I run a clinic in the United States

Chapter 273 The developed funeral industry in the United States
The sun was shining brightly, and the chemical plant was in ruins. Only in some places, there were occasionally residual black smoke floating up.

The search and rescue work has been completed, and the casualty data has not yet been fully calculated, but just looking at the scale of this ruins, it can be regarded as one of the largest accidents in Texas in recent years.

To this end, safety training and drills are being conducted across Texas, especially at various chemical plants.

Sequoia Hospital.

After Zhou Qiao and Luo Ya arrived, Luo Ya couldn't help much with her medical skills, so she went to the chairman's office to rest, while Zhou Qiao was invited to participate in the consultation.

This patient now is also a victim of a chemical plant.

The injury was not particularly serious before. He stayed in the hospital for a few days. After treatment, he was able to get out of bed and walk slowly. Who knew that his condition suddenly took a turn for the worse.

This is a middle-aged woman who is fat and has many freckles on her face. She has a long-term history of chronic asthma. She had an asthma attack on the day of the explosion because she inhaled too much smoke and was irritated. Fortunately, the emergency personnel used medicine in time to help her. Relieved the condition.

However, after lunch today, she got out of bed and walked slowly while holding on to the wall because the doctor asked her to get out of bed and move around more. Lying there for a long time could cause venous thrombosis or something. As a result, she suddenly felt severe chest tightness and shortness of breath, and she couldn't even stand still. A nurse passing by saw her and hurriedly came over to help her.

The nurse saw something was wrong and quickly called the doctor loudly.

Soon, the doctor arrived.

When the patient was lifted to the bed, his heartbeat had begun to slow down, only 2 or 30 beats/minute.The doctor immediately gave her emergency cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and the nurse called others at the same time.

Mobile AED (automated external defibrillator) arrives, shocks, emergency defibrillation…

But it was useless, the other party's heartbeat still stopped!

The medical staff did not give up and continued resuscitation.

At the same time, some other medical staff came to help, pushing the bed towards the emergency room.

During this process, the doctor responsible for the rescue squatted on the hospital bed and rushed all the way to the rescue. When the heart started beating again, he had already been in the rescue room for more than 20 minutes.

In other words, the rescue time is almost half an hour.

Not easy.

Due to the patient's cardiac arrest, the brain was in a state of low oxygen and low blood supply for a long time, resulting in severe swelling of the brain and the risk of brain death. Therefore, during the rescue, the emergency team assessed the patient's organ function. "Mild hypothermia therapy" was used to relieve brain swelling, reduce intracranial pressure, and protect brain tissue.

Simply put, this therapy is similar to the principle of freezing food in the refrigerator in our daily life. Low temperature can reduce the metabolic rate of the brain and reduce the oxygen consumption of brain tissue, thus slowing down the progression of cerebral edema.

The specific operation is very simple, that is, place a cooling blanket on the patient's back and chest to keep her body temperature at around 35°C.

Unfortunately, cooling did not completely control the increase in intracranial pressure.The patient still had pupil dilation!

What does pupil dilation mean?Everyone knows, that is: death!

The difference between pupil dilation and death is only about two hours.

More than two hours will basically lead to brain death.

"How long have your pupils been dilated?" Zhou Qiao asked immediately after hearing this.

"It's been nearly an hour," one doctor replied.

"Operate immediately." Zhou Qiao stood up suddenly.

"Dr. Zhou, what kind of surgery are you doing?" the doctor asked.

Zhou Qiao walked quickly to the operating room and said, "Decompressive craniectomy!"

Doctors: "..."

After being stunned for a moment, he immediately followed.

Preparations for the operation began in full swing.

In the emergency room, the doctor who was still paying close attention to the patient's condition couldn't help but look surprised when he received the call. At this level, he was still performing surgery?

"Okay, okay, director, I'll go communicate with the patient's family right away." The doctor hung up the phone and walked out of the emergency room.

For this kind of surgery, if there are family members present, of course they need to sign.

……

At this moment, in the hall outside the emergency room, three family members of the patient, the old father, old mother and husband, stood silently in the corner, all with uncontrollable grief on their faces.

The old father hugged the old mother, kept whispering comfort, and patted her shoulders and back.The old mother's eyes were swollen from crying, and her body was shaking slightly.

The patient's husband looked up to the sky, speechless and choked.

All three had given up hope.

My pupils have been dilated for so long, what else can I do?They had to accept this fact, even though they were unwilling to do so.

The patient's old father thought that his daughter was unlucky and the incident happened so suddenly that he had not purchased a cemetery before.Now, he can only give up his own cemetery to his daughter first. Although his own cemetery is not particularly high-end, it has a good location and beautiful scenery.

It's better than rushing to buy something.

As a father, he cannot allow his daughter to "live" poorly after her death.

Young people don't have the habit of buying a cemetery in advance, but he, who is over 70, picked a cemetery in a good location for himself three years ago.

"Lord, why are you punishing me like this? My baby daughter walked in front of me. God, it's so cruel!" The old father also wiped away tears.

The patient's husband's phone rang. He picked it up and said like a puppet: "Yes, I ordered it. But... you can contact me again later. I'm in quite a mess right now, thank you."

It was a call from the salesperson of the funeral company.Just 10 minutes ago, he browsed the services provided by the funeral platform online. He just took a casual look and saw a few packages that were quite good, so he added them to his shopping cart.

Although he could not accept the death of his beloved wife, the fact was before him and he had to consider the arrangements for his funeral.He wants his beloved wife to go away in glory.

The funeral industry in the United States is actually very developed, with more than 85% being private enterprises.

There are suppliers who sell funeral supplies, there are planning companies responsible for arranging funerals, and there are service providers who do everything. In short, it is almost entirely a market-oriented operation.

Marketization means becoming bigger and stronger, going public, and becoming a multinational group.

Yes, the funeral industry in the United States is also a super bull stock in the stock market.

For example, one of them is very good. From its listing in 1971 to 1998, it created an increase of nearly 70 times.Moreover, it not only has operations in dozens of states in the United States and Canada, but has even expanded to countries such as Europe and Australia.

After 20 years of rapid development, the company encountered a bottleneck. The advance collection model gradually became normalized and no longer created so much cash flow surplus. After the stock market crashed in 2000, the company's stock price fell by nearly 80%.

But after several years of downturn, the company once again began to grow rapidly, and its stock price continued to rise. In the following ten years, the stock price increased by as much as 20 times.

This is not all. It is worth mentioning that in recent years, this company has ushered in historic development opportunities.

As we all know, in 2020 and 2021, due to some reason, the number of deaths in the United States surged. This company's revenue in 2020 alone was as high as 35 billion US dollars!
Some are happy and some are sad.

Since it is an industry, of course there are more than one listed companies.There are also several outstanding listed companies.

As for the small companies that are not listed, there are countless them.

With the development of the times, American funeral companies have already developed into a model that combines online and offline stores, and have conducted their business on the Internet.

If necessary, customers can place orders on their mobile phones at any time. The online store has a set-up operation and purchase process. Customers can easily browse, select and purchase their favorite funeral plans and products online.

These purchased products and services are customized one by one by the funeral service providers who have settled on the platform based on existing products, and the platform will provide guarantees.

In addition to traditional funerals, there are many novel ways to choose from on these funeral platforms, such as turning into soil and planting flowers and trees.

It is not simply buried under a tree, but is carried out in a greenhouse garden, with a complete set of modern equipment and testing data.It goes something like this: After the funeral, the deceased will be picked up and placed in a high-tech decomposition chamber in the greenhouse garden, which is filled with alfalfa, sawdust and straw.

The temperature and moisture in the decomposition chamber are strictly monitored and controlled, and each decomposition chamber has an independent air outlet filtered by activated carbon.

Because it is filtered and deodorized, there is no unpleasant smell inside or outside the cabin. Instead, it emits the fragrance of earth.

According to reports, this process is caused by the fermentation and decomposition of body tissues by microorganisms inherent in the human body. It is similar to a series of changes that occur after traditional burials, except that the process is "accelerated" by creating a special environment.

The decomposition process of a body that would have taken months or even years to complete in nature now only takes a month.

Two weeks after entering the decomposition chamber, a third-party organization will conduct testing to ensure that there are no pathogens and heavy metal residues, and to sort out non-degradable substances such as silicone prostheses that may be present in the original remains.

Subsequently, after being transferred from the decomposition chamber to the solidification box and left to rest for two weeks, the deceased was completely transformed into about 0.8 cubic meters of qualified fertile soil.

Family members of the deceased can come and collect the soil.

After taking it back, you can use the soil transformed by your loved one to plant flowers and trees in your own yard as a commemoration, or you can donate it to environmental organizations for greening in nature reserves.

Since it is made from a corpse, it is quite fertile and the vegetation grown there will be very lush.If there are flowers planted, they will bloom quite brightly.

Of course, this "high-end" service is not cheap. Just the decomposition into "soil" is quoted at around US$7000.

Moreover, an appointment must be made in advance, and professional institutions will come to evaluate and ensure that the deceased did not carry Ebola virus during his lifetime, and that he had not received radioactive treatment one month before his death.

The patient's husband took a fancy to this service when he was browsing the Internet, and planned to "spend a lot of money" to order it and use the soil transformed by his wife to plant a pot of tulips.

This was her wife's favorite flower during her lifetime.

When the three of them were grieving and unable to extricate themselves, the doctor came out of the emergency room and asked loudly: "Who is Ashara Niyaz's relative?"

"I am, I am." The patient's husband quickly stepped forward and replied.

The doctor said: "It's like this. There is still hope of rescuing Ashara. Now our top doctor Zhou is here and will perform another emergency surgery on her. If you agree, come and sign. Time is very short. It’s urgent, I only have 5 minutes at most for you to think about it.”

The three family members of the patient were stunned.

"What? Is there any hope of rescue? Oh my god, I have to, of course I have to!"

"Quick, quick, hurry, I'll sign it! What else is there to consider!"

The three of them were ecstatic, and the patient's mother stopped crying. She wiped away her tears and stamped her feet excitedly. She hugged her husband and said repeatedly: "Dear, did you hear this? There is still hope of saving our daughter!"

Of course they want the patient to live if they can.However, my pupils had been dilated for more than an hour before.

"Doctor, what are the chances of surviving?" The patient's husband glanced at the surgery consent form, ignored the details, and immediately signed his name.

The doctor said: "This...I don't know. However, since it was Dr. Zhou who took action, I must...presumably..."

He felt that he still couldn't talk nonsense, what if he couldn't be rescued?So, there was silence afterwards.

The happy expressions of the three family members of the patient turned gloomy again.

Yes, it's just a hope of rescue, and doctors probably don't have much confidence.Are you afraid to speak without seeing a doctor?

Hope is slim.

However, when I changed my mind, I just needed to rescue him. It was better than waiting to die!
At this time, the patient had been pushed out by the medical staff and headed to the operating room.

The three family members of the patient immediately followed.

"Baby, you must hold on!" The patient's old mother shed tears and forced herself to cheer up.

"My dear, you must get through this." The patient's husband made the sign of the cross on his chest.

Since it was an emergency operation, saving people was like putting out a fire, so after only 10 minutes, everything was ready and the operation began.

This kind of surgery is naturally extremely risky.

Isn't this nonsense?The patient's pupils have been dilated for more than an hour. Can they be dilated?He would die on the operating table in minutes!

Generally speaking, in this case, few doctors are willing to work hard, and most of them give up.If this is the case, what kind of surgery should I do?
But Zhou Qiao wants to challenge him because he has fast hands!

So, the moment to witness the miracle began.

The so-called "decompressive craniectomy" refers to a decompressive surgery that removes the bone flap and incises the dura mater through cranioplasty and craniotomy.

Surgery on the brain naturally belongs to neurosurgery.

And Zhou Qiao has performed countless neurosurgery operations. Although this kind of "bilateral decompressive craniectomy" has never been done before, there is a system in place, and the perfect surgical skills that can be exchanged can be regarded as the world's medical industry. ceiling.

One thing to note about this kind of surgery is that the effectiveness of decompressive craniectomy is closely related to the size of the decompression window.

To effectively reduce intracranial pressure and minimize venous canton and bone window edge, as well as tangential damage in the brain, the area of ​​the decompression bone window must be large, generally more than 10X9 cm.

In addition, the dura mater should not be sutured or reduced during removal of the bone flap.

Zhou Qiao's shot is naturally a masterpiece.

In just 10 minutes, the operation was completed!
The effect was immediate. The patient's intracranial hypertension improved immediately after the operation, and then the pupils gradually returned to normal.

Alive, alive!
Texas is not big, Zhou Qiao once again created a myth.

The medical staff were so impressed that they all gave thumbs up.

Outside the operating room, the patient's husband, mother and father were as anxious as ants on a hot pot.

When the door of the operating room opened, the three of them were shocked. Suddenly they were afraid to face the reality, for fear of hearing the words they didn't dare to hear.

Zhou Qiao congratulated them in fluent English: "The operation was successful. The patient is in pretty good condition."

"Ah? Did he come back to life?" the patient's husband shouted uncertainly.

The patient's father and mother also looked over with burning eyes, hoping for confirmation.

Zhou Qiao could only continue to speak loudly: "The operation went well. However, your daughter or wife will still have to stay in the intensive care unit. They will not be transferred to the rehabilitation department until they are off the ventilator, resume breathing on their own, and open their eyes. Carry out brain and muscle rehabilitation.”

"Oh my God, incredible, miraculous!"

"Thank you, dear surgeon! You saved our daughter's life!"

"I'm so grateful, you're great!"

The three of them were dancing and talking incoherently, almost jumping for joy.

"I really can't believe it!"

At this moment, the patient's husband's cell phone rang, and when he answered it, it was the salesperson from the funeral company who just called.

"I'm sorry, I don't need it anymore. Haha! Goodbye! No, never again!" The patient's husband laughed and hung up the phone very quickly.

Now that his wife had a successful operation and was alive again, naturally she no longer needed these damn funeral services.

He immediately called his son and daughter at school to share the good news.

Because this incident happened so suddenly, he didn't even have time to notify his children.His son and daughter had come to visit their mother before, but her mother was in very good condition at that time.

After completing this operation, Zhou Qiao guided the doctor in the interventional department to perform several interventional operations. He was busy until the moon rose, and then he and Luo Ya returned to the winery to rest.

(End of this chapter)