One finger, one life, worth it!

I was in the operating room doing a hand injury when I suddenly received a call from the director. He said that several injured people had suddenly arrived in the emergency department and asked me to run to the emergency department immediately for support.

I looked back at my patient, and he seemed to have heard that I was leaving, and was looking at me in horror.

I comforted her: Someone will be here soon, don't worry.

In fact, when I said this, I was doubtful in my heart: Isn't there someone on duty? Why do they need to call me?

Without giving it any time to think, I ran out immediately. I knew that the director would not leave the room empty. Most likely, he would come over to take over from me.

Sure enough, when I ran to the end of the corridor, I ran into the director who came to replace me.

When we passed by, he said: "Doctor Wang on duty has a stomachache, I asked him to drink some water to relieve it. You go quickly, the emergency department said there are several difficult intubations, and they are afraid they can't handle it."

I agreed while running. I sighed in my heart: How many people in the anesthesiology department have good stomachs? It only takes a few minutes to eat lunch! There is only one person who eats for everyone, and each person takes a few minutes. After a round, it takes more than an hour. Those of us who are in surgery can eat only after we finish eating. Therefore, no one wants to waste time. When eating, almost everyone opens their mouths and pours the food in.

Soon, I arrived at the emergency department.

At this time, the emergency department was already very busy.

While she was observing what I was doing, the head nurse of the emergency department grabbed me and said: This patient needs intubation, come here quickly.

Following the head nurse, I came to an emergency bed against the wall.

At this time, the injured person is still breathing. However, due to brain trauma, he is no longer conscious. With possible cerebrospinal fluid leakage or airway damage, blood and sputum flow out of his mouth and nose. Indistinctly, there seems to be undigested stomach contents. Obviously, this injured person must be treated as soon as possible. Otherwise, if he aspirates, there will be no chance.

After quickly putting on gloves, he was about to open the patient's oral intubation tube, but he found that the tightly closed jaw could not be opened at all.

Seeing blood oozing out from between my teeth, I shouted: Give me a mouth opener.

However, the reply I got was: I didn’t know where the mouth opener was.

I tried to pry open his mouth with a laryngoscope before I could get angry. But the force of his teeth was too great. Yes, the bite force of an unconscious person is amazing.

In this situation, even if you force the laryngoscope in, you may still damage your teeth due to unconsciously clenching your jaw.

Soon, I made a decision: put my fingers in!

In fact, if I had a little more time, I would have thought of using a syringe or other hard objects to replace my fingers. However, at that critical moment, there was no time to think.

When the victim's bite force was slightly relaxed, I quickly inserted two of my fingers. Later I thought, it was fortunate that there were two fingers. If it was only one, the consequences would be disastrous. After the treatment, I found that one of the tendons of the finger was severely damaged. I felt pain at the time, but I didn't expect it to be so serious.

After the finger was inserted, there was space in the mouth. I took this opportunity to quickly clean the mouth with a suction device. The mouth was clean and I breathed a sigh of relief: there was no risk of suffocation, and the rescue work was guaranteed.

After that, I gave decisive orders: give some sedatives and perform tracheal intubation.

After the sedative took effect, I quickly intubated the injured person.

In retrospect, the risk of administering the drug without clearing the mouth is too great. There is a high probability that the person will suffocate before the airway is cleared.

After the initial rescue was successful, the man later underwent a craniotomy and his life was finally saved!