Chapter 85: The helpless firefighters
Chapter 85: The helpless firefighters
Translated by me, edited by drpetro.
Firefighters, apart from preventing and putting out fires, also partake in many rescue operations.
Because of high degree of cooperation needed in the operations, doctors and firefighters frequently work together. Many times during the surgery of those who were in a mechanical accident, firefighters would work together with the doctors to, at the same time, save the person and remove the mechanical parts that are stuck in their bodies.
Surgery rooms normally have 3 different entrances: one main entrance, one specifically for doctors, and one for special needs. 10 minutes later, a fire truck arrived at the back of the hospital, and three firefighters with their mechanical cutters, after being disinfected and changing, entered the surgery room.
“The girl’s hand is stuck inside of this clump of metal. There’s also a grinding wheel inside.” The doctor in charge was pretty familiar with some of the firefighters, and before he even had the chance to greet them: “I’ve seen the hand through the endoscope, it’s stuck between the grinding wheels, but still fine. It’s just that it’s tightly sandwiched between the wheels, which needs to be quickly broken up. Otherwise the muscles and bones within the fingers, under this high amount of pressure for a long time, will lose their ability to grip and feel.”
Team leader Shi Yuqing quickly came forward, seeing the stainless steel clump, his heart thumped.
Continuing to examine the circumstance, Shi Yuqing’s unrest was continuing to grow.
“Little girl, Mr.firefighter here will quickly remove this piece of metal from your hand.” Shi Yuqing softly reassured An Sinian who was on the operating table.
An Sinian nodded in response. Having already been stuck for half an hour, her face had become even paler. Right now what she was feeling wasn’t pain, rather it was numbness.
The nurses hadn’t given her any anesthetics, because this specific numbness was only caused when there wasn’t enough blood flow in the area for a long period of time.
An Sinian glanced over, and called the two doctors and another firefighter for a quick chat.
“Doctor Shi, I fear we are limited on what we can do.”
“Oh? You guys can’t cut it even with mechanical cutters?”
Doctor Shi was completely lost: “Weren’t all the factory victims before all rescued with those mechanical cutters? Last time that guy who had his hand stuck in the machining axle, wasn’t it your mechanical cutter that freed him?”
“That’s a different situation.” Shi Yuqing who was in the same age group as Ye Qing, made a whispering gesture, and whispered: “Don’t you remember how long it took us to cut apart that machining axle?”
“It took a whole 40 minutes, and that was only one part of it. We later had to use a hydraulic press to forcefully pry open the cut to free the hand.
“The girl’s hand is stuck between thick-walled stainless steel. Stainless steel is known for its hardness and toughness, plus that fact that the clump is circular in shape, there’s no way to find a pressure point.”
“And if we were to actually cut it, then we have to do it vertically at both ends for a total distance of nearly 30 cm. We’re also going to need a large water jet to keep the blades cool. Without 5 to 6 hours, there’s no way we can cut it open.”
“5 to 6 hours?” Doctor Shi was astonished: “We can’t even wait an hour, if it’s 5 to 6 hours, then we might as well as amputate it.”
“If stainless steel is as hard to cut as you’ve described it, then how do those factories cut them apart?”
“There’s no way they would spend days on a single component right?” The other doctor was also quite puzzled, as he couldn’t comprehend how a steel rod could be cut in several minutes, yet stainless steel needed several hours.
“Factories generally use plasma cutters, or wire saw machines to cut stainless steel.”
“Plasma cutters use several thousand degree electric arcs to penetrate the steel. If it’s so then would it not carbonize her hand by then? Wire saws can only saw it in half, so her hand will also be cut apart.”
Shi Yuqing was somewhat helpless: “Right now there’s only one possibility for keeping her hand. And that is to give her some anesthetic, then use the hydraulic press to forcefully reverse the grinding wheels.”
The wheels of the grinder were rigidly stuck. This meant that to reverse turn the wheels, the hand would definitely be injured again. Most importantly, after this long, the girl’s hand has began to swell, so if they were to reverse turn then……
Yet without reversing, then there was also no other solution. Hence the firefighters’ heartaches and determination.
Since even the firefighters were out of ideas, the doctors decisively came to a decision and told the nurse to inform the girl’s family, to be prepared for the reversal of the grinding wheels.
There was already a lot of people gathered in the hallway.
Some were the relatives from the girl’s family, and the other bunch being the anxious workers from the supermarket.
An Sinian had 6 family members present, 2 grandparents and 2 other married couples, and they were just missing her father.
Hearing An Sinian’s mother explain everything that had happened, the 6 family members all gathered around Ye Qing, the two grandparents even grabbed his hand and delightedly commented: “Young man, thank you so much, you are the saviour of our Niannian.”
“That slight effort isn’t worth mentioning at all”
“For Niannian, you even ran 2 red lights……” Niannian’s mother replied as she wiped her tears.
“Yes yes, Second, Third, did you bring any money?” A grandparent hurriedly asked the girls beside him, then went through his own pockets.
“Who’s the victim’s mother?” A nurse pushed open the surgery room door and yelled at the gathered group.
“Me…… Me!”
“The situation for the victim is kind of peculiar. Even with the firefighters here, it was still impossible to free the hand with a minimal amount of damage. Hence we can only proceed with other high risk options with possible damages……”
“What kind of damages?” The family members now were all suddenly nervous, and grouped around the nurse.
“The victim’s hand will receive second degree injuries, with possibilities of damages to its ability to grip. If you guys agree then please sign on the non retaliation contract.”
An Sinian’s mother, and the 2 grandparents as soon as they heard the situation, paled, got on their knees and begged the nurse to see whether or not the doctors and firefighters could figure out a new plan.
“There really isn’t any other way, you guys can think about it, but the victim can’t wait too long.” The nurse having finished what was needed to be said, prepared to close the surgery room door, but felt a powerful hand preventing it.
“When did the firefighters come? How come we didn’t see them come? Can they not cut open the clump of metal? So are you guys preparing to forcefully reverse the grinding wheels?”
“We have special passages, but I didn’t understand a bit of what the firefighters were discussing.” The nurse stuttered. The man was so overcoming, but those deeply confident eyes, had the nurse feel his intense machoness.
“Have one of them come out and talk with me, just tell them I have ways to cut open the clump.”
The nurse ohed, ran back into the surgery room, and delivered Ye Qing’s message to the doctors and firefighters.
“These relatives are all morons.” The other doctor was now definitely pissed. Even the firefighters said it wasn’t possible, so what methods do the family relative possess?
“He…… doesn’t look like a relative of the victim.” The nurse shyly said: “That man appears to be the one who drove the victim over, and seems to have a good heart.”
“Calm down Doctor Shi, this man being able to guess the fact that we aren’t able to cut open the clump of metal, implies that he is experienced in the field, and most likely is some factory’s boss.” Shi Yuqing said and told them that he would head out for a chat with him.
“Sure but be quick, we don’t have much time left.”
Shi Yuqing pushed past the door for a peek, first with doubt, then suddenly realized something as he happily asked: “It’s you?”
“You know me?” Ye Qing wasn’t able to identify this man who was wearing a surgical mark at all.
“That time, that time with the accident on the state way, our fire engines had to take some detours, but was blocked by you to warn us of tire poppers in the fields.”
Ye Qing naturally remembered that accident, but who would’ve thought that the firefighter would have such great memory.
Right now was time to catch up, hence Ye Qing’s quick question: “Are you guys preparing to forcefully reverse the grinding wheels?”
“Yes, if I recall correctly your car should have had a lot of mechanical cutter advertisements printed on it.” Shi Yuqing quickly said as well: “You’re experienced in the field, so you definitely know why we didn’t choose to cut open the stainless steel clump.”
“The nurse just said you have plans, so can it be that you can cut it open?”
“Yeah, give me 20 minutes, I need to go grab the equipment.”