Chapter 1570: with translation of title

Nurse Xiao Zhao felt relieved, gave Zhou Litao an appreciative glance, then turned and ran off to work.

Nobody wants to get involved in something like this.

Zheng Ren noticed one of Zhou Litao's strengths: he really looks after girls.

It might also be because the Inpatient Chief has been working in the Emergency Department for too long, accumulating too much male hormone, making his desire to protect pretty girls intense and impossible to dispel.

"Is it an abandoned infant? It doesn't look like one." Zheng Ren asked.

"I don't think so either." Zhou Litao was very troubled, lacking the earlier determination he had when speaking with Nurse Xiao Zhao, when he felt the sky was falling and he would bear it for her.

"Strange, I've never encountered such a thing in the Emergency Department either." Zheng Ren sighed.

Zheng Ren and Zhou Litao are both experienced senior doctors, yet they stared at each other, neither knowing what to do.

Zhou Litao kept glancing at his phone.

15 Minute passed in an instant.

After informing the chief, Zhou Litao got through to the police emergency call.

Because the matter was too bizarre, Zhou Litao repeated it several times, but the operator on the other end also didn't know how to handle it.

Could it be a case of human trafficking?

But there were no traffickers, and the child was fine in the Hospital.

Or could it be a criminal offense? What crime was committed? Where is the perpetrator?

As expected, the Public Security Bureau could not dispatch officers.

Like with an abandoned infant, if one cannot bear to lose a small life, the only option is to keep the child in the Hospital; alternatively, pick a day for the chief to approach the relevant agencies.

As for what those relevant agencies are, neither of them knows.

"Is he the child's father?" Zheng Ren asked.

"When the child's family finally left, Nurse Xiao Zhao heard the child call for dad and reach out to hug him." Zhou Litao said, confused.

From all the signs, the child shouldn't be an abandoned infant; besides, he's about three years old, healthy and sound—what reason would there be to abandon him?

Typically, abandoned infants are those with congenital diseases, or unmarried underage girls who give birth in a bathroom and immediately discard the baby.

Zhou Litao hung his head, discouraged, and asked, "Zheng Lao Ban, got a cigarette?"

"Come on, let's go outside for a smoke." Zheng Ren patted his shoulder, telling him not to stay glum.

"Zheng Lao Ban, you say if nobody wants the child, I should adopt him?" Zhou Litao said, his expression grim to the extreme.

"Yeah, I think it's fine." Zheng Ren tossed him a cigarette and chuckled, "This is your biggest gain in the Emergency Department. Such a big kid—how much of a bargain did you snag?"

"Don't joke, Zheng Lao Ban." Zhou Litao ignored his image, squatted down, gazing at the lush green grass outside, and said woefully, "I don't even have a girlfriend yet; if I adopt him, that'd be like a second marriage with a kid. I don't have Yun Ge'er's looks, nor your skills—where am I supposed to find a girlfriend?"

Zheng Ren saw Zhou Litao's distress and stopped joking.

"Is it related to you? Can't the Hospital handle it?" Zheng Ren asked.

"Sigh, nobody wants to take him." Zhou Litao said, "Our side is still better; the pediatric Emergency Department gets lots of abandoned infants. Once, there was a child we simply couldn't send away—it was the Medical Department and the Civil Affairs Bureau…"

As he spoke, Zhou Litao's eyes lit up.

"Zheng Lao Ban, you have good ties with the Medical Department; if nobody wants the child, please see if you can help."

"Manager Zhou, you're overthinking this."

Zheng Ren was just about to say something to Zhou Litao when the Hospital heard the piercing wail of an Emergency Rescue Service vehicle.

"What patient?"

"The case from twenty Minutes ago was food poisoning." Zhou Litao stubbed out his cigarette, then asked Zheng Ren for a cigarette butt, tossed it into the trash, and hurried back to the Emergency Resuscitation Room.

The Emergency Rescue Service vehicle returned, meaning they'd have to get busy again.

When busy, you don't feel worried; we'll talk after we're done.

A few Minutes later, a gurney carried the patient amid the rumbling of wheels grinding on the marble floor, bringing them to the Emergency Resuscitation Room.

Zheng Ren followed up and glanced at the patient—Rice yeast acid bacterium poisoning! Multi-organ failure!

Two diagnoses appeared starkly on the System Panel.

Damn it, trouble.

Rice yeast acid bacterium is a toxin produced by the rice‑millet subspecies of the coconut toxin pseudomonad that can cause food poisoning.

The most common sources are spoiled silver ear fungus, wood ear fungus, and fermented cornmeal products, which produce rice yeast acid bacterium.

With rising living standards, few people eat fermented cornmeal anymore, so the main sources of poisoning have become silver ear and wood ear.

Because silver ear and wood ear are considered traditional mountain delicacies, they need to be soaked in clean water before eating.

Sometimes people forget they are soaking them and only remember a day or two later.

Most people don't think anything of it, rinse them off, and eat them right away.

Little do they know that during the soaking process, rice yeast acid bacterium is produced,

Rice yeast acid bacterium has strong biological activity and is the main toxic metabolic product by which the coconut toxin pseudomonad causes food poisoning and death.

Clinical symptoms present as nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and bloating; severe cases show jaundice, ascites, subcutaneous bleeding, convulsions, seizures, hematuria, bloody stools, etc., indicating damage to the liver, brain, and kidneys.

Most critically, there is no good treatment, and the mortality rate can reach 40–100%!

This food poisoning differs from the one Zheng Ren experienced before; it cannot be treated by simply administering a specific antidote to neutralize it.

Moreover, rice yeast acid bacterium poisoning has a relatively delayed onset; usually after 12–24 hours, symptoms gradually worsen before patients are brought to the Hospital.

By then, the patient has already developed multi-organ failure.

Although some patients can be saved, the cost is astronomical.

Besides that, postoperative liver or kidney dysfunction is also common.

Zhou Litao directed the resuscitation, while Zheng Ren grabbed a person who had brought the patient in, who looked like a fellow worker, and asked, "What is your relation to the patient?"

"We work together," the person said somewhat nervously.

Zheng Ren's judgment was still quite accurate.

How was the patient discovered? What did the patient eat? Zheng Ren asked.

Perhaps it was the harsh tone, perhaps the patient looked in bad shape, half-dead, the coworker was frightened by Zheng Ren's words.

After Zheng Ren finished asking, he immediately said: "Doctor, it wasn't me who poisoned..."

"I didn't say it was you who poisoned!" Zheng Ren, helpless, directly asked: "What did he eat yesterday?"

"I don't know." The coworker was almost crying, "We don't live together; while working today I saw his condition was off, so I called the Emergency Rescue Service. Who knew the Emergency Rescue Service charges money? I worked for nothing today."

He kept chattering on, and Zheng Ren was helpless.

"Doctor, aren't hospitals supposed to save lives and heal the wounded? Why charge money?" The coworker was somewhat timid, but the fee of several dozen yuan for the Emergency Rescue Service was obviously more important.

He mustered his courage and asked.

……

……

Note: Rice yeast acid bacterium poisoning, I saw in my circle of friends that my apprentice currently working in the Emergency Department has had 4-5 similar cases per year. I'll write a short story; everyone just needs to pay attention. Prevention is simple: as long as you know, this problem won't occur.