Chapter 596: A Breath Away from Death

If Lin Ai Xi had been willing to take some risks and followed Zhou Can’s advice the night she was transferred to Tuyu, his daughter might have had a chance.

Lin Jinzhi might work within the medical system, but he isn’t a doctor—so he had no idea how terrifying the progression of her illness could be.

Plenty of chronic diseases can be deadly if caught too late.

It’s the same with stomach cancer—a single day can mean the difference between Stage II and Stage III. That’s why when doctors suspect a malignant disease, they do everything they can to arrange a bed, get the patient admitted quickly, and run every test as soon as possible.

Sometimes, they’ll even start risky treatments before the test results are out.

That’s true compassion.

For doctors, treating one more or one less patient doesn’t really make a difference to them personally.

They’re not working this hard to earn a little extra treatment fee—in fact, even if a patient’s medical bill runs up to a million, only a tiny part of it goes into the admitting doctor’s pocket.

Back then, Zhou Can strongly recommended a laparoscopy for the little girl purely out of a sense of responsibility as a doctor and genuine concern.

Unfortunately, the family wasn’t willing to take the risk, so they kept putting it off.

Even minor illnesses can drag on until they turn severe—let alone something as frightening as intestinal lymphoma.

Most people only know how scary cancer is. But truth is, a lot of other diseases have an even shorter survival period. For example, intestinal lymphoma—without timely and effective treatment, surviving more than two months is nearly impossible.

In Zhou Can’s experience, most cases like this survived at best a month.

Even as Lin Jinzhi pleaded with him, Zhou Can desperately wanted to help, but he also knew there was nothing more he could do.

“Dr. Zhou, why don’t we come up with something? Let’s do everything we can and leave the rest to fate. I’m a mother. Seeing kids like this always breaks my heart.”

Dr. Tang Fei spoke up from the side.

She and Zhou Can had always been close—ever since his first day in Pediatrics, she’d looked after him.

Even when Zhou Can led a protest in the Emergency Department over hospital safety issues, she showed up with her pediatric team to support him.

What matters most when people work together is sincerity.

Shared values, similar backgrounds, and the same state of mind—that’s what makes for comfortable relationships.

Birds of a feather flock together. The same goes for people.

If you’re not on the same level, it’s tough to truly connect. Even with similar backgrounds, if your characters clash you still won’t get along.

One of the reasons Zhou Can was willing to give his all in Pediatrics was because he had a great leader like Dr. Tang Fei.

Now that she had spoken, of course Zhou Can would seriously consider it.

“When I examined Lin Yu Xi, she was sweating heavily, her abdominal muscles were tense, and the pain was extremely pronounced. Her emergency abdominal X-ray showed free gas under the diaphragm, which means there’s a bowel perforation. Honestly, it’s already a desperate situation.”

It was harsh to lay out the facts, but it needed to be said.

“Dr. Zhou, Dr. Tang, please—do everything you can. I’m prepared to accept any outcome. I can sign any agreement or waiver right away.”

Lin Jinzhi was full of regret, but in this world, there’s no such thing as a regret medicine.

This case left a deep impression on Zhou Can, too.

“Let’s do an exploratory laparotomy. A bowel perforation needs surgical intervention either way. Once we open up, we can deal with whatever we find.”

Zhou Can gave his medical advice.

“I agree!”

This time, Lin Jinzhi agreed without hesitation.

But saying yes now is a world apart from agreeing six days earlier.

You don’t become a boss at the Health Bureau without being sharp and decisive. But when your own child’s life is on the line, it’s easy to lose your cool.

Concern for his daughter’s life was exactly what made him so indecisive before.

Now that death loomed so close, he had no choice left.

Next, they rushed to perform an emergency laparotomy on the girl. During the operation, they found a large amount of light yellow, cloudy fluid—over 700 milliliters. At the root of her mesentery, Zhou Can discovered several pea-sized lymph nodes, and a mass on her ileocecal region measuring 12 centimeters long and 9 centimeters wide.

This was the same mass Zhou Can had felt during her earlier abdominal exam.

It was tightly adhered to the posterior peritoneum.

After discussing the case, they asked Director Xiao from Gastrointestinal Surgery to come and consult.

With Director Xiao supervising, Zhou Can took the lead as the main surgeon, removing the intestinal mass and lymph nodes, then performing an end-to-side ileocolonic anastomosis.

When the surgery ended, Zhou Can just couldn’t feel happy.

Most times when he did surgery, he was confident as ever.

But this time, his mood felt unusually heavy.

Thanks to his current surgical skills, he could often sense how patients would fare even during the operation and could predict their prognosis with reasonable accuracy.

The surgery went smoothly, but he had a bad feeling.

He feared the worst for this little girl.

“Her bowel is extremely fragile—especially the ascending colon, which was almost like rotted wood. Post-op, keep a close eye out for further perforation or peritonitis,” Zhou Can warned.

“Understood.”

The Attending Nurse treated Zhou Can with obvious respect. She’d seen his skills in the OR before.

In the operating room, everyone can tell who’s skilled and who isn’t—nurses pick up on it instantly.

Many young doctors Zhou Can’s age are still thrilled just to get a shot at closing up the skin—spending over an hour carefully stitching, proud as if they’d made some huge leap in their surgical skills.

But Zhou Can could wield the scalpel with real mastery—navigating the abdominal cavity with confidence, performing incisions, tissue separation, excision, hemostasis, debridement, lymph node removal, anastomosis, and closure, all in one smooth flow.

His skill and composure sometimes even surpassed those of some chief physicians.

Faced with such a super talent, it was only natural for the nurses to genuinely admire him.

If not for the fact that Zhou Can was already married, there’d be a line of surgical nurses eager to chase after him.

And operating room nurses, by the way, are generally quite attractive.

When Zhou Can stepped out of the OR, Lin Jinzhi was waiting anxiously.

“Dr. Zhou, how did my daughter’s surgery go?”

“The operation itself went smoothly, but your daughter’s ascending colon was so fragile the situation is dire. I’m especially concerned about a possible second perforation. When we opened her up, we drew more than 700 milliliters of turbid fluid—that’s all leaked bowel contents from the perforation. That puts her at high risk for peritonitis, especially given how weak she is.”

Zhou Can’s voice was heavy and his face grave.

“Thank you, thank you! You’ve worked so hard!”

Lin Jinzhi knew full well the surgery was basically all thanks to Zhou Can. After watching his daughter’s condition worsen and missing her window for treatment—not to mention their ordeal at the Provincial Children’s Hospital—he realized that titles and ranks are just empty labels.

True skill is what truly matters.

He wasn’t even sure just how talented this young doctor really was.

All he knew was, in all these years, he’d never seen so many experts, professors, regular staff, families—even patients—unanimously praise a single doctor. Even external experts like Professor Wei Zhengru, the Health Bureau, and CDC colleagues and friends gave Zhou Can glowing reviews.

That was enough to prove that Zhou Can wasn’t ordinary.

“There’s an excellent nurse on my team who studied overseas and has picked up a lot of advanced nursing techniques. She’s also trained at top hospitals back home. Seeing how much you care about your daughter really touched me. How about I call and see if she can come over for a consult? With her help, your daughter’s odds of survival will be higher.”

She really was the treasure of Zhou Can’s team.

He’d done a lot to persuade Jiang Wei to stick around.

“That would be fantastic! Thank you for going to all this trouble, Dr. Zhou.”

Lin Jinzhi agreed gratefully, his respect for Zhou Can growing by the minute.

Zhou Can didn’t hesitate—he dialed Jiang Wei’s number on the spot.

The phone rang for ages before someone picked up.

It was the middle of the night, and she was probably sound asleep.

Frontline medical staff are already exhausted from work, let alone having to rush to emergency rescues at all hours; there’s never enough sleep.

“Hello?”

On the other end was Jiang Wei’s sleepy, slightly dazed voice.

“Jiang Wei, it’s me, Zhou Can!”

“Oh… Boss, it’s you! Sorry, I was really out cold—didn’t even look at the screen.” Hearing Zhou Can’s voice, her sleepiness faded fast.

“Sorry for disturbing your dreams in the dead of night. There’s a little girl here who just came out of surgery, likely with intestinal lymphoma. Things are not looking good. I know you’re an outstanding nurse—could you come take a look and help create a nutrition and care plan for her?”

“You just say the word, and I’m there!”

“It’s late and taxis are hard to get, plus it’s not safe for a woman to come out alone. I’ll pick you up.”

“Alright!”

She and Zhou Can didn’t stand on ceremony with each other.

Ever since Zhou Can helped her clear her debts and get her life back on track, he’d become one of the people she trusted most.

…

Fifty minutes later, Zhou Can brought Jiang Wei to the hospital.

Lin Ai Xi had just been moved from the recovery room to the ICU and looked incredibly frail.

Her eyes opened just a little, empty and dazed, as she watched the medical staff bustle around her bed.

Jiang Wei checked her over, her face turning serious.

In the break room, she told the others straight out, “This little girl’s situation is dire—her odds of survival are under 5%. Even with a combined medication and nutrition plan, she’d be lucky to see 10%.”

In her clinical experience, her predictions about patients this sick almost always came true.

A survival rate of less than 5%—that’s as close to certain death as it gets.

“Let’s give it everything we’ve got.”

Zhou Can didn’t have high hopes for the girl either.

Jiang Wei tailored a personalized nutrition and care plan for Lin Ai Xi, though she didn’t need to come in herself for every procedure.

The next day, Zhou Can heard that Lin Ai Xi’s condition had taken a sharp turn for the worse—she developed abdominal pain, a high fever, and signs of organ failure.

His heart felt unbearably heavy. The little girl seemed likely to die soon.

Another two days passed. On the fourth day after surgery, Lin Jinzhi called Zhou Can, sounding a bit excited.

“Dr. Zhou, I have good news—my daughter’s doing better today! When I visited, the nurses told me her urine output had increased, and she actually said she was hungry for the first time. We followed Jiang Wei’s nutrition plan and made her porridge—she ate half a bowl. Do you think a medical miracle is possible?”

After saying that, Lin Jinzhi asked nervously.

“I hope a medical miracle happens.”

That was all Zhou Can could say.

There was no point giving false hope, but crushing the family’s hopes would be even worse.

So he answered as tactfully as he could.

Based on his clinical experience, sometimes a sudden improvement in critically ill patients means they’re about to have a final flare before dying.

He didn’t believe a true miracle was likely for Lin Ai Xi.

And just like that, another five days passed.

On the ninth day after surgery, Lin Jinzhi kept Zhou Can updated on his daughter almost every day.

He knew how busy Zhou Can was and didn’t expect him to check in personally.

He also appreciated that Zhou Can wasn’t swayed by authority—even for someone like him at the Health Bureau, Zhou Can simply treated him like any other family member, with no flattery or special favors.

Oddly enough, that made him respect Zhou Can even more.

By Zhou Can’s estimate, Lin Ai Xi shouldn’t have lasted more than a week. But here she was, still alive two days later, and judging from Lin Jinzhi’s feedback, she was improving in ways he couldn’t explain.

That meant she wasn’t just having a temporary rally before dying.

The ICU maintained strict aseptic management, so only authorized staff could check on patients—other hospital personnel weren’t allowed in.

Zhou Can only got updates about Lin Ai Xi through Lin Jinzhi or by talking to his pediatric ICU colleagues.

On the tenth day, Director Tang Fei sent Zhou Can a message on WeChat.

“Dr. Zhou, you saved that little girl!”

She even added a cheerful dancing emoji at the end.

Clearly, she was over the moon.

In the photo she sent, Lin Ai Xi was already in a regular ward and looked completely different from just ten days ago, her cheeks showing a hint of color.

Of course, it might’ve just been the camera filter.

Thanks to all the beauty filters built into today’s smartphones, traditional cameras have been left behind.

Back in the day, people always traveled with a camera hanging from their neck.

Now, apart from journalists or professional photographers, hardly anyone uses a camera.

It’s just so much easier and quicker to snap photos on a phone.

After work, Zhou Can took Jiang Wei with him to visit Lin Ai Xi in the general ward.

Even he couldn’t believe what had happened.

How did a little girl who was supposed to die beat the odds and live?

It made Zhou Can look at Jiang Wei in a new light.

When they arrived, Lin Jinzhi was at his daughter’s bedside, gently helping her sip some warm water.

Seeing Zhou Can, he stood up at once, warmly grasped Zhou Can’s hand.

“Dr. Zhou, thank you for saving my daughter—thank you! I’ll never forget what you’ve done for us.”

After almost losing her, the Health Bureau boss cherished every moment even more.

“The real hero who saved your daughter is Nurse Jiang Wei. Without her nutrition support, care plan, and suggestions for chemo drugs, I doubt there could have been a miracle like this.”

Zhou Can gave all the credit to Jiang Wei.