Chapter 2286: 2209 Licking the Bottle

"Aren't you afraid she'll eat you?" Su Yun asked hopefully.

"I'm afraid, but if I leave her I'll die." The patient's family member sighed and said: "So I..."

As he spoke, he suddenly remembered the raw meat issue and thought it utterly absurd.

"Generally speaking, this condition is caused by too much stress. What kind of stress exactly? I suggest you see a psychiatric outpatient." Zheng Ren said, "Time's about up, go take a look."

"I haven't looked at the test sheet yet."

"It's fine, just check if the necklace has moved downward. If the position changed, it means it's not stuck in the intestines, so it should pass within about 24 hours." Zheng Ren said.

"Doctor, is dream-eating syndrome really nothing to worry about?" The patient's family member still wasn't reassured.

"Dream-eating syndrome was officially recognized as a disease in 1991; roughly speaking, 0.05–0.15% of people have it. Quite a few people eat things in the middle of the night..."

"This data is off; I think around one in a million is normal, one in ten thousand is too high." Su Yun said dismissively.

"It doesn't matter." Zheng Ren chuckled, "There's still no effective treatment; you can try psychotherapy, but absolutely avoid taking anti‑epileptic drugs."

"Oh oh." The patient's family member let out a breath.

Back in the Radiology Department, Lin Yuan was awkwardly chatting with a patient.

Zheng Ren didn't bother explaining much to the patient and gave her another abdominal fluoroscopy.

Comparing the two images, one can see traces of movement of the metal object inside the intestine. Although it's not obvious, as long as it moves and can be expelled, it's minor; Zheng Ren felt relieved this time.

Bringing the patient and the two abdominal fluoroscopy films back to the Emergency Department, Lin Yuan followed behind, bursting with curiosity and questions.

Back in the Emergency Department, a crowd blocked the treatment room door—some were there to watch the spectacle, others paced anxiously.

A nurse stood beside a seat in the waiting area, looking after a woman in her sixties.

Seeing this chaotic scene, Zheng Ren frowned, wondering what had happened.

"Wait here a moment, I'll check the situation," Zheng Ren told the patient's family member.

The man had no objection to Zheng Ren's words; he nodded repeatedly and brought the woman to sit in the waiting area.

Zheng Ren strode toward the treatment room.

"Make way, make way." Su Yun shouted from behind.

But that level of shouting couldn't stop the onlookers from gawking.

Zheng Ren saw that the crowd consisted mostly of young people, so he simply pushed through and opened the door to the treatment room.

It's truly baffling why they'd crowd around when the door is closed.

The instant the door opened, the crowd exclaimed in unison.

Zheng Ren saw Zhou Litao and also froze for a moment.

Zhou Litao had a small boy, about seven or eight, standing before him with a glass bottle in his mouth, saliva dripping from the corners of his lips.

"Close the door." Zheng Ren said in a low voice.

Lin Yuan squeezed in last and casually shut the door.

Zhou Litao wore sterile gloves and held forceps, unsure what to do. Seeing Zheng Ren return, he exclaimed happily, "Boss Zheng, you're back—please take a look."

"What's going on?" Zheng Ren asked.

"The kid finished his juice, then licked the bottle with his tongue—he licked too deep and got his tongue stuck inside the bottle." Zhou Litao briefly explained the situation.

The young patient's mother burst into tears, especially after seeing Zhou Litao helpless; she was already despairing.

Through the glass bottle, one could see the child's tongue turning bluish‑purple; as the color deepened, her heart sank further.

Zheng Ren put on a mask and sterile gloves, approached the child, checked the light, and clearly saw the tongue already bluish‑purple, swollen, and lodged in the bottle.

Uh…

Zheng Ren had never seen this situation before.

Back when he worked in the Emergency Department, he'd often encountered mischievous kids causing all kinds of trouble.

For example, some brats tried to see if they could hold a light bulb in their mouths.

For example, some brats pinched firecrackers in their hands to test their courage and blew up their hands.

For example, rural kids tossed disposable lighters into the stove pit, and the flying fragments almost scratched their eyes.

For example…

There are too many to list exhaustively.

But having a tongue stuck in a bottle was still Zheng Ren's first encounter.

After examining the situation carefully, he also found it difficult.

"Boss Zheng, if we can't do anything else, let's smash the bottle," Zhou Litao whispered.

"No." Zheng Ren shook his head.

"If we smash it, what if glass shards fly into the mouth?" Su Yun looked at the bratty kid, also worried; even when she habitually talked down to Zhou Litao, her contemptuous tone wasn't as sharp.

"Yeah, Su Yun's right. Besides, broken glass shards could easily slip along the tongue into the esophagus, or even choke the airway—the risk is substantial." Zheng Ren gazed at the bottle and said solemnly.

"What about using anesthesia?" Lin Yuan suggested, "After anesthesia the patient won't be so tense, the tongue will soften, and maybe it'll be easier to remove."

"Too many uncontrollable factors." Su Yun narrowed her eyes, her forehead hair fluttering without wind, "The kid isn't having breathing trouble now, but if we anesthetize him and he develops respiratory distress, we won't even be able to intubate."

"Yeah, if that happened we'd only be able to do a tracheotomy—turning a simple thing into a complication." Zheng Ren agreed with Su Yun's view.

The already‑frightened parent went limp at Zheng Ren and Su Yun's description, legs turning to jelly and unable to stand.

She leaned against the wall, slowly squatted, and burst into tears holding her head.

Zheng Ren felt it was too thorny; following the usual procedure would require smashing the glass bottle.

But the bottle's walls are thick, requiring considerable force to break.

And the brat's tongue occupies nearly half the bottle's interior, making it hard to smash the bottle without injuring his tongue.

As for secondary injuries from shards entering the airway or esophagus, that's a later concern.

Who knows what crazy move the panicked brat might pull, causing what kind of secondary injury.

Lin Yuan's proposed anesthesia also won't do; once danger arises, a small matter turns into a big one.

Should we have the 119 professionals come?

Zheng Ren saw the brat's tongue had already turned black; if we wait for the 119 professionals to come and then think of a solution, it would take at least 20-30 Minute.

It's not certain whether the tongue will suffer ischemia and necrosis...

"How did it get stuck so badly?" Su Yun began trying to pull the glass bottle out; the brat made muffled "uh uh uh" sounds, indicating it was really painful, and couldn't pull it out at all.

"Maybe the tongue inside the bottle is causing a local vacuum negative pressure." Zheng Ren focused his gaze on the bottle, ignoring the child's cries of pain.

At this point we can't be soft-hearted; even accompanying the child's mother in a bit of crying won't solve the problem.