

But this time the scan got the doctor looking grave—he informed the patient there was a large tumor in the lung. Further checks were urgently needed.

A battery of tests later, the patient was devastated to learn it was already late-stage lung cancer.

With no surgery option left, the patient was overwhelmed by despair—and rage.

If only the doctor had looked deeper that first time, it might have been early-stage and treatable.

But now, it was terminal. Who could accept that?

He had parents above, a child below—the whole family relying on him as their sole breadwinner.

He couldn’t even allow himself to picture what would happen to them after he was gone.

The more he dwelled on it, the angrier he became—eventually he bought a butcher’s knife, arranged to “ask” that doctor for details, then suddenly stabbed him in the stomach.

He stabbed him twenty-seven times. At the end, the patient was covered in blood and the doctor died on the spot, never even making it to surgery.

That doctor-murder case shocked the entire country back then.

Ever since, experienced doctors teaching newbies always stressed—when you even suspect a tumor, never just rely on X-ray findings.

CT scans are a must.

If necessary, you’d go for an enhanced CT, or even MRI.

Let’s give some credit to the MRI—one of mankind’s greatest medical inventions. It can pick up lesions as small as five millimeters.

Thanks to this technology, many tumors can be detected early—when they’re still tiny.

But even if a tumor is found, if it’s too small doctors might recommend just monitoring it, watching for growth or malignancy.

And one more thing—not every tumor with blood flow signals or blurry edges is cancerous.

Plenty of patients freak out over possible malignancy findings.

But actually, that’s not necessary.

Sometimes, it’s better to relax—eat normally, sleep normally, stay in a good mood. That, too, is powerful medicine.

Zhou Can carefully reviewed the scans of the young woman, frowning the entire time. His expression grew especially serious.

Even though she couldn’t see his face under his mask, the patient could feel the heavy tension in the room.

“Doctor, does my tumor look bad? Is it cancer?”

Her voice shook with barely hidden anxiety.

Whether it was in the OR or the ward, doctors and nurses avoided saying the word ‘cancer’ in front of patients. They’d use ‘CA’ or ‘bad one’ instead.

“Does it hurt when you touch it?”

Zhou Can asked the female patient.

“A little, yes. A kind of dull ache, really.”

Her admitting doctor probably already asked the same thing.

Which explained why she could describe it in such professional terms.

A typical trait of cancerous tumors—unless they’ve spread, they’re usually just a dull ache or no pain at all.

Real cancer pain comes in the later stages, like with bone metastases, when the pain drills straight into your bones.

“Dr. Yang, take a look at this.”

Zhou Can called Yang Zhi over to examine the scans with him.

Of course, this was also a chance to test Yang Zhi’s diagnostic skill and surgical experience.

“Luo Shishen, you can check too.”

Zhou Can might not want to be Luo Shishen’s official mentor, but he always gave him all he had when it came to teaching—sometimes more than a real master would.

“Let me feel it!”

Luo Shishen reached out to gently palpate the lump on the woman’s arm.

“It’s pretty firm, but seems like it moves a bit. Is this a myoma?”

He glanced at Zhou Can, seeking confirmation.

But Zhou Can didn’t answer, clearly waiting on Yang Zhi’s assessment.

“Looks kind of like a myoma, yeah.”

Yang Zhi’s answer matched Luo Shishen’s.

“Watch carefully now!”

Zhou Can took the woman’s hand and used his thumbs to press and examine the lump for himself.