Path of Medicine With a System - Chapter 284: Dam about to collapse
As advancements in technology were made, people gained an even better understanding of diseases through research, especially diseases regarding the major organs. In the 21st century, with breakthroughs in genetic engineering, there was now hope for many diseases to be conquered forever.
However, Zhang Fan was a pessimist. Even though he had his System, he was still a pessimist. The more he was grinding, the more pessimistic he became!
Stem cell research had recently been developing quite rapidly. In southern China, especially among the rich people and middle-class people around Hong Kong and Taiwan, many of them started preserving large amounts of their own stem cells. Some also went abroad to other countries such as Korea to inject stem cells in order to slow down the process of aging.
Was this effective? Only they would know. The human body was incredibly, incredibly complex. Just a little bit more oxygen, or a little less oxygen, or a little bit more or little bit less of magnetic field intensity all might disturb artificially produced cells.
What exactly were the organs or cells that were produced in a laboratory? This author wouldn’t know! Inserting such things into your body would carry indescribable risk!
Even if science was one day completely able to replicate the inside of the human body as well as create artificial organs which were identical and fully functional, Zhang Fan was still a pessimist.
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One’s surgical skills could be improved. However, humanity’s enemies were also advancing even as medical technology advanced. Germs and viruses were swiftly developing at a rate which wasn’t any slower than human medical development. Earth was getting ever more crowded. People were now capable of traveling halfway across the world in a single day.
More and more mega bacteria were being discovered every day. Humans were still being endlessly foolish. Meat was now being produced as a major industrial process. To describe it directly, all of this meat would be produced using hormones and antibiotics. Millions of chickens, cows, goats, and so on would be confined in a small amount of space.
It wouldn’t be possible to guarantee all these animals’ survival without hormones and antibiotics! A large amount of antibiotics would then enter the human body as people ate meat. The germs in the human body would then swiftly learn about how to deal with antibiotics.
When vancomycin became a commonly used antibiotic even in smaller hospitals, and when colds were common treated by antibiotics, humans were now beginning to approach an Armageddon. This was no exaggeration.
If a super virus or bacteria suddenly explosively spread across the globe, the survival of the fittest would then occur for humanity.
Humans had always been helping germs and viruses go through the survival of the fittest. The reverse would also be true once a certain environment and condition was reached. Germs and viruses would also be capable of making humans go through survival of the fittest, just like how the streets of Europe had been filled with people waiting for death during the Black Plague.
Europe’s population was constantly unable to increase, because their genes had already been tainted by viruses and germs. Their genes definitely contained factors that made them only care about enjoying the present1.
Meanwhile, China’s population density had been far higher than Europe’s during the same period of the Black Plague. Why hadn’t China lost so many people to the plague? Traditional Chinese medicine! For example, artemisinin, which was discovered by the Chinese pharmaceutical chemist Tu Youyou, was highly effective against many diseases, not just malaria.
Where had Tu Youyou obtained her inspiration from? Plants. However, due to the development of major industries, more and more of the environment was constantly being destroyed. People would then try and forcibly raise plants out of their natural environment. Who knew if those plants would still retain their medicinal properties then?
Science was now capable of producing ginseng that could grow thicker than a child’s arm in just three years! However, this was more like a carrot than ginseng. Not only that, perhaps there would be problems with this carrot.
After Zhang Fan placed the Sengstaken-Blakemore tube into Wang Yan’s stomach, her blood pressure was also forcibly elevated by medication. Right now was a critical moment. If her blood platelet level couldn’t be effectively raised right now, it would be only a matter of time until her body collapsed and she died.
Before Wang Yan started having major internal bleeding, she still would have had some hope if she immediately received a splenectomy to cut out her spleen. However, surgery was no longer possible in her current condition. She could only rely on herself.
“What should we do?” Hu Jun asked Zhang Fan in a small voice as he furrowed his eyebrows. Even someone as highly knowledgeable as Hu Jun had no idea what to do here. What could even be done? The patient had no desire left at all to live. She only wanted to die. What could be done about that?
The human body was complex, truly complex. For instance, so-called emotions were impossible to measure using concrete data, yet emotions would also be incredibly influential to the human body.
For instance, if Wang Yan instead had a strong desire to live, it was likely that her body would start producing all sorts of hormones and antibodies, both known and unknown, which would then cooperate with the medicine and perhaps save her. But since she only wanted to die, her body was just like a leaking dam where the waters only grew higher and higher. The medicine would be unable to stop the dam from flooding sooner or later.
“Maintain her condition with medicine and continue observation. If, if there’s any improvement at all, then perform a splenectomy. If there’s no improvement, then… tell her family to prepare for her funeral!”
At the patient room’s entrance, Wang Yan’s parents were both plastered against the glass window on the door. They were crying soundlessly while looking at their daughter in the patient room.
“Yan! My precious daughter! I’ve done wrong by you! Please forgive me! I’m willing to die as long as you can live! Yan! My Yan!” Wang Yan’s mother didn’t even dare to cry or speak loudly. She had one hand on the glass window while she covered her mouth with her other hand.
Her back was hunched over. She was incredibly worried. However, no amount of pain from her was capable of making Wang Yan have the desire to live.
After giving the patient’s family members a notification that the patient was in critical condition, next would be to tell them the necessary medical information so that the patient’s family members could understand just why the patient was about to die. Sometimes, this really was too cruel.
However, they had the right to know about the patient’s condition. This information was just like a sharp knife that would cause anyone who didn’t understand to then understand! Whether this was actually a good thing for the patient’s family members to understand was unclear in some situations! Quite often, doctors would see many patients’ family members who would immediately collapse and go into critical condition themselves before the patient had even died. Did this make doctors indirect murderers?
Sometimes, not understanding things as clearly would illustrate how ignorance could be bliss. Not knowing what was going on would mean not needing to withstand such pressure and pain.
“Sir, Ma’am, please come over with me. I must tell you something.” Zhang Fan didn’t care about Wang Yan’s family problems. That wasn’t Zhang Fan’s business, nor could he do anything about her family problems.
Back when Wang Yan had been hospitalized, Shao Hua had told Zhang Fan that apparently Wang Yan’s husband’s family was really rich. Wang Yan also apparently had a younger brother whom her parents really spoiled. Regardless, her marriage and family affairs were about as bad as something from a television drama!
“Doctor, I’m begging you. Save my Yan! She’s still so young! Since she’s spitting up blood, draw my blood to transfuse into her. I’m her mother, so she’ll definitely be able to receive my blood!”
Wang Yan’s mother’s lips were now dry. Her face was covered in tears. She walked unsteadily towards Zhang Fan’s doctor’s office. She kept saying such things as she walked, and then she suddenly kneeled down before Zhang Fan when she was two meters from him.
Wang Yan’s mother directly kneeled and kowtowed. She now started crying loudly, venting her tears which might have contained regret. Her tears covered her nose and mouth.
Wang Yan’s father’s face was also covered in tears. Large tears were sticking to his white beard. The tears even sparkled under the light’s illumination! The sparkling tear then suddenly fell on the ground and vanished, just like how Wang Yan’s forced smile vanished after she’d been hospitalized!
“Ma’am, please get up. You should first calm your emotions. I won’t be able to work like this. I still need to hurry and treat Miss Wang, as well as observe her condition. We can’t waste any time here.” Zhang Fan was feeling quite anxious, not because the patient’s mother was kneeling to him, but rather because Wang Yan’s parents were in a dangerous emotional state.
Her parents were just like a tightly stretched string. This string might snap quite easily if they weren’t calmed down properly! Zhang Fan hurriedly supported both her parents. He was unable to tell them about their daughter’s condition at this time.
This was difficult, truly difficult. Sometimes, this made things hard for the doctor on both sides. If the patient died before the doctor could inform the patient’s family members about the patient’s condition, both the family members and the higher-ranking doctors would be capable of devouring the doctor.
“Why didn’t you tell about the patient’s condition! Why didn’t you obtain a proper signature on the patient’s critical condition notice form? Why!? Why!?”
But right now, Zhang Fan was unable to steel his heart and tell the patient’s parents about her condition, because that would give the parents too much of a blow! Zhang Fan was unable to say it!
“Ma’am, doesn’t Miss Wang also have a younger brother?” Zhang Fan asked.
“Sigh! Let’s not talk about him. Please tell us what you have to. We can handle it.” Wang Yan’s father sighed when he heard his son being mentioned. Both parents’ emotions seemed to somewhat calm down now.
The rheumatology department director arrived. The vice director and the two other attending physicians in the department also arrived.
