The Game of Life

Chapter 590: Chapter 588: One in Ten Thousand Luck

Jiang Feng felt as if he was in his memories and wished it were just in his memories.

He stood there dumbly, his mind a blank, wanting to do something yet too afraid to act. He felt like an extra in the background of a movie, only able to watch the plot unfold helplessly, unable to speak or to move.

For a moment, he even thought he had lost control of his body, forgetting that he was indeed someone who could talk and walk.

He held his phone, staring dumbly ahead, watching Jiang Zaidi equally panicked, wanting to help but too scared, the fallen Jiang Weiming on the ground like a fragile piece of glassware, untouchable.

The emergency medical team reacted quickly, and almost in the blink of an eye, several doctors and nurses had lifted Jiang Weiming onto a stretcher and rushed him into the resuscitation room.

Two minutes later, a doctor in a white coat hurried into the emergency department. As soon as Dr. Cao, who was waiting at the door, saw him, she dragged him into the resuscitation room, quickly briefing him on Jiang Weiming’s condition.

Among a long string of sentences mixed with medical jargon, Jiang Feng only caught a snippet: “Director Zhong suspects the patient might have acute myocarditis leading to cardiac failure…”

Despite everything unfolding right before his eyes, Jiang Feng felt no sense of reality, as if he were in a nightmare from which he couldn’t wake up.

Until Jiang Shoucheng shook him awake.

“Little brother, little brother, what happened just now? Where’s Granduncle Weiming? Where is he? Why are you and De here?” Jiang Shoucheng shook Jiang Feng’s shoulders fiercely as he asked, his face filled with urgency.

Just now, when Jiang Feng was on the phone with him and suddenly went silent, he realized something might have happened.

Jiang Zaidi was still in a state of shock, Jiang Weiming having collapsed right before him was more than enough to frighten him beyond what Jiang Feng had experienced, leaving him even more disoriented.

“Granduncle Weiming, he… he… is in the resuscitation room.” It took several attempts for Jiang Feng to utter the words.

“He was just sitting there fine, and then suddenly he just… fell over. A doctor came just now, Dr. Cao pulled him into the resuscitation room. I heard her telling the doctor that Granduncle might have something… some heart… some kind of inflammation.”

“Myocarditis?” Jiang Shoucheng, having interned at the hospital for so long, had better mental fortitude than both Jiang Feng and Jiang Zaidi combined.

Still, his complexion looked far from good at that moment.

The three stood there silently outside, anxiously waiting. After what seemed like an eternity, Director Zhong, Dr. Cao, and another doctor they did not recognize emerged from the resuscitation room.

“Director Zhong, since you know the patient’s family, I’ll leave it to you to explain the rest of the situation to them. I need to go back and get in touch with the people in the cardiology department. I will notify you as soon as the patient regains consciousness,” said the cardiologist to Director Zhong before nodding to Jiang Feng and Jiang Shoucheng and leaving.

Just as Jiang Feng was about to speak, he saw Jiang Weiming being wheeled out by a few nurses, a respirator mask over his face, resembling every patient pushed out of the operating room in medical dramas, pale, without a tinge of color, eyes closed, appearing very frail.

“The patient is now out of danger, Jiang, you see which of you will handle hospital admission and payment,” Director Zhong said.

“I’ll go!” Jiang Zaide quickly said.

“Huihui, take him to handle the payment procedures,” Director Zhong said, then turned to Jiang Feng and Jiang Shoucheng, “From the current situation, it appears to be acute myocarditis that has led to acute congestive heart failure. The rescue was very timely, the patient has already left life-threatening danger, and if luck is on our side, there won’t be any serious residual effects. But because the patient is of advanced age, it’s hard to predict the exact state he’ll be in when he wakes up. Subsequent treatments will be the responsibility of cardiologists and cardiovascular surgeons.”

“What is myocarditis?” Jiang Feng asked. As a family member of a patient who didn’t understand medicine, he chose to entrust the treatment entirely to the doctors, but he felt that he at least needed to know what exactly Jiang Weiming was suffering from.

“Director Zhong, let me explain to my brother. Thank you for your trouble,” Jiang Shoucheng said.

“If there are any issues, look for me anytime. I’ll be in the hospital during this period,” Director Zhong reassured as he patted Jiang Feng’s shoulder, “For acute myocarditis, as long as the rescue is successful, there typically aren’t any major problems afterward. Rest assured, it will be alright.”

Jiang Feng looked towards Jiang Shoucheng.

Jiang Shoucheng thought for a bit, tried to organize his language, and then explained myocarditis to Jiang Feng in a way he could understand.

Acute myocarditis refers to inflammatory myocardial damage caused by various infectious factors, often occurring during the active period of rheumatic fever or secondary to certain infectious diseases like severe viral colds. This means that Jiang Weiming developing myocarditis due to a severe cold is both a normal and reasonable occurrence, but at the same time, it is also very unfortunate.

Because most cases of myocarditis are not serious and do not show any symptoms, they heal on their own. However, in a small number of severe cases, like Jiang Weiming’s, it can lead to cardiogenic shock or acute congestive heart failure, resulting in death or sudden death within hours or a few days.

Since most cases of myocarditis are due to infectious diseases, the symptoms may not be very obvious. If the diagnosing doctor is not careful enough, it is easy to overlook, especially in older patients like Jiang Weiming, whose physical condition is not as strong as an average person, making the clinical symptoms of myocarditis even more likely to be ignored.

Moreover, considering Jiang Weiming’s symptoms of falling into a coma due to acute congestive heart failure in emergency today, he might have contracted myocarditis several days ago.

It can be said, if Jiang Feng had not run into Huihui at the entrance, and if Huihui had not suggested they wait in the emergency department, and if Jiang Weiming had not asked for tea, prompting Jiang Feng to go find Dr. Cao and together go to Dr. Lu’s office to borrow tea, where they happened to meet Director Zhong, who then suggested a consultation for Jiang Weiming.

Director Zhong is a highly skilled and meticulous doctor, and possibly in the emergency room, any doctor other than him might not suspect that Jiang Weiming was suffering from anything other than a common severe cold, but rather myocarditis caused by the cold.

If it wasn’t for Director Zhong’s doubts about Jiang Weiming’s condition and his persistent inquiries, Jiang Weiming’s collapse might have been in the respiratory department or some other department, missing the optimal time for rescue. It also wouldn’t have been possible to discover in a timely manner that he was suffering from acute myocarditis leading to acute congestive heart failure.

After sorting through the events with Jiang Feng, Jiang Shoucheng couldn’t help but repeatedly exclaim how lucky Jiang Weiming was that his life wasn’t destined to end just yet, that from all the paths leading to hell, he managed to find one that led to survival.

One in a million luck.

“Little brother, Granduncle Weiming will definitely be fine this time. Myocarditis is known among us secretly as the number one killer in emergency medicine, and Granduncle Weiming was rescued from such a dangerous situation, so subsequent treatment will surely not be a problem. Myocarditis, as long as the rescue is in time, generally does not leave any lingering effects, there definitely won’t be a problem, especially when Director Zhong is personally involved,” Jiang Shoucheng said to reassure, “I’ll go ask which ward Granduncle Weiming is in now, and we can wait for him there.”

Jiang Feng nodded, finally feeling somewhat relieved, “I’ll call and inform the others.”