Chapter 240
When a puzzled Chenyang arrived at Bed 4, several doctors were already standing there.
Besides Liu Yun and her star pupil, Bai Jie, there were also the directors of internal medicine and surgery, as well as a vice president of the hospital.
After the patient had a sudden onset of ventricular fibrillation and his condition worsened, several hospital leaders had examined him one after another.
They had run just about every test that could be done on the spot: blood samples, stool analysis, color Doppler ultrasounds, and more.
But when the reports came back, they hadn’t found the source of the bleeding, let alone the cause of the illness.
At their wit’s end, Liu Yun recommended Chenyang.
The vice president knew Chenyang had treated Liu Mei’Er, so he had no objections.
But the other two directors were highly skeptical of Chenyang, the young newcomer specializing in Traditional Chinese Medicine.
If they’d had any other choice, they never would have agreed to let Chenyang even try.
Even with Chenyang standing right there, they clearly held out no hope for a solution.
Liu Yun briefly explained the patient’s condition, then added in a low voice, "This patient is an office head from a certain municipal department.
The higher-ups are very concerned for his well-being. Before his condition worsened, the hospital gave its word that he’d be absolutely fine, but his condition took a turn for the worse right after they got off the phone.
The other directors and I have run out of ideas, so hurry up and take a look."
"Alright, I’ll take a look."
"Wait."
Before Chenyang could step forward, Liu Yun added in a low voice, "If you can treat him, give it your all. If you can’t, tell me right away. Don’t intervene rashly."
Chenyang raised an eyebrow. "What’s that supposed to mean?"
"The hospital leadership and the higher-ups personally guaranteed his recovery. If he doesn’t pull through, they will definitely be held accountable, and someone will have to take the fall..."
"Sister Liu, are you saying that if I’m not confident but get involved anyway, and then he doesn’t get better, I’ll likely be thrown out as the scapegoat?"
"Exactly."
"Tsk. To think that just being a doctor and treating a patient would involve so much politics."
"A doctor who’s recognized as ’good’ isn’t always the most skilled, and one who isn’t skilled isn’t necessarily ’bad’ in the public eye. Once you truly understand that, your life here at City Hospital will be much easier."
Liu Yun waved her hand. "Alright, we can talk more about this later. See to the patient first."
Chenyang nodded thoughtfully, then stepped forward and began to take the patient’s pulse.
After a little over a minute, a peculiar expression crossed Chenyang’s face.
He didn’t say anything, however, instead placing his fingers on the patient’s other wrist.
Another two minutes passed before Chenyang withdrew his hand and sighed.
Seeing this, the director of internal medicine immediately piped up, "See? I told you he couldn’t do it. A rookie TCM doctor who probably can’t even cure a common cold—how could he possibly figure out such a complex case?"
"Director Liu was just willing to try anything. If a few of us old-timers couldn’t figure it out, it stands to reason that Xiaochen couldn’t either."
The vice president smiled and patted Chenyang’s shoulder. "Xiaochen, since you don’t have any leads, why don’t you go help with the other patients for now? We’ll try to think of something else."
Chenyang shook his head. "Vice President, it’s not that I don’t have any leads. I shook my head and sighed because I find the presentation of these symptoms peculiar and illogical."
The vice president was taken aback. "What do you mean?"
"Typically, the common causes for these symptoms would be things like gastric erosion, a perforated stomach, intestinal nodules, or gastrointestinal tumors and cancerous lesions.
But this patient’s condition is caused by his heart. Generally speaking, for the heart to cause these symptoms, the patient would have to have sustained a severe impact.
But if it were caused by a severe impact or a violent jolt, then he should have at least one or two broken ribs. When I examined him, however, I found no external injuries. That’s what I can’t wrap my head around."
The vice president frowned, mulling this over. "Let’s set aside whether the symptoms are logical or not. I just want to be clear—do you, or do you not, know what caused this?"
"I just told you. It’s caused by damage to his heart."
"His heart?" The vice president frowned, picking up the ECG printout and the ultrasound report again.
But as he was examining them, the director of surgery suddenly scoffed, "Vice President, you’re not actually buying his story, are you?"
The director of internal medicine nodded in agreement. "Don’t bother looking, sir. We’ve gone over those reports countless times. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the patient’s heart.
And this young man’s theory is completely baseless. Heart damage might cause symptoms like vomiting blood or bloody stool, but only if the damage is extremely severe.
But as our numerous tests have made clear, the patient’s heart doesn’t have any minor issues, let alone severe ones. This proves the symptoms aren’t caused by what he’s suggesting at all."
Chenyang shook his head. "Damage to the exterior of the heart, as well as to the blood vessels, can be detected by your instruments. But damage *inside* the heart? That would be much more difficult, wouldn’t it?"
"It would be, but if there’s no external damage, how could the interior possibly be damaged? Besides, even if there were some injury the instruments couldn’t detect, the ECG would surely reveal some anomaly."
"And his ECG shows no problems?"
"None whatsoever!"
Seeing how certain the two directors were, Chenyang took the ECG report and glanced at it. He then pointed to a waveform in the middle. "Directors, the P-wave is fibrillating, and there are repeated ST-segment depressions. These are obvious signs of myocardial ischemia. And you’re telling me there are no problems?"