From Humiliated Son-In-Law to The World’s Greatest Doctor

7 - No Longer a Loser

Margo was already sitting on the sidewalk, looking extremely shocked as she held her left arm.

Derek immediately tore open the sleeve of Margo’s blouse when he reached her. Judging by the amount of blood flowing from it, the wound was definitely very deep.

He quickly checked and examined the cut.

It was about ten centimeters long and extended diagonally upward. It had not reached the muscle, but it was deep enough to expose the layer of fat.

Derek completely tore off the sleeve of Margo’s blouse and used it to press against and tightly wrap the wound to temporarily close it.

“Can you try to raise your arm?”

Margo managed to lift her arm despite being in severe pain.

“Now move your fingers and try to grip my fingers as hard as you can.”

Derek slipped three of his fingers into Margo’s palm, and she managed to do as instructed, although her grip was weak.

“You need stitches, Margo. Probably quite a few. Other than that, there’s nothing serious about your condition.”

Margo still couldn’t say anything, her face and lips pale as a sheet.

“Derek! Derek, she’s in cardiac arrest! Still no pulse!” Aubree shouted.

When Derek turned toward Aubree, she was performing CPR on the middle-aged woman.

Derek glanced toward Evander, the man he remembered as Margo’s affair partner back when they were still together. “Give her something sweet to drink to help with the shock.”

Then he ran back to the middle-aged woman to help Aubree, moving as quickly as he could while shouting firm instructions.

“Has anyone called an ambulance? Call an ambulance right now! Hurry!”

Several people responded to Derek’s request.

“I’ll call!”

“Wait! I’ll call!”

“I already called! The call is going through!” One of them quickly took action. “Hello?!”

Derek positioned himself in front of Aubree, on the right side of the woman lying on the ground.

“How long has it been, Aubree?”

“Three cycles.”

“Okay. Switch.”

Aubree finished her cycle and was immediately replaced by Derek. She sat down, slightly out of breath, while watching Derek try to save the middle-aged woman.

Derek continued chest compressions for six more cycles until the patient finally showed signs of life. The woman’s chest began moving up and down, and the pulse in her carotid artery was palpable again when Derek checked.

“ROSC.”

Derek stopped the compressions, then took a long, deep breath to catch his own breath.

The sound of an ambulance siren could be heard faintly and grew louder shortly afterward.

“Looks like they’re close. You did well, Aubree. Keep monitoring her breathing and pulse until the ambulance gets here. I need you to go with both of them.”

Derek gave her instructions, then pointed toward Margo to let her know that there was another victim who also needed medical attention.

“I’ll catch up with you later. Can you handle it?”

“Of course. But where are you going?” Aubree frowned deeply at Derek.

“To find that rotten bastard.”

÷÷÷

“Excuse me, why hasn’t anyone treated the patient I brought in yet?” Aubree asked a nurse who was walking by with several medical supplies in her hands.

The nurse frowned for a moment, then her eyes widened in surprise after recognizing Aubree.

“Doctor Richmond…? I’m sorry, Doctor. How is the patient doing?”

“She was bleeding quite heavily earlier. She needs an IV and both deep and superficial stitches on her arm. She’s stable and showing no signs of shock. But she’s been waiting for quite a while.”

“God, I’m sorry, Doctor. We’ve got several critical patients in resus right now. Everyone’s tied up with them, so I think that’s why there’s no one available to stitch her up yet.”

“Then get the attending’s approval and let me treat her here.”

“Yes, Doctor. I’ll take care of it.”

Aubree asked the nurse to show her where they kept their medical equipment and supplies. After that, she took everything she needed to start the IV and stitch the wound, then went to the patient bed where Margo was.

“How are you feeling, ma’am? Do you feel dizzy or weak?”

“No,” Margo answered in a hoarse voice. “It’s just my arm. It hurts really badly.”

“Your overall condition is good, but since you lost quite a bit of blood earlier, I need to put you on an IV. After that, I’ll give you a local anesthetic injection in your wound and then stitch it up, okay?”

Margo nodded in agreement. Then Aubree began doing everything step by step, carefully and skillfully.

After finishing all the deep and superficial stitches, Aubree applied povidone-iodine to the wound and stitched area.

“Since the wound is in a visible area when you wear short sleeves, you may need treatment from a dermatologist later to remove the scar as completely as possible. But for now, the most important thing is to focus on healing the wound and keeping it from getting infected.”

“Thank you, Doctor.”

“I’ll give you a waterproof bandage so you won’t have to worry about getting the wound wet if it accidentally comes into contact with any liquid.”

Just as she began wrapping it with gauze, Derek approached them.

Aubree immediately looked up when she noticed Derek’s presence and smiled at him.

“Is everything okay, Aubree?”

“Yeah.” Aubree secured the gauze with fixation tape, and everything was finally completely finished. “Have you checked on the woman from earlier?”

“Mh-hm. I stopped by to check on her before coming here. They’re preparing to move her to the ICU.”

Aubree put all the instruments and disposable supplies into the kidney dish, then stood up and looked at Derek.

“I’ll clean this up and wait in your room.”

Derek nodded with a smile. “I’ll join you soon.”

Then Aubree walked away from them without looking back.

Meanwhile, Margo looked at Derek curiously—as he watched Aubree leave until that woman was completely out of sight, before finally turning back to her.

“How are you feeling, Margo? Does it hurt a lot?” Derek pointed at her arm.

Margo shook her head. “It’s bearable. It doesn’t hurt as much as it did earlier.”

“The pain will come back once the anesthetic wears off. Make sure you take painkillers and antibiotics to prevent an infection. Keep it away from water, and come back here in three days to have your stitches checked.”

“All right, thanks.” Margo bit her lip and frowned hesitantly. “Um, I heard them say you chased after the criminal earlier… Are you okay? He didn’t hit you, did he?”

“Why would he hit me?” Derek chuckled lightly. “I caught him and handed him over to the police.”

“Really?” Margo looked somewhat doubtful at Derek’s statement.

As far as she remembered, Derek had always been terrible when it came to anything physical, and he couldn’t fight to save his life. Long ago, he had even ended up in the hospital after crossing paths with a group of drunk thugs and getting beaten up by them.

“You can see for yourself, Margo. I’m perfectly fine. Well, I did get into a short fight with him, but everything was under control.”

“So now you know how to defend yourself? Have you started learning martial arts?”

“I’ve always known how to defend myself, Margo.” Derek chuckled, understanding her confusion. “I just never showed you because you used to say you didn’t like men who could fight. You see them as thugs.”

Derek’s smile stretched very wide, showing just how pleased he was with what he had done and what he had just confessed.