Chapter 274: Life on the Line

As they discussed what to do, the sick child’s condition took another turn for the worse.

The child’s body curled up, hands clawed wildly at the air, legs kicked uncontrollably. His face had turned an ominous purple-black, lips almost black, and even his fingertips were a deep violet.

This was a clear sign of severe hypoxia.

There was no time left for the doctors to debate.

“I can try to resuscitate after a tracheotomy, but I don’t have much hands-on experience with this. There’s no time to wait, we need to open his airway now!”

Director Dai was one of the youngest chief physicians at Tuyu Hospital—a strong all-rounder, but she still had her weaknesses.

And those weaknesses showed up in tough pediatric airway emergencies like this.

It wasn’t something you could handle just because you’re comfortable with endoscopy, or even if you have basic surgical skills.

The younger the child, the riskier the procedure.

Only a doctor with an impressive amount of surgical experience, crisis management, and lightning-fast reflexes could hope to pull this off successfully.

Seeing how dire the situation was, Director Dai had no choice but to forge ahead.

At this point, there was simply no time to call for backup from Tuyu Hospital. The golden rescue window was just three to five minutes.

“Dr. Chen, go get Director Zhang Bihua immediately.”

Worried something might go wrong, Director Dai decided to call in Director Zhang Bihua from the Obstetrics Department for help.

When it came to saving babies, Director Zhang’s clinical experience was second to none.

The little patient was only a year and a half old, as fragile as any infant.

“Never mind, I’ll call her myself!”

Director Dai figured there were too many family members and patients crowded around the consultation desk—if she rushed over and spoke to Director Zhang directly, it could cause unnecessary panic or draw unwanted attention.

Even if the child died, legally speaking, the hospital wouldn’t be held responsible.

After all, the hospital was making every possible effort to save him.

But the families and patients in the waiting hall wouldn’t see it that way.

Their first thoughts would be about last year, when Xinxiang Maternity and Child Hospital lost a mother during delivery—and the complaints about other issues there just kept piling up.

And now, if they lost a child too, who would ever trust a hospital known for such tragedies?

For any hospital, reputation is everything.

One major accident, and it’s like having a criminal record. That stain follows you around forever.

Just like, whenever there’s a theft in the neighborhood, the first folks the cops question are those with a record.

If a hospital has a history of incident—even a routine rescue that ends in tragedy—its reputation becomes fragile overnight, and even minor mishaps get blown out of proportion.

On the spot, Director Dai called Director Zhang, who was seeing patients in the outpatient area.

Truth was, ever since that nurse from Xinxiang Maternity and Child Hospital had run out to get Director Dai for the emergency, Director Zhang Bihua was already secretly paying close attention.

She was personally leading this expert clinic mission at Xinxiang Maternity and Child Hospital.

She was the one in charge.

If something went wrong, it would not just reflect badly on her, she also felt responsible for making sure this expert collaboration went smoothly—and not create yet another scandal for the hospital.

“I’m on my way!”

Director Zhang Bihua’s response was quick and steady after hearing Director Dai’s update.

She only said five words, but they instantly put Director Dai at ease.

First, Zhang Bihua apologized to the waiting patients and families. “I’m terribly sorry, everyone. I have to rush to the operating room for an emergency. The other Tuyu Hospital experts will take over for me for now.”

With that, she got up and looked toward Deputy Director Shi.

“Director Shi, I need to borrow Dr. Zhou for a bit. The operating room needs his help—could you spare him?”

Instead of hurrying directly to the procedure room, she asked Shi for help. That alone was enough to get people buzzing about Zhou Can again.

Zhou Can had been bored out of his mind. The moment he heard Director Zhang wanted him to help in the operating room, he was raring to go.

“No problem, as long as Dr. Zhou is willing.”

Deputy Director Shi wouldn’t dare make decisions for Zhou Can.

Technically, Zhou Can was supposed to be his subordinate, but in the Gastroenterology Department, it was Shi who was always asking Zhou for help.

There’d been more than a few times Zhou had rescued him from tough spots.

So Shi showed him nothing but respect.

“Dr. Zhou, what do you think?”

Director Zhang looked to Zhou Can.

“I’ll follow your orders, Director Zhang.”

Zhou Can’s half-joking reply brought a smile to her face. Seeing his easygoing confidence, she warmed to him even more.

With Zhou Can and Yang Chan, Director Zhang headed straight for the procedure room.

The child’s trachea had already been opened, but there was little improvement in his condition.

A tense, heavy atmosphere hung over the OR.

The medical team was working frantically.

Sweat beaded on Director Dai’s brow as she racked her brain, doing everything she could to suction thick pus from the child’s airway.

But the stuff was so thick and sticky—it just wouldn’t budge.

And with the patient this young, with such delicate airways, every move was a major risk.

Standing off to the side, Chen Jiaojiao couldn’t offer more than moral support—she was just left watching, anxious and helpless.

“Director Zhang is here!”

Someone’s voice rang out with honest relief.

Director Zhang Bihua was a legend in the field of obstetrics and gynecology—not just a star at Tuyu Hospital, but also highly respected by doctors across the city and province. People scrambled to train under her or to have her step in during emergencies.

Her trainees were all over the province, working in hospitals large and small, all dedicated to the field.

Xinxiang Maternity and Child Hospital was, at its core, a combination obstetrics and pediatrics facility.

Specializing in maternity, gynecology, infertility, and pediatrics.

So most of the doctors here knew Director Zhang Bihua by name.

“How’s the child?”

Director Zhang greeted the team with a nod, then fixed her gaze on their little patient.

“It’s bad—breathing is almost gone, heartbeat is fading too, blood pressure keeps dropping…”

He was on the verge of suffocating to death.

Usually, you only get a few minutes before it’s all over.

“You can’t get the pus out?”

Director Zhang watched as Dai tried to suction the airway, worry etched in her eyes.

Truth be told, Director Dai’s technique was decent but not outstanding—just average.

“It’s just too sticky, and there’s so much of it. The suction isn’t working at all.”

Dai wore a look of pure frustration.

“Director Zhang, you’re much better at this than I am—can you take over?”

She was clearly more than ready to hand things off.

She had just been forced into this, cleaning the airway for the child out of sheer necessity.

“Alright, let me give it a try!”

Director Zhang didn’t hesitate for a second.

With her at the table, you could feel the difference—her skill and poise were on another level.

“Feels like there’s a scab blocking it. No wonder the airway’s so plugged!”

Director Zhang managed to suction some pus, then stopped—the blockage simply wouldn’t budge.

On closer inspection, she spotted a stubborn scab inside.

She tried every method she could, to no avail.

All the while the child’s vital signs were crashing—blood pressure, breathing, heart rate, one alarm after another.

Death was looming closer, ready to take the child at any second.

“There’s a ton of sticky pus clinging to the glottis and bronchial walls. Then there are these stubborn scabs wedged in tight like nails. This is a nightmare!”

Director Zhang was visibly growing more anxious.

Scabs like these formed when pus wasn’t cleared out in time, gradually drying out and sticking together into a hard mass.

Adults rarely suffered this, since they could cough or clear their airways on their own.

Young children just didn’t have that ability, so the risk of dangerous blockages was much higher.

And that made it even tougher to clear the airway.

The doctors from Xinxiang Maternity and Child Hospital were even more desperate. This child simply could not die.

If they lost him, it would be catastrophic for the hospital’s reputation.

A lot of people wrongly believed that as soon as you did a tracheotomy, you’d be safe from things like throat obstructions or acute bronchitis. That was just wishful thinking.

The trachea, from the throat down, is a flexible tube—tough to block completely, and tough to deform.

It’s nature’s way of making sure people don’t suffocate at the slightest problem.

But if that tough, flexible trachea gets badly blocked, reopening it becomes a massive challenge full of unknowns.

The bronchi are structured like the branches of a tree.

The main bronchial trunk splits into two for the left and right lungs.

Inside the lungs, those split again, branching finer and finer—eventually they cover the entire lung like a sprawling web.

Now, about the way lungs actually work.

Lungs are filled with countless alveoli, sort of like tiny balloons—inhaling makes them expand, exhaling makes them shrink. That’s how gas exchange happens.

And the only pathway for air in and out of those alveoli is through the bronchi.

You could think of it as a highway system.

Countless country roads merge into county highways, then into state roads, and finally, those all flow into the national highway, connecting the whole country.

If the main bronchial ‘highway,’ or even a secondary ‘state road,’ gets blocked, lung function may plunge or stop altogether.

Right now, this child’s main and secondary bronchi were severely blocked—he was barely breathing at all.

Without oxygen coming in or carbon dioxide getting out, all the major organs start shutting down fast. The heart and brain are the first to show it, and show it hard.

If they couldn’t open his airway soon, in just minutes his heart would stop from lack of oxygen, with immediate brain and organ death to follow.

Knowing how deadly this was, Director Zhang and the other hospital staff felt like ants on a hot pan.

That’s when Director Tian arrived at the OR, bringing others with her.

Seeing the child clinging to life, Director Tian nearly broke down.

She’d spent every bit of her connections, money, and energy just to bring in the experts from Tuyu Hospital.

She’d hoped their skill and reputation would help redeem Xinxiang Maternity and Child Hospital.

She never imagined that on the first day of the experts’ visit, disaster would strike.

She couldn’t even begin to think about the consequences if the child died.

One thing was certain: she’d carry the blame forever—her tenure would be marked as the period that destroyed a hospital with seventy years of history.

“Director Zhang, this child can’t die! There are hundreds of staff and generations of hard work tied to him. If we lose him, so goes this hospital—it’ll never stand up again. Please, you have to give us a fighting chance!”

Director Tian was practically pleading.

She knew the odds were slim, but still hoped for a miracle.

“I’ll do my best!”

That was all Director Zhang could say. Everyone could hear the uncertainty in her voice.

Just when everyone was bracing for the worst, Zhou Can, who’d been quietly watching, stepped forward.

“Director Zhang, Director Tian, may I try? I’ve been observing—the fastest way to get that scab out is with forceps, and time is running out.”

Zhou Can’s grasping technique was level four—mid-tier for an attending physician.

Pulling out a scab from a child’s airway was no small feat.

They had, at most, a minute or two to pull it off. Any longer, and the child would be gone.

“You get twenty seconds. If you can extract a scab in that time, you take over the rescue.”

Director Zhang showed zero hesitation in this critical moment.

She’d brought Zhou Can along exactly because so many chief physicians had praised his surgical skills—not just in traditional surgery, but with endoscopic procedures as well.

Right before the rescue, she’d thought if an endoscopic procedure was needed, Zhou could handle it.

That’s why she went out of her way to borrow him.

But since she’d never actually seen his skills in action, and the child’s condition was dire with high risk, she hadn’t wanted to ask Zhou for help straight away.

Now Zhou stepped forward, brimming with confidence—and for the first time, she felt real hope.

“Isn’t that risky?”

Director Tian worried letting a rookie have a go was just asking for more trouble.

Even now, if the child didn’t make it, the hospital wouldn’t be sued—everyone had strictly followed the rules, and nobody could be blamed. At worst, it would just stain their reputation.

But if this young doctor slipped and injured the airway, things could get ugly. If the child died, the family might demand higher authorities investigate—and that would open a whole new can of worms.

It would be a PR disaster, no matter how she spun it.

No matter what she said, she couldn’t explain it away.

“Don’t worry, Director Tian. Dr. Zhou Can is our most outstanding resident at Tuyu Hospital.”

Director Zhang wanted to reassure her, but the effect was just the opposite—it nearly gave Director Tian a panic attack.

“What… he’s only a resident? You want him to handle this?”

If Director Zhang hadn’t been so respected, Director Tian might have lost it right then and there.

This was madness. The child was already dying. Even senior chief physicians would hesitate to attempt this, and Zhang wanted a resident to do it?

It felt utterly irresponsible.

Zhou Can ignored her doubts. A life was at stake. With Director Zhang’s approval, he took the special long forceps, carefully maneuvering into the child’s airway. Aiming for the biggest scab, he pinched it at just the right spot, gently worked it free, and pulled it out after some effort.

The outside of these scabs was coated in ultra-sticky pus.

Wherever it touched, it stuck.

And that wasn’t even the hardest part.

It wasn’t a firm scab, but a pudding-like mass.

Pinch too hard and it split. Pinch too softly and it still broke apart.

Only with perfect control could you hope to peel it off the airway.

On top of that, the airway was cramped and curved, so Zhou had to keep the forceps from scraping the wall and make sure the scab didn’t stick anywhere else as he pulled it free.

All those difficulties stacked up to something truly hellish.

“Director Zhang, I got a scab out.”

It had taken Zhou just eleven seconds—shaving nine off the twenty he was given. And he’d gone for the biggest scab first.

“What—the speed!”

Director Zhang, still mid-conversation with Director Tian, looked back—and was utterly stunned. Zhou had extracted a massive scab in the time it took to say a few words.

She stared at it, genuinely shocked.

“Which scab did you get? It’s huge!” she gasped.

“The child’s breathing is picking up. Blood oxygen’s climbing, too!”

Director Dai couldn’t hide her excitement.

As a chief physician in pediatrics, she’d witnessed something miraculous today.

In the mere time it took them to draw breath, Zhou Can had accomplished what she and Director Zhang hadn’t—extracting a stubborn airway scab from a nearly dead child.

With the blockage cleared, the child’s airway was open and the tide had turned.

“You got the biggest one out in just over ten seconds? How is that possible?” For once, the usually unshakable Director Zhang couldn’t contain her astonishment.