Chapter 128 Heading to the "Front Lines"
Upon returning to the neonatal ward, Chen Yun relayed the meeting's content to all the medical staff in the department.
The nurses' station was noisy for quite a while before it quieted down.
The sky darkened inexplicably, turning a lifeless, grayish color, as if to reflect everyone's mood at that moment.
"Our department also needs to second two doctors and five nurses to provide support to the emergency department at any time..."
After Chen Yun and the others gradually accepted the bad news, they picked up the registration book and spread it out on the nurses' station.
"Those willing to go to the front lines should write down their names. Once the emergency department requests support, they will immediately begin work. However... everyone knows how high the risk of infection is on the front lines, so this support is entirely voluntary."
After speaking, Chen Yun quietly looked around at her colleagues with whom she had worked for many years.
"I'll go." Zuo Lingling raised her hand, her expression calm: "I'm all alone, and my family isn't around, so I'm the perfect person to help!"
The air seemed to freeze for a moment, but Zuo Lingling's lead seemed to explode in everyone's chest with a wave of heat, and suddenly it became noisy again.
"I'm signing up too!"
The nurse who raised her hand hadn't graduated from school yet; she had just started her internship in the neonatal ward in the first half of the year, and the childishness on her face hadn't completely faded.
But she walked up to Chen Yun with unusual determination: "Director Chen, I'm young and have a strong immune system, I'll go!"
“Why would a young person like you go and join in the fun? You lack experience and would only be a burden.” Head Nurse Ren Qin immediately stepped forward to stop her, her tone firm and authoritative: “At times like this, it’s the experienced ones who should go. Count me in!”
“Your daughter is only in high school, and you have elderly relatives to take care of. What are you going to do?” Zuo Lingling hurriedly snatched the notebook and hugged it to her chest. “You should stay and lead the work of the other nurses in the department.”
After saying that, he hurriedly picked up a pen to write his name.
"Chen Yun...you!"
The first blank space was already filled with Chen Yun's name.
“In terms of experience, I should be the most experienced in our department. I also have no family burdens. If I don’t go, who will?” Chen Yun smiled gently.
“You’re the backbone of our department. What will happen if you go there?” Zuo Lingling’s face darkened, and she picked up a pen and blacked out Chen Yun’s name: “Anyone can go, but you can’t.”
"Professor Chen cannot go."
"What will happen to the dolls in the incubators if you go there?"
"Wow, my wife takes care of the child, I've been a nurse for ten years!"
"I'll go too."
Suddenly, calls to join the fight arose one after another, and the usually quiet department was now as noisy as a market.
The reasons why everyone tried to stop each other were simple yet touching: everyone felt that they were more suited than others to go to that place that they knew was full of danger.
Some of them were new parents, some were the breadwinners of their families, and some were students who had just graduated from school, but without exception, they all chose to go against the tide.
Chen Yun did not make a decision immediately, but slowly picked up the pen that had fallen to the ground.
"Whether we are seconded to the emergency department or stay in the neonatal department, what we need to do next is to guard the first line of defense against the spread of the epidemic. In fact, we are all doing the same thing."
"On the contrary, the task of staying behind is even more important. The infants in our ward have weaker immune systems than adults, and they came to our department because of various problems. The responsibility of protecting them is even greater than going downstairs."
Neonatology and obstetrics are two special departments that represent new life and hope, but their tasks are no less important in the face of the upcoming epidemic.
"I will choose the most suitable candidate." Chen Yun raised her pen, her gaze sweeping over the others: "Nurse Ren, stay; Dr. Zuo, stay..."
"No!" Zuo Lingling shouted anxiously.
Chen Yun glanced at her calmly: "You have high blood pressure, and your physical condition is not suitable for going to the front line."
Zuo Lingling looked miserable, but had no choice but to put her hand down.
"Xiao Hu and I formed the medical support team for the emergency department. The next team of nurses will be..."
Chen Yun calmly announced the names of the next five young, unmarried nurses, and wrote down the names of the seven nurses amidst the hesitant glances of the remaining people.
"From now on, everyone whose name is written down is canceled from taking a break and is ready to be called by the emergency department at any time."
"The remaining staff will work in normal shifts, and will immediately enter emergency preparedness once the hospital's epidemic alarm is sounded."
"Those whose names are called can go home now to pack their bags and talk to their families, but they must not spread any news about the epidemic to avoid causing chaos. They must return to the hospital before 9 p.m. to report for duty."
"Received," everyone responded in unison.
Meeting adjourned.
Everyone else could go home, but Chen Yun couldn't.
After returning to the office, I called Gao Ming, who was picking up his daughter. Immediately afterwards, I received a call from Lin Ciying, the director of the obstetrics and gynecology department, and was asked to go to the obstetrics and gynecology department for a meeting.
Gynecology, Obstetrics, Pediatrics, Neonatology.
After a meeting, the four departments decided to implement an emergency response plan, transferring all existing inpatients in the four departments to the first floor to facilitate the isolation of the spread of the epidemic.
It was already midnight when Chen Yun came out of the office.
The quiet corridors, where even footsteps echoed, made the hospital seem no different from usual.
But how many unknown dangers lurk in the darkness... no one knows!
***
Workers' Hospital, emergency department triage desk.
"Why are all the nurses at the hospital wearing such thick masks and gloves today...?"
"Could it be some kind of infectious disease outbreak?"
Who knows!
The emergency room is always like a pot of boiling water, churning with pain and noise.
Today, however, the emergency room was filled with an inexplicable sense of tension. There seemed to be many more nurses, all wearing masks and gloves, and someone was constantly distributing masks to patients and their families.
At the triage desk, nurse Xiao Zhang's hand trembled slightly as she put away the temperature gun, and her expression immediately became tense.
"38.9 degrees Celsius, is there anything else that's bothering you?"
"I have a bad cold and a fever that has lasted for two days. No matter what medicine I take, it won't go down."
The man switched his feverish son in his other arm and anxiously explained the situation to the nurse.
The little boy coughed occasionally, his face flushed, and his breathing was sometimes deep and sometimes rapid.
Xiao Zhang's expression grew even more serious: "Have you been to other cities recently? Or contacted people who have returned from other cities?"
"We...we just returned from visiting relatives in Guangzhou. Nurse...what's wrong...what's wrong with my child?"
"Xiao Liu."
Nurse Xiao Zhang did not answer the man's question, but hurriedly stood up and waved to her colleagues who were distributing masks all over the emergency department lobby.
"Bring two masks to these two comrades, notify Director Liu, and then take them to the fever clinic for treatment."
Xiao Zhang didn't expect that just after the notification was given during the day, a patient with a high fever appeared in the emergency department that evening, and the worst part was that they had just returned from visiting relatives in Guangzhou.
Ten minutes later, everyone discovered that the smell in the emergency room was no longer that of disinfectant, but rather a sharper, more pungent odor.
When Chen Yun arrived at the emergency department after receiving the call, it had already changed drastically.
The original layout of the emergency department was temporarily divided by several eye-catching yellow signs. The left side was the normal treatment area, and the right side was marked with a sign for the fever area.
"Director Chen."
Emergency Department Director Liu Xing strode towards Chen Yun, his tone clearly anxious: "The first patient with a fever is a child. The head of pediatrics is in the operating room. We urgently need your help to make some auxiliary diagnoses."
"Okay." Chen Yun replied calmly, her lips pressed tightly together behind her mask: "Notify the infectious disease department and the respiratory department."
Behind them, several coughs rang out one after another, so violent that it seemed as if they were coughing up their lungs.
Director Liu Xing hummed in agreement.
"Notify all departments to activate the procedures for handling fever of unknown origin, and notify all personnel to be in position..."
Liu Xing picked up the landline phone on the triage desk in the emergency department and, though his voice was hoarse, he made the notification without the slightest sign of panic.
The entire emergency department quickly entered a well-organized state of readiness.
Within minutes, all the lights in the hospital square turned on, illuminating the entire hospital building.
Lights came on on every floor of the building, and the emergency room was quickly filled with medical staff.
"Zuo Lingling, what brings you here!"
Chen Yungang, who had just finished his auxiliary diagnosis, walked out of the consultation room and soon spotted Zuo Lingling, who shouldn't have been there, in the busy crowd.
Even though the mask and goggles almost completely covered her face, Chen Yun still recognized her at a glance.
“Xiao Hu was detained at home by his parents and couldn’t come back to report in time.” Zuo Lingling’s voice was muffled, and her goggles fogged up as she finished speaking: “It would have been the same if I had come.”
After receiving the notification, the neonatal department immediately took a headcount and discovered that Dr. Hu had not yet arrived.
The head nurse called his cell phone several times but no one answered. Zuo Lingling filled in for him and received a call from Xiao Hu when she was dressed and ready to go downstairs.
After his parents found out what happened, they locked him in the house. He had no choice but to jump out of the second-floor window and is now on his way to the hospital.
"Xiao Hu's parents only have one child, and as parents, I understand that. Please don't criticize him!"
The fog on the goggles grew thicker and thicker until Chen Yun could no longer see Zuo Lingling's eyes.
"Don't talk." Chen Yunqu raised his hand and tapped her shoulder with the back of his hand: "Talk less, or you'll run out of oxygen."
"Director Lin, the child who just came in has low blood oxygen levels."
The nurses who rushed out of the fever area shouted loudly, their voices filled with panic and tears.
"Prepare for ventilator."
Chen Yun strode into the fever area, his goggles fogged up from breathing, and he could only see the road through a few gaps in the fog.
Yet her steps remained firm and steady.
Zuo Lingling quickly followed.
Just as an invisible fear was gradually enveloping the hospital's emergency department, a completely different scene unfolded in Guanming Hutong.
Old Jiang took the tobacco and walked to the door, then closed it.
Since the arrival of his big, healthy grandson, he hasn't smoked indoors for a long time.
Regardless of the sweltering heat or the freezing cold, he could only smoke under the eaves at his doorstep. Today, the weather was so cold that he had to shiver several times before he could put the tobacco into the mouthpiece.
"What are you and your wife arguing about, Lao Gao?"
In the afternoon, Lao Jiang saw Gao Nianping come back. Later, Gao Tiejun and Dong Qiaoying started arguing, and it seemed like they were arguing quite fiercely.
"Hmph!" Dong Qiaoying snorted coldly.
Gao Tiejun's expression was also not good: "Erming asked us to stay at his house for a few days, but Lao Dong refused, saying that he had to help Xue Li take care of Xiao Su at night."
"Why would we invite you to stay here when it's neither a holiday nor a festival?" Old Jiang asked, puzzled.
“Nianping didn’t say anything either. After finishing the meal, the child went home, saying that his father would come later.”
"Could something have happened?"
"That's what I thought too." Gao Tiejun clapped his hands, his tone full of helplessness: "I'm so worried... I don't know what's wrong!"
"I'm only saying this because Shirley hasn't been feeling well lately! If we leave, who will help take care of the children?"
Dong Qiaoying had no other choice but to say she wouldn't go. Erming is her son, and Gaosu is her great-granddaughter; she wanted to consider both sides.
"When Erming comes that night, you can talk to him yourself."
Before leaving, Gao Nianping said that Gao Ming would definitely come again that night, and he would ask what had happened.
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