Chapter 9.1 - 郁金香 Tulip
Before six in the morning, He Suye was awakened by the ringing of the telephone. As soon as he answered, a girl's voice frantically shouted from the other end, "Dr. Liu, come quickly for resuscitation! The patient in bed 18 might not make it!"
He was immediately stunned. Just as he was about to tell her she had the wrong number, the other party apologized repeatedly, "Sorry, wrong number, wrong number!"
He was left speechless, chuckled, and hung up the phone. Lying in bed, he found he couldn't fall back asleep, so he simply got up.
In winter, the dawn comes very late, and the sky was still a dusky gray close to six o'clock. He ate bread dipped in hot milk with one hand and flipped through a thesis with the other, his eyes scanning quickly. The more he read, the more frustrated he felt, and he sighed: That kid Li Jie is getting better and better at cutting corners. Handing in such a thesis to the boss, isn't he afraid of getting skinned?
He casually grabbed a pen and crossed out large sections of useless content, then called Li Jie.
Li Jie was sleeping like a log in the duty room and was scared out of his wits by the ringing phone. Seeing it was He Suye, he started to complain, "Big brother, are you having hormonal issues? Getting up so early!"
He Suye was mildly angry, "What kind of thesis did you write, you brat? No wonder you didn't dare to hand it to the boss yourself. Get a pen, I'll read it to you, cross out what I say, and rewrite what needs to be changed. If you want to pass, don't argue. I'll be at the inpatient department during work hours, contact me by phone then."
Li Jie obediently complied, laughing, "I knew big brother wouldn't let me suffer."
In the morning, he didn't need to make rounds at the inpatient department, but because he had prescribed some traditional Chinese medicine as adjuvant therapy for some patients, he needed to ask about the efficacy and then adjust the prescription accordingly.
Walking into the endocrinology and metabolism ward, several doctors and nurses were huddled together whispering about something. A doctor saw He Suye and called him over, "Dr. He, isn't it strange? The person was fine yesterday, but today they're suddenly not doing well?"
He pondered for a moment, "Was there an emergency in your ward a little after six this morning?"
"Exactly, a patient with hyperthyroid exophthalmos, just admitted two days ago, passed away early this morning."
"Hyperthyroid heart failure?"
Another doctor chimed in, "It might really be the case, who knew back then? It was just for observation in the hospital. Nowadays, everyone is afraid of hospitals getting involved in lawsuits. Sigh, don’t you think our department has been a bit unlucky lately? Two patients passed away in just one week, one with hyperthyroidism and protruding eyes, and the other with heart and kidney failure. With New Year's Day approaching, the entire ward is shrouded in gloom, and everyone is on edge."
A young nurse interjected without much thought, "At least there hasn’t been another SARS outbreak. Compared to that, what’s happening now is nothing."
He Suye was startled, and the two senior doctors' expressions changed abruptly. The head nurse scolded the young nurse sternly, "Don’t talk nonsense! Go do what you’re supposed to do!"
A nurse called out from the ward entrance, "The director is here!" Immediately, everyone scattered. He Suye shook his head and went straight to the duty room to find Li Jie.
SARS, a term that hadn’t been mentioned in a long time. That year, the entire nation was terrified by the disease. This top-tier hospital was no exception. Not only did SARS patients suffer from difficulty breathing, shock, and eventually death, but some medical staff also contracted the disease and fell in the very place they worked. In the early stages of SARS, the mortality rate was almost 100%.
It was a bleak year. Everyone who worked at this hospital knew it. Each person had been so close to death, watching familiar and unfamiliar faces fall one after another. Their bodies, along with any personal belongings, were cremated. Everyone felt that they had truly existed, only to vanish without a trace.
