Chapter 23 Difficult Childbirth
Only one fluorescent light was on in the lobby. The light tube, which hadn't been cleaned for years, was covered with a layer of grayish-yellow stains and occasionally made a buzzing sound due to unstable current.
The pregnant woman lying on the door groaned as if she were being rubbed with sandpaper, and large beads of sweat rolled into her wide-open mouth.
The man, his eyes bloodshot, was desperately calling for "Doctor." His arms trembled as he held his wife, his gaze fixed hopefully on the stairwell.
"Doctor... Doctor, save me!"
A white figure quickly approached from the corner of the stairs.
Chen Yun looked at the blood-soaked blankets under the woman in labor, and coldly shouted at Li Hongmei, who was standing there in shock outside the nurses' station: "What are you standing there for? Hurry up and get her into the emergency room!"
Li Hongmei had worked at the factory's health center for five years. This was her first time working the night shift, and also the first time she had encountered a patient who needed emergency treatment.
"What kind of nonsense is this... Why waste money coming to the hospital? Everyone goes through a day and a half of pain during childbirth."
"Aunt Cui, please don't say that. This is a matter of life and death. You should go to the hospital to get checked out so you won't feel bad."
“My heart trembled as I listened to Mei Hua’s cries from inside the house; it was truly agonizing.”
"What's the point of suffering! If you have money to see a doctor at the hospital, you should have just put in more effort and given birth much sooner!"
Chen Yun ran over and knelt down. As she lifted the blanket to check on the mother's condition, she could hear the old woman's constant cursing and complaining.
The old woman wasn't with her daughter-in-law; instead, she stood on the sidelines with her arms crossed, just like the neighbors who had kindly brought people over.
If it weren't for her constant complaining, Chen Yun would have thought she was just a stranger.
"Doctor, how is my wife?"
Only men with stern faces truly care about pregnant women.
As soon as the blanket was lifted, a strong smell of blood hit the senses. The woman in labor was not wearing pants, and her legs were spread wide apart in a strange position.
"Get him to the emergency room first."
The lower body was in a mess, and the lighting was so dim that it was impossible to see clearly with the naked eye.
"Shizi, the midwife is still waiting at home... Hurry up and carry your wife back, we can't afford to go to the hospital!"
The old woman started shouting in frustration as the nurses tried to lift her into the ambulance.
"Mom! Don't make things worse here." The man stamped his foot, glared helplessly at the old woman, and hurriedly helped the nurses lift the person into the car.
Chen Yun had already entered the emergency room.
Put on a mask, wash your hands and put on rubber gloves, then go to the medicine cabinet to take out all the instruments needed for childbirth and disinfect them with alcohol.
These are tasks that should have been done by nurses, but now Chen Yun has to do them all herself.
The two nurses who were supposed to help with the work were dumbfounded as they pushed the person in, and even moving her onto the delivery bed required Chen Yun's instructions.
After a brief moment of thought, Chen Yun picked up the forceps from the corner of the second compartment and disinfected them.
"Dr. Chen...the woman in labor seems to have fainted temporarily."
The ambulance was quickly pushed into the emergency room. Duan Yun was so frightened that he stammered, his white coat covered in dark red bloodstains.
Seeing their complete helplessness, Chen Yun calmly arranged the work: "First, move the person to the delivery bed, then you can change your clothes and disinfect yourselves. Duan Yun will stay in the emergency room to assist with the delivery, and Li Hongmei will inquire about the mother's condition from the family."
The two quickly pushed open the door and left.
Chen Yun tossed the blood-stained blanket aside and first lifted the woman's legs onto the armrests on either side.
"Ouch! It hurts so much, it hurts so much..."
"Could it be a broken bone?!"
Chen Yun's eyes turned cold. Just as his hand touched the woman's inner thigh, the woman, who was already too weak to move, suddenly frowned and cried out in pain.
I felt down my thigh to my hip and found no obvious signs of fracture.
It's likely that the midwife pulled hard on the mother's legs during childbirth, causing a hip strain, which is why her legs were stuck in that wide-open position and couldn't return to their original position.
It's good that there are no fractures. Chen Yun took off her blood-stained gloves and took the opportunity to check the condition of the woman's lower body.
"Director Chen."
Duan Yun finally regained his composure, walked to the cabinet, took out a pair of sterilized rubber gloves, and handed them to Chen Yun.
"The baby is stuck in the posterior position!" Chen Yun put on gloves and tried to adjust the baby's position by rotating her left hand along the birth canal: "Go and bring the black and white ultrasound machine."
As soon as she finished speaking, Chen Yun felt amniotic fluid mixed with blood and foam seeping out from between her fingers, and immediately called out to Duan Yun: "Get the forceps."
The clanging of metal was piercing; the blades of the old-fashioned forceps, smelling of disinfectant, probed in, and the teeth made a creaking sound as they snapped shut.
Duan Yun's arms were trembling. It was the first time she had seen a difficult childbirth up close, and the smell of blood seemed to waft into her mouth and nose through the thick gauze mask.
My stomach was churning and cramping, as if I was about to vomit at any moment.
It was like the shock a medical student would experience the first time dissecting a corpse; the bloody scene and the tension made her body tremble like a leaf.
Chen Yun raised her eyelids and glanced around, but her hands did not stop working at all.
“We need to get the baby out before the oxygen deprivation becomes severe,” Chen Yun said in a deep voice, his gaze sweeping over the scissors in the stainless steel tray. “Disinfect the scissors again.”
The amniotic fluid spraying onto Chen Yun's hand indicated that the fetus had not yet experienced severe oxygen deprivation before being brought in, and the immediate priority was to remove the fetus.
Otherwise, both the adult and the fetus will be in danger.
"Cut...cut where?"
"Birth canal opening." Chen Yun calmly replied with three words, holding forceps in one hand and preparing to take the scissors with the other.
Duan Yun forced himself to calm down. Just as he finished disinfecting the scissors, he heard Chen Yun suddenly call out, "Give me the stethoscope."
The woman had regained consciousness at some point, her hands gripping the sheets tightly, and her almost sobbing cries reached Chen Yun's ears.
"Doctor, please save... please save my baby."
"Now that you're awake, when I tell you to inhale, inhale deeply, and when you exhale, exhale deeply, understand?"
The new mother nodded, her head covered in sweat and she looked extremely weak.
Chen Yun pressed the stethoscope onto the mother's belly, wrapped the tubing around her wrist, and pressed several round marks into the taut belly with the metal diaphragm.
"The fetal heartbeat is accelerating."
"Hold the stethoscope a little tight."
Duan Yun took the stethoscope, and Chen Yun bent down slightly, touching the mother's belly with one hand.
The fetus under my fingers seemed to be deforming with the intense uterine contractions; the fetal head suddenly lurched downwards by half an inch, and the forceps slipped off instantly.
Chen Yun suddenly sat up straight, and the stethoscope popped out of her ear and fell to the ground.
At the same time, Chen Yun suddenly reached in with his entire hand.
"I caught its foot."
With a bead of cold sweat on his forehead, Chen Yun maintained appropriate force, calling out to the mother to assist her breathing while dragging her out.
The purplish-red little body slid out with a whoosh, the umbilical cord wrapped around its neck three times, like a wet, venomous snake.
The woman suddenly lifted her body upwards, and after exhausting herself, she quickly fell into a deep sleep.
The scissors snapped the umbilical cord, and the baby lay there silently, covered in meconium and blood.
"Ear syringe".
Chen Yun flicked the baby's soles hard with her fingers a few times, but there was no reaction.
"Director Chen, ear syringe... is this it?" Duan Yun picked out the only thing in the cabinet that could be called a syringe, and muttered to himself, "How come I didn't know there was an ear syringe in the medicine cabinet?"
Chen Yun took it, pinched the ball to suck out the oral mucus and amniotic fluid, once, twice, three times.
"Wow—wah wow—"
A kitten-like cry came from beneath my palm, and the baby's skin gradually turned from purplish-red to rosy.
The cries grew louder and louder, echoing in the emergency room.
Chen Yun breathed a sigh of relief and handed the child to Duan Yun: "Now you know what to do, right?"
"I know, I know," Duan Yun smiled.
Chen Yun turned to deal with the woman in labor. Although she didn't use scissors, she had discovered a tear during the delivery.
She hadn't had a chance to look closely because of the emergency, but now that she had observed the situation more closely, she was certain that the woman's birth canal had been forcibly torn open before she was brought to the hospital.
The extent of the tearing was almost indistinguishable from pulling on livestock.
"Director Chen, it's a girl." Duan Yun cleaned and wiped the baby, then smiled and brought the baby to Chen Yun, saying, "Look how beautiful she is."
What seemed like an incredibly long process in my mind was actually just about ten minutes of childbirth.
This was the first baby born after the health center was upgraded to a hospital. If Chen Yun hadn't acted decisively and calmly, this adorable child would probably have suffocated in the womb long ago.
As he thought about it, Duan Yun couldn't help but shiver.
Fortunately, it was Chen Yun on duty today; if it had been any other doctor... the consequences would have been unimaginable.
"Take the baby out to announce the good news, and then have the mother's husband come into the emergency room to help carry her," Chen Yun said with a smile.
The production took about ten minutes, but the subsequent finishing work took more than an hour.
It was a difficult waiting time for the family members waiting outside.
Duan Yun felt incredibly fortunate, as if she had survived a disaster. Meanwhile, Chen Yun, who was stitching up her wounds, was thinking about how to write a detailed report on today's emergency delivery and submit it to Liu Baoguo's desk.
Hospitals need to keep up not only with their equipment, but also with the training of their medical staff.
A veteran nurse who had been working for several years didn't even recognize a rubber ear syringe, which meant she was delaying other emergency rescues.
etc……
Chen Yun's hand trembled as he put away the equipment, and his mouth, hidden under his mask, opened slightly into a circle in shock.
Duan Yun didn't recognize the rubber ear syringe, so how could she possibly know it...?
Not only do they recognize it, but their bodies and minds seem quite familiar with the operating method, leaving them no time to even think.
Bang--
The door to the emergency room was suddenly kicked open, and a man, his face streaked with tears and snot, stumbled in, howling.
Chen Yun's thoughts were instantly interrupted.
"..."
"Meizi, my Meizi... what are we going to do if you just leave like this, leaving me and the baby behind!"
Chen Yun: "..."
"Plum!"
The man yelled and lunged at the hospital bed. Chen Yun was startled and, without even taking off her gloves, hurriedly grabbed the man by the back of his collar.
"The new mother is so tired and weak that she has fallen asleep. Don't touch her wound."
"Sleeping...asleep!"
"Please help me get your wife to the ward. She needs to be observed for two more days before she can be discharged..."
The man approached the hospital bed slowly, somewhat incredulous, and reached out to check under the woman's nose. Only when he felt a breath on his fingertips did he exhale deeply.
"The nurse told me to come in and lift her up. I thought my wife hadn't made it..." The man rubbed his face embarrassedly.
The nurse said just one sentence, and he was so frightened that he didn't even care about the baby. When he ran in, his legs were so weak that he couldn't stand up.
The mother and baby were taken to the inpatient department next to the emergency room, and Chen Yun went back to her office on the second floor to change her clothes.
After changing out of her white coat, which was stained with blood and amniotic fluid, Chen Yun sat back down in her office and wrote a prescription.
I went through the treatment plan for the mother in my mind, and wrote down the Apgar score for the baby and the follow-up observation.
Finally, I took the prescription and prepared to go downstairs to get the IV drip.
As soon as my mind cleared up, I immediately recalled the scene in the emergency room.
The original owner's memories did not include this old-fashioned medical instrument, the ear syringe. So how did Chen Yun know its function and where it was placed?
Chen Yun paused in surprise as she went downstairs, stopping right there.
The second before she used the scissors, she had a premonition to tell the fetus to wait, which is why the fetus suddenly turned around and Chen Yun was able to touch its foot instantly.
Could this be one of the premonitions I had?
"I have no money! I'm going home now!"
In front of the ward on the first floor, the old woman stared sharply at the man with her cloudy eyes, as if trying to see through his skin and into his bones.
“No, the doctor said she needs to stay in the hospital for two days.” The man looked back stubbornly, his voice more determined than ever before: “Give me my salary, I need to pay for Meizi’s hospitalization.”
"I have no money, but you can take my life if you want." The old woman curled her lip and spat a mouthful of phlegm into the ward viciously: "You want to spend money just because you gave birth to a girl?"
Chen Yun followed the sound into the corridor and said coldly, "This is a hospital, not your home. If you want to argue, go outside."
The man nodded apologetically.
The old woman glared at Chen Yun defiantly: "What's wrong with speaking a little louder? Nobody else lives here."
"The new mother is resting, and you are disturbing her rest."
"It's just having a baby, what's so tiring about that! We older folks all went back to work the day after giving birth, she's the only one who's precious!"
The old woman's face was sallow, with wrinkles crisscrossing her forehead and cheeks. The buttons on her indigo-blue cloth jacket were fastened tightly, making her look like a stubborn and difficult old woman.
"Based on what you just said, I can report you to the factory's Youth League Committee for violating the national policy of family planning and for bullying and abusing your daughter-in-law. Any one of those charges would be enough to send you to labor reform!"
"..."
"What makes you think I'm abusing my daughter-in-law? I... I'm going to sue you for cheating us out of our money!" The old woman still shouted, her fierce but cowardly demeanor resembling a rooster crowing in the night.
With just a few words, Chen Yun seemed to suddenly grab her by the throat: "Your daughter-in-law has a tear in her lower body, which is obviously caused by someone using brute force to tear it during childbirth. I have every reason to suspect that you did it, just so that you would have a small baby instead of a big one. Later, when it was discovered that your daughter-in-law was carrying a girl, so... you didn't treat it."
"Mother!" The man was taken aback, his face changing color. "Is what the doctor said true?!"
"You believe her nonsense? You're a pig-brain..." The old woman unconsciously raised her hand to tidy the hair bun at the back of her head.
No matter how the old woman tried to explain, Chen Yun handed the prescription to the man: "If you want to be hospitalized, go pay for the injection."
"Stay!" the man spat out through gritted teeth. "I'm going home to get the money right now."
“Leave one person here to take care of them,” Chen Yun said again.
"Brother, you go back and get the money. I'll watch over your wife."
A girl of about fifteen or sixteen years old stepped out from behind the crowd. Although she looked timid, she took the initiative to shoulder the responsibility.
The girl was very thin; you could even see her bones protruding under her patched shirt. Only her large, clear eyes still held any sparkle.
"Why are you sticking your neck out? Go back to sleep."
Chen Yun pretended not to hear the old woman's shouting, smiled and nodded at the little girl, and then waved to the many people in the corridor: "Everyone else, go back. Don't block the way and disturb the mother's rest."
“We’re not going to the hospital,” the old woman shouted again. “They said you saved her after she was only in there for ten minutes. If she were at home, she would have given birth long ago.”
Chen Yun paused as she entered the ward, turning back with a stern face.
"Since you want to know, I will explain the rescue process to your family in detail."
After saying that, he waved to the neighbors who had kindly brought the woman: "Everyone saw how much blood she was bleeding when you brought her here."
"That's terrifying."
"I thought it was a major hemorrhage! My hands were covered in blood when I lifted him up."
"It's scary."
The neighbors chimed in with their own opinions.
Chen Yun smiled and continued, "After entering the emergency room, the mother cried out in pain as soon as I touched her. I was shocked when I saw her legs..."
Using technical terms like "laceration" is not easy for ordinary people to understand, Chen Yunquan used plain language to vividly describe how the woman's legs were brutally spread apart and how the wounds were formed.
"My God, that takes a lot of strength."
Not to mention the women, even a grown man was so scared that he covered his legs and trembled.
Of course, there was some exaggeration involved, but Chen Yun knew in her heart that if things weren't made up to be serious, men simply wouldn't be able to make up their minds.
Even though the man sided with his wife the whole time, his cowardly behavior was infuriating.
If we don't take drastic measures, the man will most likely never get his money back.
"Mother! Why do you hate Meizi so much?!"
The man's face contorted in pain. After grabbing his hair and having nowhere to vent his frustration, he punched the wall hard.
“Shizi, your mother is being unfair.” The old neighbor stepped forward to speak the truth: “Right now, saving your wife is the priority. Go back and get the money; if it’s not enough, we’ll help you out.”
"I'll go back and get the money right now," the man said in a deep voice, his hand hanging by his side covered in red marks. "Mother, you come back with me too. We're not done until we get the money today."
After saying that, he grabbed the old woman's arm and pulled her forward.
"Now that I've explained it clearly, let's disperse," Chen Yun waved his hand.
The clock on the wall showed 6:30, and a faint ray of light pierced through the clouds outside the window.
...It will be fully light in half an hour.
After everyone had left, Chen Yun went into the ward to check on the mother's condition.
The petite girl who had spoken earlier immediately reported, "My sister-in-law woke up for a while and fed the baby, then went back to sleep."
"No wonder this little guy is sleeping so soundly." Chen Yun gently touched the baby's face through the swaddling clothes: "Look how chubby his face is, it must have been a lot of trouble for your mother."
The little girl weighed a full 4.5 kilograms at birth, a typical case of macrosomia.
Given the size of the fetus and the mother's exhaustion, she would have had to undergo a cesarean section in her previous life.
"Dr. Chen, is my sister-in-law alright?" the young girl asked anxiously.
"We'll need to do an ultrasound after the postpartum period to find out about any issues with the uterus, but there shouldn't be any other major problems."
"That's good."
"Go get some hot water and help your sister-in-law wipe herself down in a bit. If anything happens, just go to the nurses' station and find a nurse," Chen Yun said with a smile.
The little girl nodded repeatedly.
"Dr. Chen."
Chen Yun had already reached the door when she turned back in confusion. The little girl licked her lips, seemingly wanting to say something but then hesitated, and said, "I have something I want to tell you."
"Then let's talk outside, so as not to frighten the child."
"Um."
The two walked through the corridor to the nurses' station in the lobby, where the girl finally spoke hesitantly.
“If my mother causes trouble again, you must report her to the factory’s reform committee. She’s afraid of the people on the reform committee!”
"..."
Duan Yun laughed: "If your mother heard you say that, she'd beat you to death!"
"I'm not afraid."
"Don't worry." Chen Yun noticed that there was some mud on the little girl's face, so she took a piece of tissue paper from the nurses' station and handed it to her. "We're not afraid of her causing trouble."
"Then I'm relieved! My brother and sister-in-law are just too easy to talk to..."
Xue Dashi is a technician at the factory. He brought his mother and wife from the countryside to the factory last year after the factory allocated them housing. His daughter, Xue Caihua, had only been at the factory for two or three months.
The old woman was conservative in her thinking. Even though the brigade had promoted gender equality countless times, she still secretly found a lot of "gender-changing medicine" for her sister-in-law, Jiang Meihua, to take.
“My sister-in-law’s difficult childbirth must be related to those tonics,” Xue Caihua said, wrinkling her nose sharply.
"A baby that is too big can indeed cause difficult labor," Chen Yun said.
“I told my sister-in-law, but my mother is the one who calls the shots at home. If I don’t eat, who knows what kind of trouble she’ll cause.”
Marrying a good man, but having a difficult mother-in-law can be suffocating enough.
"Your name is Xue Caihua? That's a nice name."
In fact, Chen Yun misjudged Xue Caihua's age. She was only fifteen years old, an age when she couldn't keep secrets.
“It’s cauliflower, the kind of bitter vegetable that grows flowers all the time in the field.” Xue Caihua said angrily when she mentioned her name: “My mother said she gave birth to a money-losing child and had a hard life. I’m just a flowering bitter vegetable that’s useless.”
Chen Yun choked, not expecting it to be bitter vegetable.
Duan Yun asked curiously, "If your mother dislikes girls so much, why did she bring you to the factory?"
"To earn a bride price when getting married."
"..."
Despite the foreseeable fate before her, Xue Caihua showed no sign of sadness. Instead, she smiled and winked.
"I will never obediently listen to her and get married."
"You can read?"
Xue Caihua's speech and cognition did not resemble those of an illiterate person who could not read a single character; she had her own thoughts and was unwilling to be manipulated by others.
"My brother and sister-in-law taught me to recognize a lot of characters."
"Never went to school?"
"A good-for-nothing like me can't go to school. The brigade secretary talked to my family and let me go to school, but my mother got sick a few days later and I had to go home to earn work points..."
No matter how loudly the slogan of gender equality is proclaimed, many rural areas still have a preference for sons over daughters, and this is not a minority.
The old woman's open declaration that she wouldn't save her daughter-in-law suggests she must have done a lot of things to torment her in the past.
Only when no one corrects them will they become even more reckless.
“People say you’re a money-loser, but you can’t actually believe that.” Chen Yun saw the self-deprecation in Xue Caihua’s tone and pointed to herself, saying, “I’m a comrade, and so are they. We comrades can heal the sick and save lives, and we can hold up half the sky.”
"I want to be a doctor when I grow up."
His gaze was unwavering, and his eyes were filled with admiration as he looked at Chen Yun.
While everyone was panicking and shouting, Chen Yun calmly walked over and squatted down to check as if no one else existed.
At that time, Xue Caihua felt that everyone in the hospital listened to Chen Yun very much.
...Even more impressive than the brigade secretary giving a speech on stage!
Duan Yun and Li Hongmei were amused by the little girl's earnestness, and they took turns patting Xue Caihua's head with giggles.
Chen Yun told Xue Caihua very seriously, "Then I look forward to the day you become a doctor."
"Yes!" Xue Caihua nodded emphatically.
A single sentence ignited a small flame in my heart.
Chen Yun looks forward to the day when this phenomenon will spread like wildfire!
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