Doctor: Picking Up Attributes in the Hospital-Chapter 430 - 367: The Tragedy of the Delivery Man

Before long, Zhao Heng, accompanied by Ruan Liuzheng, followed Liu Ziang to a neurosurgery ward.

Upon entering the ward, Zhao Heng immediately saw a middle-aged man in a yellow delivery vest, lying on the hospital bed, his head wrapped in blood-soaked bandages, face pale, eyes closed. Next to him sat his wife, a woman in her late twenties, looking extremely distressed, with a dazed expression, accompanied by their two children, a boy and a girl.

Zhao Heng glanced at them, noticing the older boy was about seven or eight, while the younger girl was not yet three years old, her face round and adorably cute.

The two children looked at their father, lying motionless on the bed. The older boy, slightly more understanding of the situation, sat frozen, while the two-year-old girl, still too young to comprehend, kept asking her brother.

"Brother, why is dad sleeping and not getting up to play?"

The innocent voice of the child echoed within the ward.

Hearing his younger sister’s innocent voice, the little boy clenched his fists, only patting his sister’s head. Now in second grade, he had a hint of understanding, realizing that the hope of their father waking up was very slim, and he didn’t know how to answer his sister.

"Senior, what’s the specific situation?"

Seeing the middle-aged man’s condition, Zhao Heng, noticing the severe head injury and coma, and given the yellow delivery vest he was wearing, could somewhat guess what might have happened. However, he still sought details from Liu Ziang about the specific medical condition.

"Severe traumatic brain injury, brainstem hemorrhage."

Liu Ziang said gravely, then handed an MRI scan of the brain to Zhao Heng.

As the saying goes, the simpler the words, the greater the problem.

A severe traumatic brain injury is already life-threatening. With a brainstem hemorrhage, it’s practically one step away from death. It’s a miracle that the middle-aged man is still alive.

Brainstem hemorrhage accounts for about 10% of all clinical brain hemorrhage cases. Although the incidence rate is not high, it has an acute onset, severe condition, poor prognosis, and is among those cerebrovascular diseases with the highest mortality and disability rates, and the worst prognosis.

Why is brainstem hemorrhage so dangerous?

If the brain is the command center of the entire body, then the brainstem is the supreme commander of this center.

The brainstem, known as the "forbidden zone of life," is densely packed with nuclei of cranial nerves and conduction bundles that connect the brain and limbs. Its main functional areas include the cardiovascular center, respiratory center, and the brainstem ascending reticular activating system maintaining our wakefulness.

Additionally, it serves as the vital passage connecting the brain and spinal cord, including sensations and movements of the limbs. Once damaged, the consequences can be unimaginable.

The lethal mechanism of brainstem hemorrhage primarily involves mechanical direct damage and compression caused by the hematoma to neurons and glial cells, resulting in secondary damage. This can further lead to brain ischemia, glutamate release, calcium influx, mitochondrial failure, sodium retention, cytotoxic edema, necrosis, and other severe complications.

"The situation is not optimistic."

Zhao Heng took the MRI scan handed by Liu Ziang. Upon careful inspection, the bleeding site was extremely perilous. Essentially, if the injury had been slightly more off, death would have been instantaneous, with no chance of rescue.

"Doctor, how is the father of the children? Can surgery be performed?"

The woman, who had been in a state of daze and despair, seemed to summon some courage, seeing her two children by her side, and asked Liu Ziang and Zhao Heng.

She stays at home with the two kids, dependent entirely on the children’s father, who works tirelessly as a delivery driver, as their sole source of income.

Every day, he gets up at six in the morning and starts taking orders by six-thirty, working continuously until eight-thirty in the evening. During holidays, to earn more, he would work extra hours late into the night.

Many who have delivered food say that a delivery person, upon falling off a bike, first checks if the food in the box is damaged; second, they check the time to estimate whether there’s still enough left; only as the third reaction do they think of themselves.

"Oh dear, my knee seems to hurt a bit. Hope it isn’t a bone injury, as today’s rent hasn’t been earned yet."

A scraped hand, bleeding slightly, is a minor issue. Stand up, take a breath, pick up the scooter, and dash off again!

"The patient currently has a brainstem hemorrhage, and the situation is extremely dire. Surgery carries an enormous risk."

Liu Ziang let out an almost inaudible sigh and then said seriously.

He didn’t say surgery couldn’t be done. With the current amount of brainstem bleeding in the delivery man, without surgery, it’s basically awaiting death.

Letting a mother and two children watch their family’s pillar slowly die is too cruel!

But the risk of brainstem surgery is immensely high, and even a neurosurgical expert like Liu Ziang doesn’t dare claim a high level of confidence.

Brainstem surgery is a highly challenging and risky operation in the field of surgery.

In the brainstem area, the internal operable space is minuscule, barely finger-width thin as paper. Various nerves and vessels are interwoven. Operations connect the brainstem to the spinal cord, cervical cord, and respiratory centers, where the slightest error can result in paralysis or even sudden respiratory arrest.

Therefore, performing surgery in the brainstem area not only requires a doctor’s extensive clinical experience and high technical skills but also demands advanced surgical equipment like intraoperative MRI (iMRI), intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring, and intraoperative neuronavigation systems to ensure precise and safe surgery.