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

Liang Guoan's test results were sent back to the emergency room on the afternoon of the third day.

Han Qing from the endocrinology department called Qin Hai directly: "During the hypoglycemic episode, insulin and C-peptide levels were abnormally high, and imaging suggested a pancreatic mass, most likely an insulinoma. The patient's family wants to speak with Lin Ye."

Qin Hai handed the phone to Lin Ye.

On the other end of the phone, Liang Guoan's son said in a low voice, "Dr. Lin, my dad's illness can't be cured by just giving him an injection of candy."

"Just follow the instructions from the endocrinology and surgery departments."

"Hmm." The man paused. "I used to find hospitals troublesome, so I would pick him up as soon as he recovered, thinking it would save money and trouble. Director Han said that if he falls and faints again due to low blood sugar, he might not wake up."

Lin Ye didn't preach.

There was a few seconds of silence on the other end of the phone.

"Thank you for not letting us leave."

After hanging up the phone, Nurse Zhao leaned over and said, "This time it didn't escalate to the emergency room, so it counts as saving a life."

Lin Ye nodded.

Some patients' countdown times are not displayed on the screen.

It's hidden in the repeated "just bear with it" "a shot will fix it" and "old ailment".

As night fell, the emergency room lobby returned to its familiar hustle and bustle.

Flu and fever, stitches from falls, chest tightness in the elderly, diarrhea in children—patients came in waves. Lin Ye accompanied Sun Zhiqiang to see more than a dozen ordinary patients, but the system didn't light up even once.

A child had a common gastroenteritis and was crying with tears streaming down his face; a young man cut his finger and bled a lot, but it wasn't serious after treatment; an elderly man kept asking himself if he needed to be hospitalized, but it turned out he had just missed taking his blood pressure medication.

These patients weren't particularly dangerous, yet they filled most of the emergency room at night.

Ma Hao leaned closer and whispered, "Don't you feel strange not encountering any serious illnesses?"

Lin Ye handed a doctor's prescription for a common gastroenteritis to the nurse: "The majority of patients in the emergency room are ordinary patients."

"Aren't you afraid of leaks?"

"So we asked all the questions according to the procedure."

Ma Hao pouted: "You're starting to sound more and more like a mentor."

At one o'clock in the morning, an elderly woman was helped in by her daughter.

The elderly woman, in her seventies, was extremely thin, with a bruise around her right eye, and clutched an old cloth bag in her hand. Her daughter, her face filled with anxiety, said, "Doctor, my mother says she's dizzy and fell while walking. She has a history of strokes; can you just prescribe some blood-circulating medication?"

The zipper on the old cloth bag was broken in half, revealing a medical insurance card, several crumpled outpatient medical records, and a small bag of medicine. The old woman hugged the bag tightly, as if afraid her daughter would find it troublesome, and also afraid the doctor would keep her in the hospital and charge her money.

Nurse Zhao asked, "When did you fall?"

"afternoon."

"Why are you only arriving now?"

The daughter said impatiently, "She insisted she was fine. She threw up once last night, and I had to drag her here."

The old man sat in the chair, his reactions a little slow.

Lin Ye walked over and asked, "Grandma, does your head hurt?"

The old man nodded, then shook his head: "I feel a little dizzy."

The daughter quickly spoke up: "If she's like this all the time, she'll have high blood pressure and insufficient blood supply to her brain."

Lin Ye glanced at the old woman's pupils, then at the abrasions on the back of her hand.

The light blue lettering lit up.

[Emergency room alert activated.]

Patient: Zhou Fengying, female, 76 years old.

Symptoms: Post-stroke sequelae, dizziness.

High-risk: Acute exacerbation of chronic subdural hematoma.

[Probability of misdiagnosis: 77%]

[Key abnormalities: Vomiting following head trauma, slowed mental status, and overlooked history of antithrombotic drug use.]

[Deterioration window: 5 hours.]

Lin Ye looked at the old cloth bag: "Does she usually take medications like aspirin, clopidogrel, or warfarin?"

The daughter paused for a moment, then asked, "What are we eating?"

The old man pulled out a bunch of medicine boxes from his old cloth bag.

Nurse Zhao flipped through the list: "Aspirin and clopidogrel are both antiplatelet drugs."

Lin Ye's face darkened: "He vomited after the head injury, his consciousness and reaction were slowed, and he has been taking antiplatelet drugs for a long time. He must have a cranial CT scan."

The daughter frowned: "Another CT scan? We just had one done after my stroke."

She pulled out her phone's payment records: "The last checkup cost over 800 yuan, and in the end, all they told me to do was go home and take medicine. Doctor, it's not that I'm stingy, but her monthly pension is so small."

Ma Hao couldn't help but speak up from the side: "Last time was last time, this time you fell and hurt your head."

His daughter glared at him: "You doctors are just scary."

Lin Ye didn't argue, but simply pointed out the bruises around the old woman's right eye to her.

"She fell in the afternoon, vomited in the evening, and is reacting more slowly than usual. You may think we're being alarmist, but this examination is essential."

The old man suddenly tugged at his daughter's sleeve: "Girl, take the picture. I couldn't even remember the way when I went out today."

The daughter's expression changed drastically.

Why didn't you say so sooner?

The old man lowered his head: "I was afraid of bothering you."

Upon hearing this, the daughter's anger flared up like a punctured balloon.

She helped the old man up, her eyes reddening: "Doctor, let's get a scan."

On the way to the CT room, my daughter held onto the edge of the stretcher the whole time, repeatedly saying, "Mom, if you feel uncomfortable in the future, just tell me. Don't worry about bothering me."

The old man closed his eyes and said softly, "You're busy at work."

Lin Ye stood beside him without saying a word.

Zhou Fengying stretched her hand out from under the covers, gently touched her daughter's sleeve, and then quickly withdrew it.

The wheels of the flatbed truck rolled over the cracks in the paving stones, making one sound after another.

The CT scan results showed a chronic subdural hematoma with acute hemorrhage.

The daughter stood in front of the film, the color draining from her face little by little.

"Doctor, she cooked for herself after falling this afternoon." Her voice was hoarse. "I thought she was faking dizziness to get me to take time off work to keep her company."

Lin Ye didn't blame her, but instead showed her a picture of the medicine box: "These medicines can increase the risk of bleeding. If the elderly fall and hit their heads in the future, especially if they vomit or are slow to react, don't treat it as a common ailment."

When Dr. Luo Jianping, the head of neurosurgery, arrived at the emergency room and saw Lin Ye, he was too lazy to even complain, "It's you again."

He glanced at the scans and gave the order: "Report to neurosurgery to assess surgical indications."

Before leaving, he patted Lin Ye on the shoulder: "This time it's not strange, the medical history questions were very accurate."

Lin Ye watched as the old man was pushed away.

Ma Hao whispered from the side, "So it turns out that you don't always have to wait until someone is about to die before you're considered to be saving their life."

Lin Ye put the medicine box back into the old cloth bag.

More often than not, it's about not letting old problems overshadow new ones.