My Medical Skills Give Me Experience Points

Chapter 1340: Chapter 530: Trouble After Becoming Famous, Hands-On Diagnosis

He had finally made it to retirement as a high-ranking cadre and only enjoyed a few years of a good life before his body developed a major problem. Even if they amputated his right leg, whether the disease would actually be cured was still uncertain.

He would directly become a disabled man who could only get around in a wheelchair.

This old cadre had no history of smoking, no history of visiting prostitutes, no special disease history, which showed that he took extremely good care of his body. As a cadre, social engagements and drinking banquets were inevitably part of his life.

To be able to completely avoid smoking and improper behavior all along, he was definitely a clear stream in a muddy river.

But heaven doesn’t always follow people’s wishes. Despite taking such good care of himself, he was still plagued by a strange illness and tormented badly.

Now his right leg hurt not only during the day; at night the pain went deep into the bone marrow, making it impossible to sleep.

Even more frightening, the fourth toe of his right foot had begun to turn black, and the pain had become even more intense.

He had undergone two rounds of anti-infection treatment at the best People’s Hospital in his locality. Each time, the pain improved slightly, but the condition remained severe. Later he went to the Provincial People’s Hospital for treatment, where the top experts held a joint consultation and continued anti-infection treatment for him, but there was still little improvement.

The experts’ recommendation was that, because gangrene had developed in the right foot, the safest approach was to amputate to save his life.

So as to prevent harmful substances and toxins from flowing backward with the blood into the whole body, causing septicemia, organ failure, and other problems.

This expert was afraid of ending up like the sketch comedy one sees on TV.

A patient’s foot had turned black, and he went to see a doctor. The doctor believed the condition was serious and that the blackened toe needed to be amputated. After a while, the patient came again and told the doctor that his other toes were also getting a bit black.

The doctor suggested amputating the other toes as well.

After another while, the patient came yet again and told the doctor his foot was still black.

The doctor solemnly told the patient that the condition had already spread above the ankle and was very serious, and that only amputating the entire leg could save his life.

He also told the patient to be prepared for the worst.

The implication was that if this amputation still couldn’t control the spread of the disease, the patient should get his affairs in order.

At this moment, the nurse helping the patient take off his socks noticed that her hands had turned black.

She cried out, "Why is my hand black too?"

The patient and the doctor’s eyes widened suddenly, and they both stared at the black sock that had been taken off. It turned out the sock’s dye was bleeding, which made the foot look black. The patient flew into a rage and raised his crutch, ready to beat the quack to death for having unnecessarily amputated five of his toes.

Although this is just a joke, such low-level mistakes rarely happen in real life.

But misdiagnoses that lead to cutting the wrong organ, or wrong-hand or wrong-foot medical accidents, can still occur.

For example, the patient was supposed to have surgery on the left leg, and during the operation the doctor turned the patient over. Then the doctor actually operated on the patient’s perfectly fine right leg.

In the end, when the patient woke up from anesthesia and sensed something was wrong, he sued the hospital and the doctor involved.

The doctor involved complained that when the patient was turned over, no one reminded him which leg was supposed to be operated on. Such an explanation was obviously feeble and unconvincing. The doctor involved was severely punished.

This incident illustrates how important it is to mark the surgical site in advance.

If the operating surgeon or the ward nurse had done the preoperative preparation more carefully, and if the lead surgeon had taken more time to understand the situation before the operation, such a ridiculous accident would not have happened.

Zhou Can was certainly not going to be like that careless doctor and casually "snip" off the patient’s right leg.

He focused his attention and carefully studied the patient’s condition.

The patient’s body temperature was 36.5 degrees, which is standard and completely normal.

Pulse 81 beats per minute, respiration 21 breaths per minute, blood pressure 118/85 mmHg.

These vital signs were practically perfect.

It also showed that the patient had been particularly careful with his health over the years, with pretty impressive results.

At 65 years of age, he still had not developed hypertension, chronic respiratory disease, and other underlying conditions. Many middle-aged and elderly people start to develop all sorts of illnesses after they hit fifty.

This is a natural process of physical aging.

As one gets older, the body’s metabolic rate slows down, blood circulation worsens, especially the microcirculation at the distal ends of the limbs, which becomes increasingly poor.

The rate at which various toxins are eliminated from the body slows down, and with the continual aging of body cells, various diseases naturally emerge.

This old cadre not only had excellent four basic vital signs, but was also clear-headed, with no jaundice of the skin or mucosa, and no palpable superficial lymph nodes throughout the body. All the preliminary examination data indicated that the patient’s overall health was good.

"I want to go to the ward to see this old cadre, examine him myself again, and then take a look at his overall vigor and the lesion on the limb."

Zhou Can said to Director Xue Yan.

"No problem, I’ll go with you now. I really hope we can find the cause of this old cadre’s illness as soon as possible. Dean Zhu is putting a lot of pressure on me about this."

Director Xue Yan was clearly under considerable pressure from her superiors.

No matter which department it is, when such a distinguished patient arrives, the department director is usually the first to bear the pressure.

Because the dean typically assigns the task to the department director.

Then the department director gathers the department’s experts to pool their efforts in treating the patient.

"Clearly the problem is in the right foot, so why did they come to us in Cardiothoracic Surgery for treatment?"

Zhou Can asked in some puzzlement.

Logically speaking, this old cadre ought to be seen by Internal Medicine.

For example, the Endocrinology Department, or Hematology.

"The impact of that surgery livestream you did was way too far-reaching! Now, whenever a somewhat influential patient comes to our hospital, whether or not their disease has anything to do with Cardiothoracic Surgery, they insist on having our department treat them. Generally, I handle it according to the actual situation: if it’s clearly a respiratory disease, I’ll definitely send them to Respiratory Medicine! But as you know, the hospital rules are what they are. Some patients simply can’t be turned away; we can only accept them."