Chapter 129: The Lying Patient, Aseptic Necrosis_2
Often able to provide extremely constructive diagnostic opinions.
Sometimes, Zhou Can can timely discover problems that others fail to notice.
This is a kind of dependence and trust.
Doctor Shan turns to him for consultation, feeling reassured.
Patients and their families are very shrewd.
Knowing Zhou Can holds a significant position in orthopedics, naturally, they vie to ingratiate themselves, hoping to receive more attention during surgery and hospitalization.
Zhou Can heads straight to bed 77.
"Mr. Zhao, we're planning to arrange surgery for you today, are you aware of that?"
"Nurse informed me yesterday evening, also told me to abstain from food and water."
The patient responds enthusiastically.
As Zhou Can's implicit status in orthopedics keeps rising, visits to check on patients have become rarely met with coldness by families and patients.
Like now, as he personally comes to ask about Mr. Zhao's condition, both the family and the patient seem pleasantly surprised.
"How many days has it been since your foot was injured?"
Zhou Can asked.
The patient's eyes flicker twice, he thinks for a moment, then says, "It seems like three days, I think!"
The family member next to him should be his father, who doesn't seem very clear about his son's injury. He hastened over only when his son needed an attendant for hospital admission procedures.
Hospitals generally have an implicit requirement when admitting patients.
If you don't have an attendant, the hospital won't take you in.
Once admitted to the hospital, the hospital is responsible for the patient. Mobility issues, going to the bathroom, eating, pre-surgery preparation, and post-surgery care are all very real issues.
The hospital can't possibly assign a nurse to attend to you specifically.
Many people think that once they're hospitalized, spending hundreds or thousands a day on hospital fees, it's only right for the nurse to attend to them.
Heh, can only say such people are too 'young.'
Nurses' responsibilities are changing dressings, administering IV drips, giving injections, monitoring blood pressure, etc. Expecting them to cater to your eating and toileting needs—well, that's asking too much.
Some self-important male patients, thinking about the sweet smiles of the nurse sisters, their gentle attitudes, wonder if they could take this chance to get close, perhaps a romantic encounter?
Patients with superior personal circumstances, such as second-generation rich, second-generation officials, young company executives, might indeed succeed.
For the general public, it's better to behave properly.
Otherwise, fantasizing too much just causes agitation.
Zhou Can carefully observes the patient's left foot, the ankle, the top of the foot, all swollen.
However, the surface of the skin is somewhat gray, the wrinkles apparent.
"Are you sure the injury happened three days ago?" Zhou Can's tone became slightly more serious.
Doctors really have it tough these days.
If you speak to a patient with a slightly wrong tone, they may become antagonistic or even complain about you.
Zhou Can suspects the patient isn't telling the truth, but he can't directly accuse him.
He can only ask again with a reminding tone.
Some patients lie to the doctor or nurse for all sorts of reasons.
It's a very helpless situation.
Patients have many reasons to lie, some are to hide embarrassment. Like the time Zhou Can, in the Emergency Department, encountered a patient with an object embedded in their anus, whom claimed it was an accident from sitting down.
Would you feel comfortable pressing for more details?
Such lies don't affect treatment. The doctor knows the truth and won't point it out.
But some patients' lies can lead to misdiagnosis and severe consequences.
If something goes wrong, it's not just the patient that's unlucky, the doctor also suffers unfairly.
This Mr. Zhao, upon being asked a second time by Zhou Can, still had a shifting gaze.
"If you got the time of injury wrong and it's only off by a few hours, it's not a big deal. But if it's several days or even longer, it's very detrimental to your surgery."
Zhou Can isn't just trying to scare the patient.
The risks associated with this surgery are inherently high.
Great differences in pre-operative information can lead to a significant increase in surgical risks.
"It should be three days, I'd been drinking at the time, so I really can't remember clearly."
The patient insists on lying, which is perplexing.
Injury timing, logically speaking, shouldn't necessitate any lies.
Why is this person deliberately hiding the truth? What could his purpose be?
Seeing that he can't get any more information, Zhou Can closely observes the patient's foot for a while longer, and then heads back to the doctors' office.
Just then, Doctor Shan arrives.
"Doctor Shan, there's a rather strange patient in our group."
Zhou Can initially didn't want to meddle in this matter.
But it concerns surgical safety, so he has to bring it up.
"Which patient is that?"
Doctor Shan is now quite familiar with him, speaking in a very relaxed tone.
"Mr. Zhao from bed 77."
"Director Shen was planning to operate on him this morning! What's the issue?"
Doctor Shan knows Zhou Can never speaks without reason.
She always takes his opinions very seriously.
She immediately starts to inquire about the situation.
"When I reviewed the patient's file this morning, something felt off, but I couldn't pinpoint the reason. So, I went to the patient area to check his actual condition. From the bruising on his foot and the gray folds in the skin, I believe his injury may be more than three days old."
Zhou Can spoke earnestly.
"Sometimes a patient's memory isn't that precise, being off by a few hours isn't a big issue. After all, it's not a limb reattachment surgery."
Doctor Shan didn't consider it a big deal after listening.
"But I asked the patient twice, and he insists he's remembered the timing correctly. However, his eyes are clearly lying. I'm really puzzled why he would purposely lie about the timing of the injury?"