Chapter 1822: 1758 Really Fainted

120 emergency calls, under normal circumstances, are handled by the local 120 emergency dispatch center, which sends vehicles based on distance for rescue.

Sometimes patients' families strongly request, specifying which hospital's ambulance should be sent.

But this is done by those familiar with the process; for strong requests, especially very strong ones, the dispatch center will reluctantly accept.

After all, nobody wants trouble; if they were complained about for this, it wouldn't be worth it.

Soon, the 912 Emergency Department received the call, went out to see the patient; the location was relatively far.

Zhou Litao picked up the first-aid kit and got in the car with the nurse, not forgetting to tell his family to call him if any critical illness arose.

"Manager Zhou, why are you following along?" the little nurse from the emergency department asked.

"Boss Zheng said there's a patient who faints when eating, and now even eating a steamed bun makes him unconscious." Zhou Litao felt as if a kitten's claws were scratching his heart; he couldn't wait, wanting to instantly appear before the patient.

"" The nurse was stunned.

If eating makes him faint, isn't he just going to starve to death? Does he have to be on intravenous fluids every day?

But if he doesn't eat, without the process of chewing, does life still have meaning?

The 120 ambulance drove all the way to the designated spot; before it had fully stopped, Zhou Litao jumped out, grabbed the first-aid kit, and ran inside.

"Manager Zhou, wait a moment." the nurse shouted from behind.

"Don't rush, I'll go in first to have a look." Zhou Litao's silhouette had already disappeared.

Entering the house, Zhou Litao saw Zheng Ren chatting with a spirited old man, laughing and cheerful, showing no sign of illness.

"Manager Zhou, you're here." Seeing Zhou Litao arrive, Zheng Ren said with a smile.

"Hmm, Boss Zheng, where is the patient?" Zhou Litao asked.

"Now that you're here, we'll start the test, old man, don't be nervous; just do a few movements and we can make a clear diagnosis." Zheng Ren said.

The old man sitting on the sofa nodded.

"Sir, let me emphasize again: actually, this test should be done in a hospital." Zheng Ren said seriously, "Our conditions here are limited; I can only do my best to guarantee your safety."

"Boss Zheng, to be honest, I don't believe that tilting my body will make me faint. If that were true, I think I should have been dead by now." The old man laughed, "As long as I don't go to the hospital, anything goes. These days I'm also bored; keeping you company is just a way to pass the time."

Zhou Litao was speechless; is there really such a way to relieve boredom?

The simple tilt table was ready—just a sturdy wooden board, tilted by manpower. As for the old man's safety, Zheng Ren and Su Yun were present, making sure he wouldn't get hurt as much as possible.

"Place 400 mg of nitroglycerin under the tongue." Zheng Ren handed the medicine box to the old man.

The old man laughed heartily, seeming completely fine. Just looking at his appearance and expression, you couldn't tell that an hour earlier he had threatened everyone with bread, saying he would "commit suicide".

"Manager Zhou, did you bring the ECG monitor?" Zheng Ren asked.

""

Who carries a vehicle-mounted ECG monitor while lifting a patient? Zhou Litao sighed, set down the first-aid kit, and went back to fetch the ECG monitor.

The machine was brought up, the cuff fastened, the device turned on, and it first measured a seated blood pressure.

110/75 mmHg, completely normal.

After taking the nitroglycerin sublingually, the old man stood on the wooden board. Family members pried up one corner, while Zheng Ren and Su Yun lightly supported him to prevent a fall.

"Is this also called a test?" the old man laughed, "I don't feel anything at all."

He was very relaxed, and Luan Yingjie also felt nothing, just like kids playing house—it's practically just fooling around.

Tilted at 70°, in less than ten seconds the ECG monitor began to alarm wildly.

On the ECG, the patient showed junctional rhythm, frequent ventricular premature beats, and ventricular tachycardia!

Blood pressure began to plummet from normal.

100……90……70……50……

The systolic pressure had already dropped to shock levels; Zhou Litao stared in disbelief.

I had only learned about the tilt test in theory, never actually seen it done. Emergency department—who would casually perform a tilt test on a patient?!

This time I really opened my eyes.

"Dopamine, quick!" Zheng Ren and Su Yun immediately supported the old man, laid him flat on the ground, established an IV line, pushed a dose of dopamine, then started a drip.

Luan Yingjie panicked; a perfectly healthy person—how could he just die like that?

He didn't know what a tilt test was, but the unmistakable numbers on the ECG monitor told him his father was already at death's door.

This was something he never expected!

He looked at the medicine box; it was definitely nitroglycerin. Could taking one tablet sublingually kill someone? Certainly not.

Would tilting the body 70° cause death?

If that were the case, amusement parks might as well close.

How could the two combined make his own father look like he's about to give out?

MD!

"What are you doing?!" Luan Yingjie, in a state of confusion, shouted angrily.

Zheng Ren ignored him; Luan Yingjie came forward trying to push Zheng Ren aside, but Su Yun kicked him in the thigh, instantly disabling his movement.

"Don't fuck around, we're doing rescue." Su Yun, also not in a hurry, said with a smile.

Only pressor drugs were used; the other emergency medicines in the kit were untouched. Zheng Ren half-squatted, half-kneeled beside the old man, ready to rescue at any moment. But blood pressure kept dropping, and he gave no further treatment.

Zhou Litao stared dumbfounded.

Shouldn't we have put the patient on the 120 ambulance and sent him to the hospital?

The blood pressure had already dropped below 40 mmHg—really, is there nothing wrong?

Time ticked by; when the blood pressure fell to 37.5 mmHg, it finally "bottomed out and rebounded," beginning to rise steadily.

The heart rate also gradually stabilized.

"The tilt test provoked by sublingual 400 mg nitroglycerin caused the patient to faint, accompanied by a five‑minute hypotensive response. The lowest blood pressure was 37.5/29.2 mmHg, heart rate 75 bpm. No cardiac arrest was observed during the tilt test."

Zheng Ren recited calmly; Zhou Litao dazedly felt as if he were back in the ward, with the chief physician making confident rounds.

He instinctively took out a pen, then took a sheet of paper from his shirt pocket, and recorded Zheng Ren's words.

"Ah, this sleep feels so fragrant." Quickly, blood pressure returned, and the old man's consciousness also immediately returned.

He sat up from the ground, stretched a lazy yawn, and muttered.

"Did you dream?" Su Yun laughed: "Dreaming of eating bread."

"Um..." the old man then recalled what had happened before he "fell asleep."

It seemed like two doctors were accompanying him in playing a game.

Some sort of test, how did I just faint?

He dazedly looked around; the nannies stood in the corners like quail. His own son lay on the ground, hugging his legs, as if injured.

"What happened?" the old man asked dazedly.

He had no memory of everything that happened when he just fainted.

……

Note: Case source KelvinShenqWoeiSiew, MawPinTan, IdaNormihaHilmi&AlexanderLoch. Swallowsyncope: a case report and review of literature. BMCCardiovascDisord. 2019 Aug 7?.