The patient went directly to the operating room and no ultrasound was done! Why should we charge for ultrasound?

Late at night, the phone in the anesthesiology department rang urgently. It was the emergency doctor who answered the phone.

After asking about the situation, a colleague from the emergency department said: There is a fracture that requires emergency surgery.

Dr. Li, who was on duty in the Anesthesiology Department, quickly rushed into the dark operating room corridor.

Everything was ready and the patient was just pushed in.

When I took a look at the injury, it was indeed very serious. The entire thigh bone was exposed.

When asked about the cause of his injury, the patient hesitated.

I asked the orthopedic doctor again, and he said: He fell from the second floor.

Is the patient's intelligence normal? Doctor Li asked.

The orthopedic doctor said: Looking at the medical history collected by the emergency department, there is nothing wrong with the patient's main complaint.

"That's not right," Dr. Li reminded everyone vigilantly.

Then, he tried to communicate with the patient again, while at the same time holding on to the wires connected to the various monitors.

Just when it was highly suspected that the patient might have internal bleeding, the monitor started to sound the alarm - low blood pressure and fast heart rate.

Although pain can also cause the patient to show vital signs similar to shock, the patient in front of us is definitely not just suffering from a broken thigh.

Normally, this kind of injury wouldn't hurt this much. Besides, the patient didn't show any expression of being in great pain.

There must be other reasons, Dr. Li analyzed in his mind.

Suddenly, he saw that the patient's abdomen was bulging out of proportion to the man's weight.

Judging from the subcutaneous fat, this person would not have a potbellied figure.

So, while he was giving the patient an infusion to prepare for shock, he called the ultrasound department and asked them to come to the operating room.

As soon as the ultrasound results came out, everyone was immediately shocked: the patient's spleen had ruptured. However, the spleen's capsule had not yet ruptured, which could also explain why the patient seemed to have hemorrhagic shock but it did not seem to develop so quickly and there was no clear site of blood loss.

The family was urgently consulted and they agreed to perform a laparotomy and splenectomy.

The condition was clear, so the surgery was quick. The two surgeries were completed in less than three hours.

Because the blood loss was discovered and controlled in time and the patient was young and strong, he was returned to the general ward for monitoring and treatment after the operation.

However, when settling the hospitalization bill a few days later, the family insisted that the patient went directly to the operating room and did not go to the ultrasound room. The ultrasound was inexplicable and they refused to pay.

After everyone explained, the family members were still skeptical and went through the hospitalization settlement with an unhappy look on their faces.

When we see the settlement of the patients, we are also very moved: Yes, for one injury, tens of thousands of dollars are gone. The family members feel sorry for the money, but we as doctors can do nothing about it. If we have the right not to charge, who wouldn't want to save all living beings?

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