Village Doctor's Women-Chapter 220 - 214 Alive

"I’m no immortal, either."

Upon seeing the patient Liang Xiu had mentioned on the phone, Wang Jian said just that. In the isolated intensive care unit, the patient’s condition was extremely grim.

"There’s nothing I can do in this situation."

Wang Jian saw a lot at a glance. The patient had a head injury and multiple fractures. Although surgery the previous night had addressed the external wounds and obvious internal injuries, he had remained unconscious ever since.

In Wang Jian’s eyes, the qi within the patient’s body was like a deflating balloon, continuously weakening. He also noticed a problem unlike any he had seen before...

This person’s brain was pitch-black.

Normally, the qi Wang Jian could see appeared as a faint light in the darkness. Previously, Cai Xing had also been unconscious with an intact body, but his brain had been shining brightly—a stark contrast to this patient.

Liang Xiu sighed. "His vital signs are all normal. Why is he unconscious?"

"Vital signs normal?" Wang Jian looked at her in surprise. "How can you be sure they’re normal?"

Wang Jian could clearly perceive that the man’s vital signs were deteriorating.

Startled by his reaction, Liang Xiu didn’t reply, instead hastily pulling up the resident physician’s recorded data. Her brow furrowed. If Wang Jian hadn’t pointed it out, she never would have noticed such subtle fluctuations. Although it wasn’t obvious, all the vital sign indicators had shown an extremely slight decline ever since the surgery was completed.

Without another word to Wang Jian, she immediately observed a new set of data on the spot and confirmed that there was, indeed, a problem.

"They’re all declining. At this rate... they might reach critical levels by tomorrow."

Only then did she understand Wang Jian’s earlier words. "Do you think he’s beyond saving?"

"Of course," Wang Jian nodded. "The patient is showing symptoms of brain death. If I’m not mistaken, the intracranial hemorrhage has already damaged his brain. While his bodily functions are still stable, it might be better to consider other matters, such as organ donation."

Wang Jian spoke very plainly. Since everyone present was a doctor, he was speaking from a purely professional standpoint.

"Brain death?" Liang Xiu was stunned. She was aware of the condition, of course, but she hadn’t immediately considered this possibility after the emergency treatment.

"Are you certain?" she asked with a frown, her voice laced with disbelief. "I need to confirm this. This man was my patient before. He had just recovered and left the hospital the day before his car accident... I had just told his parents he was fully recovered..."

A look of helplessness crossed her face. If it’s truly brain death, just as Wang Jian suggested, then as the attending physician, I’ll be the one who has to inform his parents.

Hearing this, Wang Jian fell silent. He never would have expected such a situation. Faced with something like this, he wouldn’t know what to do either.

Liang Xiu felt a pit in her stomach. She knew that determining brain death was a complicated process, not something that could be asserted as casually as Wang Jian had. Yet, for some reason, she felt the current changes in the patient’s symptoms were indeed progressing toward brain death, just as he’d said. Perhaps he was already brain-dead.

Wang Jian saw her hesitation, knowing what she was grappling with. If he couldn’t perceive the flow of qi within a person’s body, he wouldn’t have been able to make such a judgment either.

After a moment of thought, Wang Jian spoke up. "I suggest you follow the standard criteria for determining brain death in adults and make an official assessment. It would be best to get your hospital director involved to avoid any potential trouble."

"Mm," Liang Xiu nodded, knowing Wang Jian was right. A deep coma with a clear cause—the car accident—already met the prerequisite for a brain death determination. Now that the possibility of a reversible coma had also been ruled out, the next step was clinical validation.

The patient’s deep coma was confirmed, but they still needed to verify the absence of brainstem reflexes and spontaneous breathing. A formal diagnosis required that the patient meet the criteria for at least two of three confirmatory tests: an electroencephalogram (EEG) showing electrical silence, a short-latency somatosensory evoked potential (SLSEP) test showing the absence of crucial brainwave responses, or a transcranial Doppler (TCD) ultrasound revealing abnormal or absent blood flow signals in the brain. There were even more specific details that needed to be confirmed.

It would be much better if the hospital director was kept informed throughout these steps. In case any controversy arose later, someone would be there to handle the fallout. Wang Jian had seen his share of trouble in Capital City, so he made sure to mention it.

With this decided, Liang Xiu left in a hurry, obviously going to make the necessary arrangements. Once the higher-ups approved the brain death confirmation process, everything would move quickly.

As the attending physician, Liang Xiu naturally couldn’t avoid communicating the situation to the patient’s legal guardians. No matter how helpless she felt, it was a duty she could not evade.

Throughout this process, Wang Jian didn’t leave, waiting for them to finish everything.

Outside the intensive care unit, he saw the family Liang Xiu had spoken of. The first people he noticed were the patient’s parents, who were clutching bags of eggs and vegetables. He’d asked Liang Xiu about it and learned they were intended as ’red envelopes’ for her. She had refused, but they held onto them anyway. They looked to be in their sixties or seventies, but Liang Xiu had told him they were only in their early fifties. The brain-dead man was only in his twenties.

Besides his parents, the patient’s wife and son were also there. According to Liang Xiu, the couple had been married for five years, and their son was just three. His wife and son had been there just two days ago when he was discharged.

But now, his wife stood in a daze, her face pale. She had clearly already been told some of the news. Her son stood beside her, growing impatient. "Mommy, why hasn’t Daddy come yet? He said he would watch cartoons with me tonight."

His mother remained silent, still lost in her daze.

When Wang Jian and Liang Xiu approached, the little boy saw Liang Xiu and immediately raised his hand. "Auntie!" he called out, running over with a happy expression. "Can you buy me a cream bun?"

Liang Xiu squatted down the moment the child reached her, scooping him up into her arms. "You liked the bun Auntie gave you last time, didn’t you?"

"Yep!" The child nodded vigorously, still smiling. "It was delicious! I want more. Auntie, can you buy me one? I want to eat it with my dad tonight. Last time I shared with Mommy, but this time I want to share it with him."

Liang Xiu froze for a second, glancing at the dazed woman in the distance before forcing a smile and nodding. "Okay, Auntie promises. But right now, Auntie has something to talk about with your mommy and the others. Can Yangyang get down for a bit?"

"Yep, yep."

After entrusting Yangyang to a nurse, Liang Xiu walked over to the family to deliver the results of the brain death determination tests.

Wang Jian didn’t follow. He stayed behind to play with the child, only occasionally glancing over at Liang Xiu and the family. Seeing them break down in tears, he and the nurse quietly took Yangyang to get something to eat.

To be discharged, fully recovered, only two days ago, only to get into a car accident yesterday and now be declared brain-dead... A situation like this would make even a doctor despair, let alone the patient’s family.

* * *

In the end, Liang Xiu told Wang Jian that after she had calmed down, Yangyang’s mother had brought up the idea of organ donation. She’d said that maybe, in that way, it would feel like Yangyang’s father was still alive.