Physician's Odyssey

Chapter 869 - Acute Poisoning

Then again, Su Tao wasn’t so petty to hold that against a nurse. He desperately needed to see Lu Yunchuan right now.

This could be considered a large-scaled hospital in Beijing. So the emergency room was very standardized. Before entering the operating room, he needed to be disinfected with sterile clothes worn.

The operating room was in a complete mess. Lu Yunchuan’s condition was more serious than they’d thought. Due to the large dose of toxins in the body, ordinary methods weren't effective at all.

Generally speaking, the main causes of poisoning were industrial poisoning, drugs, and poisonous animals or plants.

Poison was also separated into two different categories, acute and chronic poisoning. They were mainly determined by the dosage and time of exposure. Consuming a large amount of poison in a short time would cause acute poisoning, and those were serious. It could be life-threatening if they weren’t treated in time.

Lu Yunchuan’s condition belonged to drug poisoning. He had taken a large dosage of atropine. If someone overdoses on atropine, there would be symptoms like imbalanced movements, mentally confused, twitching, hallucinations, delirium, irritable, slurred speech, shortness of breath, and abnormal rapid heartbeat.

“Continue to inject neostigmine!” The attending doctor, Ji Hai, ordered solemnly.

After the assistant doctor injected the medication into Lu Yunchuan, he shook his head with a bitter smile a brief moment later, “Doctor Ji, he has taken too much medication. We’ve already pumped his stomach, but the medicine has already been absorbed into his bloodstream. The neostigmine isn’t taking any effects.”

Seeing that Lu Yunchuan’s pupils were still dilated, Ji Hai knew that the medication wasn’t taking any effect. With a solemn expression, he instructed, “Then inject physostigmine!”

The physostigmine was an alkaloid extracted from the seed of a leguminous plant that was normally found in South Africa. It was usually used by ophthalmology. It wasn’t commonly used since neostigmine had the same effects. However, it could also be used as a resistance for neostigmine.

The assistant doctor immediately warned, “We’ve injected more than 1mg of neostigmine. If we continue to inject physostigmine, it might cause huge side effects such as nausea, vomiting, and urinary incontinence!”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll take full responsibility if anything happens.” Ji Hai waved his hand.

Ji Hai was a specialist in this area. If they didn’t inject physostigmine immediately, Lu Yunchuan might not be able to survive tonight.

“Hold on!” A voice called out just when the assistant doctor was about to inject physostigmine into Lu Yunchuan. It was Su Tao, who had changed into sterile clothes.

It took some time since he needed to sterile his medical box as well.

“Who are you?” Ji Hai frowned. He was unhappy by the fact that a stranger appeared in the operating room. If anything went wrong with the operation, he would be held responsible as the attending doctor.

“I’m Su Tao! You can now hand the patient over to me.” Su Tao replied, pulling down the face mask.

“I don’t know you! How did you come in here?!” Ji Hai questioned the nurse beside Su Tao coldly when he saw that it was someone younger than he had imagined.

The nurse knew that Ji Hai had a bad temper. She replied nervously, “I received the president’s instruction to bring him in. The president said that he’s a specialist from the Central Healthcare Committee.”

Ji Hai naturally knew about the Central Healthcare Committee. But looking at Su Tao, he mocked, “I think the president must have made a mistake. How can there be such a young specialist? Furthermore, I’m trying to save the patient right now, and I don’t have the time to waste with you. Get him out immediately! This is my surgery. Even if the president comes here personally, I am also responsible for completing the operation.”

Su Tao had a good impression of Ji Hai. Ji Hai might be hostile to him, but Su Tao could tell that he was serious about treating his patient. Furthermore, if he were facing a situation where a stranger abruptly barged into the operating room and notified that he was taking over, Su Tao would also show such reactions.

Taking out the National Healer Certificate from his medical box, Su Tao replied, “This nurse did not lie to you. This is my certification as the National Healer. I apologize for barging into your operating room, but I am under someone’s request to save the patient. It’s not that I have no trust in your ability, but I believe that the effects will be better if we do it together.”

As he spoke, he glanced at Lu Yunchuan and continued, “If I’ve guessed it correctly, you must have injected him with neostigmine, and there are no effects, right? If you guys try to inject physostigmine into him now, it will cause serious side effects.”

Ji Hai was stunned. Although he had never seen the certificate of a National Healer, he knew that Su Tao wouldn’t lie to him in this matter. Not to mention that without the president’s instructions, Su Tao couldn’t enter the operating room.

Most importantly, Su Tao could guess the operating room’s situation with just a glance. Not only did he manage to see that Lu Yunchuan was suffering from atropine, but he had also guessed that the surgery team had injected neostigmine into Lu Yunchuan.

Lu Yunchuan was unconscious when he arrived in the hospital. They only managed to find out the reason for his poisoning twenty minutes ago. It was classified, and no one should know about it aside from those in this room.

So how did Su Tao manage to tell that?

Ji Hai couldn’t help feeling a little suspicious.

Although Su Tao could understand what was going through Ji Hai’s mind right now, he did not have the time for that. He needed to save Lu Yunchuan right now. Without beating around the bush, he explained directly, “I’m a physician, so I don’t need any equipment for diagnosis. I can tell that from the patient’s appearance.”

Ji Hai was an experienced western medicine doctor, and he had also seen great physicians. He knew that physicians had their own unique method of diagnosis. However, he still wasn’t reassured by handing Lu Yunchuan over to Su Tao, “So what if you can tell the patient’s condition? The key is how you’re going to treat him. Neostigmine is the best solution for atropine poisoning, but there isn’t any effect after we injected it. This is the reason why we decided to use physostigmine.”

“Under normal circumstances, 1mg of neostigmine is sufficient to detoxify the atropine poisoning. It’s not because the medication isn’t effective, but the medicine’s effects are relatively slow. So it’s not fast enough to combat atropine poisoning.” Su Tao sighed.

Listening to Su Tao’s explanation, Ji Hai finally knew where the problem was.

This was also commonly seen in detoxifying atropine poisoning. Neostigmine might be effective in detoxifying atropine, but the medicine was slow to work. Although physostigmine and procaine could be used, those two contained more toxins.

Lu Yunchuan had been injected with neostigmine. It might take some time for the medicine to kick in, but it was already in Lu Yunchuan’s system. If they continued with physostigmine or procaine, an overdose and side effect would occur.

The logic being western medicine’s detoxification was simply, combating poison with poison. You could use a chemical element to neutralize another chemical element. But if there were too many neutralizing elements in the body, it would also cause poisoning.

In other words, overdosing atropine would produce toxin in the body. But overdosing on neostigmine, physostigmine, and procaine would also produce toxin in the body.

This was also the reason why Su Tao stopped Ji Hai from injecting physostigmine into Lu Yunchuan’s body.

“We can only bet it all now. If the patient’s condition isn’t put in control in time, the patient’s life will be in danger. Furthermore, we have no idea when the neostigmine will start coming to effect.” Ji Hai replied solemnly.

“Let me give it a try then.” Su Tao smiled. “I only need fifteen minutes.”

Ji Hai looked at Su Tao with a conflicted gaze. The operating room was a glass room. So you would look into the operating room from outside. Suddenly, the broadcast sounded out, “Ji Hai, let Mr. Su take over. He’s a TCM specialist from the Central Healthcare Committee.”

Isn’t that the president’s voice?

Ji Hai was surprised. The hospitals would have hundreds of operations a day. For the president to personally observe this operating room meant that Su Tao’s background wasn’t small.

“I’ll hand the patient over to you then. But I’ll take over immediately if anything happens!” Ji Hai and his team stood by the side. They might seem to be cooperating with Su Tao, but they were actually trying to prevent anything from happening.

Su Tao did not feel nervous at all. He first observed Lu Yunchuan’s condition and pulse before he let out a breath of relief. It was just as he had guessed. If he was injected with physostigmine, it might resolve the atropine poisoning, but the neostigmine’s toxin would also start acting up. Lu Yunchuan’s central nervous system was heavily damaged. So he couldn’t afford a second one. Even if Lu Yunchuan could be treated in the end, there would be side effects left behind.

Taking a deep breath, Su Tao took out silver needles from his medical box and started performing acupuncture on Lu Yunchuan.

He used acupuncture to clear up Lu Yunchuan’s meridians before mediating the Yin and Yang in his body. While improving Lu Yunchuan’s body condition, it was also promoting his absorption of the neostigmine.

So the whole objective of Su Tao’s acupuncture was to trigger the effects of neostigmine at the shortest time possible.

He was mainly stimulating the peristalsis of the stomach to absorb the drugs, promoting blood circulation at the same time. So Su Tao was mainly focused on the Yangming Stomach Meridian of the Foot. In just a brief moment, Lu Yunchuan’s condition started to improve.

Ji Hai had been observing the changes to Lu Yunchuan’s condition. Lu Yunchuan’s twitching and vomiting symptoms had disappeared. Su Tao had achieved all this with only a silver needle in his hand, without any medication used.

“Doctor Ji, you can come and take a look at the patient.” Su Tao gently spoke out after pulling out the needle from Lu Yunchuan’s body.

Ji Hai immediately went up and examined the patient. The patient’s pupils had shrunk down. He let out a breath and replied, “The patient is out of danger!”

The pupils shrinking down was an obvious sign of atropine poisoning’s condition improving. Not only did Ji Hai was filled with admiration, but even the president and several doctors who were watching from the glass were also praising with respect.

Looking around him, the president, Tao Qiuping sighed, “This is the wonder of TCM. I believe that our hospital has to focus on nurturing TCM talents in the future.”