This Doctor Is Too Wealthy

This thought merely flashed through his mind. Turning around, he said to the tall woman, ”Are you the midwife? Didn’t you run off?”

”I...”

”She didn’t run away; she went to find yellow paper, saying the woman in childbirth was possessed. When we first went in, she was burning paper at the head of the bed.”

Fuck!

Du Heng genuinely felt an urge to go mad.

There were already complications with the birth, and now they were burning paper? With ash flying everywhere, were they afraid the infection would come too slowly?

Du Heng’s eyes turned cold. ”Let go. If anything happens to the mother or the baby, you won’t be able to bear the consequences.” Then, he said to the shorter woman, ”You must be the mother-in-law, right?”

The shorter woman, panicked and helpless, nodded quickly upon hearing Du Heng’s words.

”Don’t just stand there. Hurry up and find a car. It will take the 120 at least half an hour to get from the city to your village.”

”Okay, okay, I’ll go now.”

”And where is your son?”

”He’s working in the city. He’s already on his way back.”

Du Heng sighed. ”Never mind him. Just hurry up and find a car.”

With that, he took a deep breath and walked straight into the room.

At this point, he couldn’t afford to worry about sterility or the risk of infection.

Every minute that passed increased the risk to the fetus.

To put it bluntly, if the fetus suffered prolonged oxygen deprivation to the brain and became intellectually disabled, what then? Both the child and the parents would live a life of suffering. Denying it life was one thing, but who could bring themselves to end a life, especially one on the verge of becoming a new individual? Take this current situation: if prolonged oxygen deprivation resulted in an intellectually disabled child, how would this family cope?

Countless thoughts raced through Du Heng’s mind, but the moment he stepped into the room, his mind cleared instantly, and all complex thoughts vanished.

In the room, the woman in childbirth lay on the bed, her head facing out and her lower body facing in. A thin sheet covered her, shielding her from direct view.

Wei Wen and Wang Lili, working efficiently, had already started an IV drip to give the woman in childbirth an energy supplement.

However, since they were in a private home with nowhere to hang an IV bag, Wang Lili had to hold it.

Wei Wen, meanwhile, had taken off her shoes and climbed onto the bed, busying herself near the woman in childbirth’s lower body.

Hearing footsteps, they both glanced at the doorway. Seeing Du Heng enter, Wei Wen quickly said, ”Dean, the woman’s cervix is significantly dilated, but it’s a transverse lie. A smooth delivery isn’t possible.”

As she spoke, Wei Wen looked down at the woman in childbirth again, her eyes filled with worry and anxiety. ”Moreover, she’s extremely weak now; her strength is completely depleted. I’m afraid she can’t hold on much longer.”

Du Heng took a deep breath, steadied his emotions, and said, ”Let me take a look first.”

As he spoke, perhaps it was psychological, but he felt his lips becoming hot and swollen again. He wanted to touch them but forced himself to stop.

Du Heng climbed onto the bed from the side, knelt beside the woman in childbirth, and began to gently examine her bulging lower abdomen, trying to determine the position of the fetus’s head and buttocks.

Wang Lili, having never worked as an obstetrics nurse, watched Du Heng’s movements nervously, her mind blank. Wei Wen and Huo Yinhua, however, observed Du Heng’s skilled actions with a growing sense of amazement.

Huo Yinhua, in particular, stared at Du Heng’s probing hands, a flicker of doubt in her eyes.

His movements seemed familiar to her, as if she had seen them somewhere before.

Du Heng was fully focused, his hands gently moving and pressing. After repeatedly palpating two areas, he whispered, ”Give me a stethoscope.”

Huo Yinhua, momentarily free, quickly handed the stethoscope to Du Heng. She wanted to ask something but, seeing his serious expression, didn’t dare.

Taking the stethoscope, Du Heng moved its head across the woman in childbirth’s abdomen, finally stopping at one spot. He held his breath and listened intently for several seconds.

”Everyone, the fetal heart rate is normal. I’m going to adjust the fetal position now. Can you handle the delivery afterward?”

Wei Wen exhaled slowly and said calmly, ”Xiao Heng, don’t worry. I can do it.”

Huo Yinhua also stepped forward. ”Dean, I’m fine.”

”Then I’ll begin.”

After speaking, Du Heng tucked the stethoscope head into his clothes and palpated the woman’s abdomen again. Once he determined the position of the fetal head and breech, he gripped them, pushing the head downward and the breech upward. He pushed a couple of times, then paused to slightly adjust the position.

Wang Lili, having never assisted in a delivery, couldn’t quite grasp the intricacies of what he was doing.

However, Wei Wen and Huo Yinhua were both experienced in this field. Watching Du Heng’s technique, their eyes widened in surprise. They hadn’t expected a TCM doctor to know a procedure that even many obstetricians were unfamiliar with.

Huo Yinhua even blurted out, ”Dean, is this an external cephalic version?”

Du Heng responded softly, ”Yes.”

As Du Heng resumed pushing, Huo Yinhua dared not speak.

As the saying goes, you can’t read a person’s mind like an open book; similarly, the fetus was hidden within the abdomen, its exact position of head and breech invisible, especially without any imaging equipment.

Accurately locating the fetal head and breech relied entirely on experience and touch, demanding both boldness and meticulous care.

Grabbing the wrong spot could injure the fetus, resulting in a medical accident.

An incorrect pushing technique would also cause injury—still a medical accident.

And it would be the kind of medical accident that led to the revocation of one’s practice qualification.

At this point, Du Heng was truly backed into a corner. This was hardly the ideal time for a combined version, nor was it an occasion to show off his skills.

With the woman’s cervix fully dilated, amniotic fluid had undoubtedly leaked, leaving insufficient fluid in the uterine cavity to ensure the version procedure would go smoothly.

But the Health Clinic’s vehicle was broken, no other car could be found, and the woman in childbirth was so weak she could barely keep her eyes open. As for the 120 ambulance, it would have to travel from the city to reach Zojiwa Village, a journey that would take considerable time.

When Du Heng had mentioned half an hour earlier, he was assuming unimpeded travel at a speed of 100 km/h for the entire journey—a white lie to reassure the anxious mother-in-law. Realistically, the 120 ambulance would take at least an hour to arrive, plus another hour for the return trip. All told, that was seven to eight hours. Who could guarantee the fetus’s health by then?

So now, he had no choice but to take a risk and attempt the external cephalic version.

As for an internal cephalic version, while it might be the best choice for correcting a transverse lie, it would cause too much trauma to the woman in childbirth. Moreover, the current conditions were inadequate for Du Heng to maneuver his hand inside her uterine cavity.

In this environment, she would likely get infected before the procedure was even completed.

Therefore, the external cephalic version became Du Heng’s only, and best, choice.

Although risky, the primary danger lay in the reduced amount of amniotic fluid.

For Du Heng, with his Gynecology and Pediatrics Expertise, the external cephalic version wouldn’t pose an excessive risk as long as he proceeded slowly, carefully, and meticulously. The operation itself was just more complicated.

Under Wei Wen and Huo Yinhua’s tense and astonished gaze, Du Heng’s hands, one gripping the fetal head and the other the breech, slowly shifted as he rotated the fetus, moving from a side-by-side hold to an up-and-down one.

As Du Heng applied pressure, Wei Wen and Huo Yinhua could hear their own nervous, suppressed breathing.

Only when Du Heng stopped did they quietly sigh in relief. By then, his forehead was covered in sweat, and his entire back was drenched.

Du Heng wiped the sweat from his forehead with his arm, then quickly took out the stethoscope head again to carefully listen to the fetal heartbeat. He finally relaxed only when he heard that the heartbeat was still normal.

Just as he fully relaxed, a burning, swelling, and painful sensation overwhelmed the area around his mouth.

Du Heng knew then that the sensation he’d felt upon entering the room hadn’t been an illusion.

He also understood that he would have to work for some time with a mouth full of blisters, under the curious gazes of the others.

Even if he could prepare medicine to counteract the fire toxin, it would take at least three days for the blisters to completely subside.