Chapter 1996: with translation of chapter title

Arriving at the emergency resuscitation room, he was directly put on a ventilator to assist breathing. Pure oxygen was inhaled, and the patient's blood oxygen saturation improved a bit.

But Wang Zong knew this was only temporary.

He gestured, and the nurse, becoming more skilled, came up with a syringe to draw blood, preparing to send it for examination.

Meanwhile, Wang Zong picked up a stethoscope and began auscultation.

Just as Emergency Doctor Song had said, breath sounds in both lungs were clear, with a few rales, but definitely not a pneumothorax.

Wang Zong's eyebrows furrowed.

He glanced at the ECG monitor; the rhythm was sinus tachycardia, just extremely fast, likely due to hypoxia.

No choice, Wang Zong decided to take the risk and do a lung CT, then send the patient straight to the ICU.

Before he could find someone to call the ICU, the nurse exclaimed in surprise: "Wang Zong!"

"Ah?" Wang Zong turned his head, and even he himself was stunned.

In the blood-drawing needle tube, what was drawn out was blue liquid, not the bright red or dark red of arterial or venous blood!

Blue...

Wang Zong's head buzzed.

His mind went blank, short-circuiting outright.

Although he had studied it, Wang Zong had never actually seen blue blood before. In that instant he had no thoughts at all—what on earth could cause blood to turn blue?

But in the blink of an eye, Wang Zong immediately recalled that nitrite poisoning causes blue-blood symptoms.

"Straight to the ICU!" Wang Zong shouted, "Tell the ICU inpatient chief; if not, find Director Qian."

After saying that, he had the nurse connect an IV line, then, with the ventilator, rushed straight to the ICU.

……

……

Zheng Ren stood at the street side, watching Su Yun's one wild idea after another pop up, finding it amusing.

He lit a cigarette from afar, found a secluded spot, and smoked.

If life could always be like this—having someone you love, a bunch of carefree friends, laughter and joy… without the emergency mass rescues and so many casualties, how wonderful that would be.

He still had a sense of it; half a cigarette smoked, his phone rang.

He pulled it out and saw it was Wang Zong's call.

Was this because he hadn't gone back, so he called directly to blame him? Zheng Ren smiled, the corners of his mouth turning up.

"Wang Zong." Zheng Ren asked with a smile.

"Huh? Blue?"

"Okay, I got it."

"First, treat symptomatically in the ICU; I'll be right over."

After saying that, Zheng Ren put away his phone and shouted: "Emergency resuscitation!"

Although it was already late, everyone was having a great time (very H). Passersby stared, eyes hot, unwilling to leave. With those two pretty girls filming short videos, not watching the live stream made one feel sorry for oneself.

Even men with girlfriends or wives kept turning back to look. But they… really couldn't stay; basically they were grabbed by the ear, given a foul look, and dragged away by women.

Even so, dozens of people gathered by the roadside.

That's just how it is in Haicheng; at this time there's basically no one around. If it were in the Imperial Capital, it would probably draw a crowd of hundreds.

Hearing Zheng Ren's shout, Su Yun leapt up directly; Xie Yiren put away her phone, and the handsome man and beautiful woman who had just been happily filming a short video vanished instantly into the vast night.

The whole process took less than ten seconds; no one felt sorry, no one nagged.

It seemed they had been waiting for this moment all along, with a nerve in their brains never relaxing.

Upon jumping into the car, the Volvo XC60 and Xiao Feng's BMW X5 had already roared to life.

They kicked up dust all the way.

The onlooking crowd of melon-eaters who witnessed all this were left dumbfounded.

What is professionalism, what is quality—at that moment they were displayed in full measure.

"What patient?" Su Yun asked, frowning as she got into the car.

"Respiratory distress, blood turned blue." Zheng Ren said.

"Nitrite poisoning?" Su Yun asked, "From eating pickles?" (Note 1)

"No." Zheng Ren frowned, "Wang Zong said the patient is a young man who usually eats with his girlfriend. Before falling ill, the two had gone 12 hours without eating, and his girlfriend had nothing wrong with her—she was just crying heavily."

"Strange." Su Yun also knew that the phone call earlier couldn't have conveyed that much detail; even if she asked, her boss probably knew only that much.

Feng Xu Hui drove, he didn't interject, just silently drove at the speed limit, heading straight for Haicheng City First Hospital.

"Xiao Feng, go to the inpatient department; the patient is in the ICU."

"Okay."

On the way, Zheng Ren only said this one sentence.

He was pondering where the problem lay.

Oxygen-rich blood is bright red; the patient's hemoglobin heme group iron ion is abnormal and cannot release the bound oxygen, causing the whole body to be in a state of hypoxia.

Long ago, when the big pig trotter first appeared, there had been a case of nitrite poisoning.

Emergency rescue is very simple—just an intravenous drip of methylene blue.

I suspect Wang Zong also suspected nitrite poisoning; otherwise he wouldn't have specially told me the patient's girlfriend usually eats with him, that they'd gone 12 hours without food before getting sick, and similar history.

What is going on?

What else could cause blood to turn blue?

Just thinking of a patient like Avatar, Zheng Ren felt his head swell to twice its size.

The body turns bluish, a severe condition clinically called cyanosis. The blood cannot carry oxygen, and the patient could suffocate to death at any moment.

Being anxious is useless; Zheng Ren guessed that people in the ICU were busy rescuing, and even if he wanted to ask something anxiously, he couldn't find anyone.

Even if someone were there, Zheng Ren wouldn't know what to ask.

He could only look for clues bit by bit, trying to find out how the condition came about.

"Boss, what do you think?" Su Yun suddenly broke the silence and asked.

"Methemoglobinemia," Zheng Ren said, "otherwise there's no way to explain why the blood turned blue."

"Should we use methylene blue or Meilan? It's an experimental treatment, which carries risks." Su Yun's tone was somewhat heavy.

"It's fine, the risk isn't big, as long as it's not a subcutaneous or intrathecal injection..." Saying that, Zheng Ren froze for a moment.

"How?"

"We'll decide when we get there, but I still insist on trying methylene blue." Zheng Ren said, "At the very least, I'm still insisting now."

Su Yun didn't speak.

If it's an experimental treatment, the dosage etc. need to be controlled. Anyway, there's no clue now; I guess once we see the patient we'll know what to do.

At top speed they arrived at Haicheng Shi Yiyuan; Feng Xu Hui's car braked sharply, the tires emitting a sharp screech.

Zheng Ren rushed out of the car amid a faint smell of burning, didn't press the elevator, and ran all the way up.

Feng Xu Hui couldn't keep up; he knew Zheng Lao Ban could run faster than the elevator, but he himself couldn't.

He parked the car and took out a large box.

Inside were whatever supplies and equipment; Feng Xu Hui knew what they were. Basic clinical consumables, rare supplies that Haicheng Shi Yiyuan didn't have, were all stocked here.

He pulled up the rolling suitcase and walked quickly inside.

Just as he entered the lobby, he received a call. It was Liu Xiao Jie calling, saying that Xie Yiren and the others had gone straight to the operating room; if anything was needed, they could prepare by calling this side.

……

……

Note 1: It's definitely not nitrite poisoning; repeated cases wouldn't be written. I saw in the earlier part of this chapter that many colleagues guessed how it came about, from eating pickles, which is quoting the statement in this chapter. Clinical conditions vary endlessly, truly difficult……