The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 718 - 707: Cooperation

Chapter 718: Chapter 707: Cooperation

The doctors all gathered at Doctor Xu’s place, so the patient was directly carried over. Manbao, with limited experience, was squeezed to the periphery. Even on tiptoes, her short stature prevented her from seeing what was going on, except for the dark red stain on the wooden bed.

She hurriedly grabbed someone and asked, "How did he get injured?"

"He climbed up to the roof to lay some thatch and somehow lost his footing, fell off, and toppled over a log which then struck him..."

About a dozen doctors crammed into the medical tent. Doctor Xu quickly sent most of them away, only keeping four or five of the more skilled senior doctors.

Everyone sprang into action in an orderly manner. Soon, servants followed instructions and continuously brought in hot water, and later carried out a basin of bloody water.

Prescriptions were passed out one after another. The doctors standing outside the medical tent, who had nothing else to do, grabbed the prescriptions and went to the pharmacy, sneaking a peek en route. "This is for stopping bleeding, this is for replenishing qi. We’ve used a lot of the medicine for replenishing qi these past two days; the pharmacy might run out, right?"

"This medicine is for saving lives. I carry some in my medicine box. You go to the pharmacy and get a portion first, I’ll start brewing it for him here," another doctor said, after scanning the prescription and making a quick decision.

Each doctor’s medicine box contained various herbs, mostly those for the most common emergency conditions like stopping bleeding, replenishing qi, and reducing fever.

"Manbao, come in!"

Manbao, who was intently watching, immediately perked up, nodded briefly to Zhou Lijun, and hurried into the medical tent.

The clothing of the person lying on the bed had already been cut to shreds. The visible wound was on the head, where Doctor Xu had contributed the hemostatic powder from his medicine box. Doctor Ji had stitched the wound and applied the powder which was somewhat effective, but the freshly-wrapped white bandage was still stained red.

Thus, Doctor Ji had called her in to stop the bleeding.

By now, all the doctors in Yizhou City knew that she had unmatched skill in hemostatic acupuncture.

Manbao felt his pulse and frowned. Still, she decided to first apply needles to stop the bleeding from his head.

Seeing that the bleeding indeed lessened, Doctor Xu immediately began to undo the headband to clean the wound and reapply the medicine.

Doctor Ji, noticing Manbao’s furrowed brow and gaze on the patient’s abdomen, said, "You also think there’s internal bleeding in his abdomen, don’t you?"

Doctor Xu was startled and asked, "What? Internal bleeding in the abdomen? What can we do?"

The doctors in the tent looked towards the patient’s stomach, which only bore some scrapes but no bleeding wound, let alone a view of the internal situation.

They couldn’t just cut open the man’s stomach, could they?

Doctor Ji pressed and tapped the patient’s abdomen, then beckoned another doctor over to listen.

That doctor, after listening, suggested, "Let’s do bloodletting, and have them hurry with preparing the hemostatic medicine."

He then looked at Manbao, "Do you think acupuncture could stop the internal bleeding?"

After considering for a moment, Manbao said, "Without seeing the actual injury, I cannot guarantee."

The doctor pondered briefly before speaking, "My hearing is still decent. Let me listen for you. While not completely accurate, I have about fifty to sixty percent confidence."

Doctor Ji nodded slightly to Manbao, who understood his understatement; if he claimed fifty to sixty percent confidence, it probably meant he was seventy to eighty percent certain.

Manbao said, "As long as we know where the bleeding is, then I can be more confident in stopping it."

Thus the two began to collaborate.

Once Manbao had inserted the needles, Doctor Ji took a pair of small scissors and carefully made a small incision in the patient’s left abdomen. Doctor Xu handed a reed to Doctor Ji, who gingerly inserted it, and after a while, blood began to flow out continuously.

A doctor closely examined the blood that was drained, noticing some bits of flesh within it, and checked it with clamps.

All present exchanged sober looks.

The spleen was damaged.

As the flow of blood from the reed subsided and stopped, Doctor Ji secured the reed in place without immediately removing it.

The others carefully inspected the patient’s injuries while the hemostatic medicine was quickly readied.

Doctor Xu administered the medicine orally, and Doctor Ji felt the patient’s pulse for a long time. Although there wasn’t much improvement, there was no deterioration either.

That was good news.

And since no more blood was flowing from the reed, that meant the bleeding had stopped.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Only then did Doctor Ji remove the reed tube and stitched the small incision closed.

Doctor Xu praised, "It is thanks to Doctor Ji’s extensive experience that he spotted the issue immediately."

Doctor Ji replied with a smile, "It is Doctor Chang’s skill in tapping for diagnosis that proved useful. Otherwise, even if I knew there was internal bleeding, I wouldn’t have known the location."

Doctor Chang simply laughed, "That’s only because Young Lady Zhou’s hemostatic acupuncture is excellent. Otherwise, even if I could find where the bleeding was, I wouldn’t have been able to stop it."

Manbao, who had been watching the doctors at work, was suddenly mentioned and paused before saying, "That’s also because the doctors made good diagnoses and managed the situation well. Otherwise, even if I wanted to stop the bleeding, I wouldn’t have known where to place the needles."

The four senior doctors and one junior doctor exchanged glances, all smiling with satisfaction and nodding in approval.

Manbao liked the atmosphere. Well, mutual praise was the order of the day.

Doctor Ji glanced at the still unconscious patient and said, "Alright, let’s keep him here for now. Manbao, how long can your hemostatic needles stay in place?"

"I need to change the acupoints every half an hour, but it’s not good to keep the needles in for too long," she responded.

Doctor Ji nodded, "The hemostatic medicine will gradually take effect. Check on him every half an hour, and we’ll see how it goes by nightfall."

Doctor Chang added, "He’s still unconscious now. We won’t know his condition until he wakes up. His head injury is also serious."

"Yes," Doctor Ji said, "for now it seems that the injury to his abdomen is manageable, but the one on his head is more critical."

Whatever was inside the head, Doctor Ji had pondered his whole life without ever really understanding it.

Some people could be hit on the head with a plank, bleed, and then bounce around as if nothing had happened. Others might just get a bump on the head from a spoon, barely more than a bump, and they could just drop dead.

Doctor Ji had the opportunity to see the insides of a stomach, the contents of the chest, as well as the bones and flesh of legs and hands, but he had never seen what was inside a head.

Neither had Manbao.

She had dissected simulated models of human stomachs, chests, and limbs, but it seemed she had never thought about dissecting a model head.

Manbao became conflicted. Should she dissect one when she got back to learn more?

Still unsure, County Magistrate Tang arrived. He had been supervising work in another refugee village today and hurried over when he heard someone from a neighboring village had fallen off a roof.

Doctor Ji and the others went out immediately to greet him. County Magistrate Tang looked inside, breathed a sigh of relief when he confirmed the man wasn’t dead, and instructed the doctors to do their utmost to save him.

Noticing that his voice was hoarse, Manbao said, "Lord Tang, I have tea for moistening the throat for teachers at my place. Would you like some?"

Lord Tang’s voice was hoarse from talking too much these past few days, and he shouted most of it, so he asked, "What kind of tea is it?"

"Medicinal tea."

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.