Chapter 14

The symptoms of the close contacts were the same, Tang Feiwai suspected they had contracted an infectious disease, she immediately applied for isolation treatment and asked for consultations with the infectious disease department and the respiratory department.

In the isolation ward, the nurse drew blood from Zhou Wenyun, Tang Feiwai, Lin Ye, and several other doctors were in the small conference room outside for a consultation. After understanding the medical history of the two patients, the attending physician from the general internal medicine department said, “Currently, there have been no reports of any medical staff in our department getting sick, so the infectivity should not be strong.”

The deputy director of the infectious disease department asked, “Did the patient have any contact with birds?”

The attending physician from general internal medicine responded, “We ruled that out during the interview, Zhang Yan has OCD and doesn’t keep animals at home, and she hasn’t been in contact with birds recently.”

The attending physician from the respiratory department mentioned a special case, “Last winter, we admitted a patient in the respiratory department, who also had no contact with birds, so we treated her for ordinary pneumonia, but in the end, she was found to be infected with bird flu. Guess what?” He paused for two seconds and continued, “That patient liked the smell of duck feathers, she liked to watch people kill ducks.”

The attending physician from general internal medicine raised a question, “But wouldn’t the patient’s white blood cell count usually not be so high if it was bird flu?” One of the reasons he ruled out bird flu at the time was that the patient’s white blood cell count was as high as 17×10^9/L, and bacterial pneumonia should have been the primary consideration.

Lin Ye suggested, “Do an mNGS?”

The doctors from the infectious disease department and the respiratory department agreed.

But Tang Feiwai said, “I called the patient’s family, and he doesn’t want to.”

“Money issues?” Lin Ye happened to pass by when Zhou Wenyong was arguing with her, and she had heard a little, knowing what the patient was thinking.

Tang Feiwai nodded, “Yeah, he also wants to transfer her, saying that the community clinic can also treat her.”

The deputy director of the infectious disease department angrily said, “Isn’t he playing with his own relative’s life?”

Lin Ye turned her head to look at Tang Feiwai, who was frowning, and asked, “Is Zhang Yan still conscious?”

“She’s conscious, but she hasn’t urinated since this morning, her kidneys are also damaged.”

Lin Ye pondered for a moment, “First, let Zhou Wenyong come to the hospital for a face-to-face meeting, if that doesn’t work, then communicate directly with the patient.”

The doctors discussed a plan, they decided to treat Zhang Yan symptomatically and stabilize her vital signs. As for Zhou Wenyun, they would wait for her test results to come out.

In the afternoon, around 4 o’clock, Zhou Wenyun’s blood test results came out, the nurse took the report to the office to find Tang Feiwai, “Doctor Tang, Zhou Wenyun’s report.”

Lin Ye also moved over when she heard this, Tang Feiwai took the report, her peripheral vision caught a glimpse of the other party getting closer, she didn’t linger, and then focused on the report.

The white blood cell count was normal, and the neutrophil count was also normal. Zhou Wenyun had obvious chest pain and a fever over 39 degrees, so Tang Feiwai also had a cardiac enzyme test done. The results showed that lactate dehydrogenase and creatine kinase were significantly elevated, dozens of times higher than normal.

Acute myocardial injury caused by infection, if not intervened in time, Zhou Wenyun would be at risk of fulminant myocarditis. Considering the progression of the girl’s condition, Tang Feiwai suddenly got up from her office chair, grabbed the report and walked out, Lin Ye behind her felt like she was in another world, as if she saw her younger self.

She was cold and ambitious when studying and working, and also a bit pushy.

She shook her head, her rationality returned, and she followed Tang Feiwai’s hurried steps.

They were still on their way when a nurse from the isolation ward rushed over, “Tang, Doctor Tang, Zhou Wenyun in the isolation ward is having ventricular fibrillation!”

Tang Feiwai and Lin Ye heard this and ran towards the ward. Fortunately, the rescue was timely, two or three doctors were performing chest compressions and defibrillation on the patient, and after three minutes, Zhou Wenyun finally recovered. Tang Feiwai immediately examined the girl, then gave orders, asking the attending physician and nurse to monitor her closely before leaving the ward.

Outside the ward, she took off her mask and took a deep breath.

This is what it’s like to be a doctor, you could face death at any moment, they would try to restrain their emotions from overflowing and avoid over-empathy, but they weren’t cold-blooded. Tang Feiwai couldn’t imagine a life that was still vibrant just a few hours ago almost disappearing before her eyes.

“Here.” A bottle of mineral water appeared in front of her, Tang Feiwai took it, she knew that the person standing next to her, wanting to comfort her, was Lin Ye, but at this moment, her mind was full of the patient inside, so she just said softly, “Thank you.”

“Zhou Wenyong is in the consultation room, let’s go talk to him.”

“Yeah.” Tang Feiwai unscrewed the cap of the mineral water bottle and took a few sips.

The so-called consultation room was a place in the emergency department specifically for private conversations with the patient’s family. The two of them pushed open the door and saw the patient’s family sitting on a chair, legs crossed, with a look of impatience on his face. Zhou Wenyong looked up and saw them coming, he looked directly at them and stated his thoughts without beating around the bush, “Doctor, I want to discharge my mom and my sister.”

Tang Feiwai thought she had heard wrong, “What?” Just a few minutes ago, she had told him about the seriousness of Zhou Wenyun and Zhang Yan’s condition, how could he still be thinking about discharging them?

Zhou Wenyong, “Oh, I’ve already called the community hospital, the doctor there said they can transfer her over, she’ll be fine after two days of IV drip.”

Tang Feiwai was furious, “Five minutes ago, Zhou Wenyun had ventricular fibrillation, she almost died in the ward, and now you’re telling me you want to transfer her to a community hospital?”

Zhou Wenyong twitched his lips and laughed, “You guys want to make money, you’re trying to scare me, right? My sister is usually very healthy.”

Lin Ye handed him the test report, her words were calm but forceful, “Patient’s family, as doctors, we can only tell you about the patient’s condition without reservation, as for how you choose, it’s up to you. However, I need to emphasize that if anything happens to the patient after she is transferred out of the hospital, it will no longer be related to our hospital, because we doctors have followed the normal treatment procedures and have fulfilled our responsibilities.”

Zhou Wenyong picked a fight, “I can’t understand these reports, but you said you’ve fulfilled your responsibilities, why haven’t you been able to find the cause for six or seven days?”

Tang Feiwai pushed Zhou Wenyun’s report to his side, “We have a new finding today, and we want to get your opinion.”

“What finding? What kind of test are you going to do again?”

Tang Feiwai patiently explained, “Your mother, Zhang Yan, has a high fever, high white blood cell count, and the sputum examination from the bronchoscopy also showed inflammatory cells, combined with the CT images, it is consistent with bacterial pneumonia; but your sister, Zhou Wenyun, also has a high fever, her white blood cell count and neutrophil count are both normal, the CT images show mild pneumonia, indicating that the lung damage is not serious, but her cardiac enzyme test shows severe myocardial damage, and she just had malignant arrhythmia, so we are considering an infectious disease, we recommend doing an mNGS to help with diagnosis.”

Zhou Wenyong became even more impatient, “Didn’t I say I can’t understand these reports? I don’t understand now either, just tell me, how much does the test cost?”

Lin Ye had been at the Second Affiliated Hospital for a longer time and knew the price, she replied, “The mNGS test is more expensive than other tests…”

Zhou Wenyong seized on the word “expensive,” he jumped up, “I knew you guys were only thinking about making money!”

Tang Feiwai saw him yelling at Lin Ye, she was protective, her attitude changed 180 degrees, her tone was harsh, “Transfer her out, right? Transfer her, right now.” She stood up and motioned for Lin Ye to follow her out, then turned back and added, “I’ll go back to my office and write up the transfer form for you, you can leave with the patient after you pay.”

“Doctor Tang.” Lin Ye looked up and saw the sharp look in her eyes under her glasses, she was obviously angry, she tugged at her sleeve.

Tang Feiwai was indeed angry because of Zhou Wenyong’s bad attitude, but she still cared about the patient, and she came up with a solution in a moment of urgency. She lowered her voice, “I’m counting to three.”

“Huh?”

“One, two…”

Before she could count to three, Zhou Wenyong stopped her, “Well, doctor, what kind of test did you say, do it.”

Tang Feiwai turned around and said seriously, “mNGS, pathogen metagenomic sequencing.”

Zhou Wenyong rubbed his hands and made a decision, but like other patient families, he wanted to know if the money was worth it, so he asked her, “What if we do the test and still can’t get a diagnosis? You have to give me a guarantee.”

“Sorry, there are many uncertainties in medicine, so doctors can’t give patients guarantees, including skilled clinical surgeons, they can’t promise that their surgery will be 100% successful.” Lin Ye nodded slightly, “But we will do our best to treat the patient.”

The two of them returned to the office, Lin Ye belatedly realized Tang Feiwai’s actions just now and asked her, “Was that a bluff?”

“Yes, because I noticed that although Zhou Wenyong cares about money, he still cares about his family. For example, the 20,000 yuan for Zhou Wenyun’s drawing training was paid by him.” Tang Feiwai buried her head in organizing the report on her desk, and suddenly she bumped into a green drawing portfolio, the portfolio fell to the ground.

Lin Ye, “This is?”

“Zhou Wenyun’s drawing portfolio, she was still drawing when she was accompanying her mother in the ward the other day.” Tang Feiwai squatted down to pick up the drawing portfolio and the loose drawing paper, her gaze suddenly stopped. Lin Ye followed her gaze and saw dozens of bird sketches scattered on the ground…