When I'm on the night shift, all the department heads can't sleep.

When Li Wencheng was pushed onto the emergency bed in the red zone, his shoe heels were still rubbing against the metal edge of the stretcher, and he was half-paralyzed and didn't move.

He did not struggle.

She didn't cry out in pain.

He's just slow to react; he blinks only after two or three seconds of each sentence spoken by others, as if the sound has traveled a long way before reaching his ears.

The family member stood at the foot of the bed, clutching a crumpled payment slip in his hand.

"He just went to the toilet by himself."

Nurse Zhao untangled the monitoring leads and attached electrode pads to his chest.

"Just because you can walk doesn't mean you're okay. Just because you can talk doesn't mean you can be put back on the waiting chair."

Qin Hai spread the newly printed electrocardiogram on the treatment cart.

The edges of the paper still carried the residual warmth of the printer, curling slightly, with a few slow, wavy lines squeezed at the bottom of the grid.

"Heart rate 48. Check electrolytes and kidney function first. Give me the medicine bag."

Lin Ye handed over a transparent medicine bag with Li Wencheng's name and the time he picked up the medicine. The label on the small bottle of medicine inside the bag was smudged by sweat, leaving only half of the medicine's name clearly visible: Digoxin Tablets.

The woman seemed to suddenly remember something when she saw Qin Hai take out the medicine bottle.

"He hasn't been able to eat for the past few days and keeps saying he feels anxious. My brother was worried the medication wouldn't work, so he probably took a couple more pills."

Qin Hai lifted his eyelids slightly.

"possible?"

The woman's voice lowered.

"I didn't watch him eat it. He put it on his bedside table himself."

Zhou Min came over from the nurses' station, her triage and verification book tucked under her arm.

"Has your blood been drawn?"

Nurse Zhao has already arranged the blood collection tubes in order on the tray.

"The electrolyte, kidney function, and myocardial enzyme tests have all been ordered. I'll ask the lab if they can expedite the digoxin blood concentration test and get the potassium results ready first."

Qin Hai nodded.

"Contact the on-call cardiologist. Don't mention poisoning. Just report the patient's condition, medication history, heart rate, and slow consciousness."

Lin Ye paused for a moment, his pen still in his hand.

He didn't mention being poisoned.

The blue text frame at the edge of the field of vision lit up again.

[Emergency Room Early Warning System Update: Incomplete Loop Risk Tracking Enabled.]

[Tracking targets: Patients who did not return after their number was called, patients who left the examination area and did not return, and patients whose vital signs were not re-evaluated in the waiting area.]

[Note: Only mark risk points that were not caught up in the process.]

This time, the blue text did not provide a name for the disease.

Lin Ye arranged the payment slip, medicine bag, and electrocardiogram chart in order and pushed them in front of Zhou Min.

"Director Zhou, the call number, the last location found, the medicine bag, heart rate, and electrocardiogram are all here."

Zhou Min took it and tapped the document with the tip of her pen.

"That's enough for triage and tiering; you won't need to oversee it alone anymore."

Upon hearing this, Qin Hai responded coldly.

"Finally, a reliable one."

Lin Ye did not refute.

A wave of soreness rose in his back at that moment; his knees were stiff from standing for so long.

The curtain at the entrance to the red zone was lifted, and when the cardiologist on duty came in, Qin Hai had already pulled the electrocardiogram chart out of the stack of documents.

Without exchanging pleasantries, the other person stretched out their hand: "Electrocardiogram."

Qin Hai handed the paper over.

"He was 52 years old, experiencing nausea, chest tightness, and slow reaction time. He left the waiting area after his number was called and didn't return. He was found near the clean room entrance. His heart rate was around 50 at the time. His medication bag contained digoxin, and he may have increased the dosage on his own recently. We are still waiting for his kidney function and electrolyte results."

After scanning the electrocardiogram, the cardiologist unscrewed the medicine bottle to check the specifications.

"First, conduct a risk assessment for digoxin-related arrhythmias. Don't supplement potassium or use antiarrhythmic drugs indiscriminately. Wait for the potassium and kidney function results to come out before making any decisions. Keep the patient under continuous ECG monitoring in the red zone for now."

He placed the medicine bottle in a storage compartment on the side of the treatment cart, stacking it together with the examination report.

"Stop taking digoxin, but keep the bottle. The family needs to verify how much they've taken in the last few days and whether they've taken any other heart medications with it."

The woman didn't understand "digoxin-related arrhythmia" and only grasped the word "monitoring".

"Does he need to be hospitalized?"

The cardiologist glanced at her.

"The question now isn't whether to go to the hospital or not, but to prevent the heart rate from dropping any further."

Li Wencheng lay on the bed with his eyes half-open.

"I'm disgusting."

Nurse Zhao moved his hand away from his chest to make room for the lead wire.

"You're so disgusting that you fainted sitting by the door of the cleaning room, and nobody could find you."

Li Wencheng blinked, as if he wanted to laugh, but didn't.

The lab responded to the call very quickly.

"Potassium 5.6 millimoles per liter, creatinine 176 micromoles per liter."

Nurse Zhao repeated it and wrote it on the small whiteboard next to the bed with a marker.

The cardiologist's expression darkened.

"Poor kidney function and high potassium. Urgently increase digoxin blood concentration, and immediately begin continuous cardiac monitoring. Prepare atropine, and assess temporary pacing if necessary; if the condition worsens, apply for antidote according to poisoning protocols. Notify the nephrology department for consultation to determine how to manage kidney function and high potassium."

The woman's eyes immediately reddened when she heard that another department had been added.

"Why do we need to call the nephrology department? Didn't he take too much heart medication?"

Zhou Min flipped the payment slip to the back and pointed out the few words that had just been added.

"If kidney function is poor, the medication can't be excreted properly, which can easily affect your heart rate. I'm not trying to scare you, but you can't just focus on one bottle of medicine."

The woman looked down at those words and finally stopped asking why what had just been a stomach ache had now escalated into a situation requiring multidisciplinary consultation.

Lin Ye also recorded this information in the medical record's remarks column.

Just finished adding a line: Number called, retrieved from cleaning room, red zone continues to be evaluated.

Qin Hai took his pen from the side.

That's enough.

Lin Ye looked up.

"The time for the cardiology specialist to arrive has not yet been made up."

"Zhou Min added."

Qin Hai tossed the pen to Zhou Min.

Zhou Min caught it without hesitation.

"I'll finish it, you go to the duty room."

Lin Ye looked at the two people and didn't move for a moment.

Qin Hai pointed to the door of the duty room.

"The records will be filled in, the processes will be handled, you should go and rest first, don't push yourself to the point of collapse, no one will be watching over you."

Nurse Zhao had just finished adjusting the monitoring alarm limits when she casually gave him a push on the back.

"Hurry up and go inside. Twenty minutes. If you're even a minute late, I'll yank the covers off you."

Lin Ye was pushed back half a step by her, his hands were empty, and he didn't know what to grab.

Zhou Min's pen had already landed on the triage and review form, and she added a sentence without even looking up.

"Go ahead without worry, we'll call you if anything happens."

Qin Hai had a cold face.

"Stop talking nonsense and lie down."

The duty room door was half open.

The narrow bed inside was covered with a wrinkled thin blanket, which he had used when he was on night duty.

Before he went in, he glanced back at the red zone.

Li Wencheng's heart rate was still fluctuating around 50.

The elderly man suffering from abdominal pain has been placed at the top of the ICU's early warning list.

The call number screen at the nurses' station resumed normal scrolling, and the calls in the waiting area were so steady that there was no trace of the earlier panic.

The blue text box at the edge of my field of vision stood still.

[Loop not closed: Triage and verification have been integrated.]

[Current Status: The risk has been transferred to the team for handling.]

Lin Ye did not stand back.

He closed the door to the duty room.

Outside the door, Zhou Min's pen tip landed on the triage checklist, making a scratching sound.

Inside the door, the emergency room light shone through the crack in the door, leaving only a thin sliver.

The landline at the triage desk rang again.

Nurse Zhao glanced at the closed duty room door and reached out to answer the phone.

This time, the person who answered the phone was not Lin Ye.

(Please give me some encouragement to update! ~Love you all, muah!)