Chapter 373 - 250: Singin’ in the Rain

Jiang He had no idea what that meant.

The manager continued, "Due to the massive pile-up on I-95 and icy roads throughout the city, ambulances can't even get to the hospitals. The nearest emergency center at Hopkins is completely overloaded, its resources stretched thin. As a result, the state police and emergency services have temporarily requisitioned our hotel's ground-floor lobby to house some of the injured..."

At this, the manager looked terrified. "We are so terribly sorry. This has severely disrupted the hotel's ambiance. The injured people and the bloodstains may have impacted your guest experience, sir. We deeply regret this. Your bill will be waived, covered jointly by the state emergency fund and the hotel."

Jiang He: "..."

'Honestly, he had no idea what went on in this guy's head.'

'At a time like this, he was still worried about... the guest experience?'

'Did capitalists only consider VIP guests who paid hefty room fees to be actual people?'

Jiang He glanced at Shen Yu, who wore the same bewildered expression.

Her upbringing made it impossible for her to comprehend such a mentality.

Jiang He couldn't be bothered to waste any more time on the manager. "Let's go back to our room," he said.

"Yes, yes, right this way, sir."

They walked into the hotel lobby.

The scene was certainly chaotic.

Dozens of civilians injured in the crash had been placed on the sofas.

White hotel towels had been torn into strips and were being used as makeshift dressings to stanch bleeding.

Moans and cries filled the air.

Several nurses in paramedic uniforms moved through the crowd, performing basic triage and bandaging the wounded.

And in the center of the lobby, Jiang He saw Carter.

This star doctor from Hopkins was kneeling beside a middle-aged white man.

The middle-aged man was lying on the ground, his face pale and his breathing rapid.

His abdomen had no obvious open wounds but was abnormally distended.

With his hands on the man's abdomen, Carter said calmly, "Blood pressure."

"Systolic's dropped to 70, diastolic's 40, heart rate 135! The patient is going into shock! Dr. Carter, you have to do something!"

Carter shook his head. "Without a FAST scan—a Focused Assessment with Sonography for Trauma—how am I supposed to know if it's a ruptured spleen or a liver laceration? Can somebody get me a machine?"

The nurse was stunned. "Dr. Carter, this is a hotel lobby! All the ultrasound equipment is in the hospital ER. There's no way to get it here now!"

"Then there's nothing I can do. He needs an exploratory laparotomy right now, but there's no sterile operating room. If I open him up here, he'll die from a severe abdominal infection. Call an ambulance and get him out of here. I can't treat him."

Carter's voice remained calm.

'This was the professional detachment of a slacker doctor.'

'I've done all I can. If he can't be saved, what can I do?'

Besides, he was long accustomed to the state-of-the-art medical equipment at Hopkins.

'Expect him to diagnose complex blunt abdominal trauma on the spot, without the support of the massive modern medical machine? Get real. If something went wrong, who would take responsibility?'

Compared to the patients, Carter was more concerned with how to save his own skin after the Miller scandal blew up.

'That question was clearly more worthy of his consideration.'

Jiang He stood not far away, silently shaking his head.

'The man was truly incompetent.'

'His over-reliance on machines had long since eroded his clinical judgment.'

'It was like those college students of later generations who had to ask Dou Bao for advice before even replying to their online girlfriends...'

Just then, an elderly European doctor strode forward from the crowd.

Jiang He recognized him as a German scholar who had been sitting in the front row at the conference.

The old doctor shoved Carter out of the way, dropped to one knee, and deftly unbuttoned the injured man's shirt.

Next, he placed both hands flat on the patient's upper left abdomen, pressing down gently with his fingers.

The injured man let out a muffled groan.

"Obvious tenderness and rebound tenderness. Abdominal guarding."

The old doctor's hands quickly moved to the left costal region, where he performed percussion a few times while observing the patient's jugular vein.

"Collapsed jugular veins. Expanded dullness on percussion over the left costal region."

"It's a ruptured spleen with massive hemorrhage! Start two large-bore IVs immediately, widest gauge needles you've got! Infuse saline at full speed for volume expansion! Elevate his legs, keep him warm, and don't apply any more pressure to the abdomen! Get him to a hospital, now!"

Hearing this, the nurses immediately sprang into action.

Jiang He nodded.

'Now *that's* a real doctor.'

'That's a true veteran, forged on the front lines of clinical practice.'

'Experience, judgment, and nerve—not one could be missing.'

"Let's go."

Jiang He took Shen Yu's hand and walked toward the elevator.

The moment they were back in the room, he pulled Shen Yu into his arms. "I'm sorry," he said. "I shouldn't have brought you to the United States."

It was what he truly felt.

Across two lifetimes, he had never wanted to go home more than he did right now.

Back home, he had a teacher who would fiercely protect her students, a tsundere vice dean, roommates who eagerly volunteered for any task, a coding guru who was the king of the grind, a dwarf doctor, and an ever-dependable big sister figure.

There was scheming and office politics back home, too, but on the whole, the good people outnumbered the bad.

In Baltimore, the odds of running into an asshole were just way too high...

He truly missed the rice noodle rolls on the streets of Yangcheng, the endless supply of oranges in the department, and all the wonderful students and teachers.

Shen Yu gently hugged him back. "I actually feel the opposite," she said. "I'm glad I came with you."

Jiang He was taken aback.

Shen Yu said softly, "If I'd seen on the news that there was a disaster in Baltimore, I would have been so worried. Being here with you makes me feel so secure. No matter what happens outside, I'm not scared at all..."

Jiang He was speechless.

Being with Teacher Shen always healed him in the blink of an eye.