Chapter 2638: 2539.2443 Feeding Feces (Alliance Leader Randy Is Already Nine Years Old, Extra Chapter 4)

2539.2443 Feeding Feces (Alliance Leader Randy Is Already Nine Years Old, Extra Chapter 4)

"Open it, let me take a look." Su Yun said urgently and firmly.

Zhou Litao quickly opened his phone; although he didn't understand why the child was ill, and what use Yun Ge'er saw in looking at the child's mother's social circle, he didn't care.

"WeChat or Weibo?"

"Weibo." Su Yun said.

There is still a difference between the two; only those who frequently use them can tell the nuances apart.

The most recent Weibo post was from two days ago; in the photo, the child's mother wore casual home clothes and held a child under two years old.

Full of love, full of warmth—these could be seen in her eyes.

And the accompanying text was positive, full of positive energy——

The two of us have depended on each other for 5 months, 17 days, and 21 hours.

Without my beloved, Xiao Luo's father is by my side. This life is not easy, and there is hardly any joy to speak of. This period has been the most difficult journey of my life. Autumn has already arrived; I think next year will be better, but we will still move forward bravely.

Scrolling further up, it was a photo taken when the child was last sick in the hospital.

The child's mother showed an anxious, eager expression, but she politely mentioned the 912 Hospital and praised its doctors and nurses for their superb skills and especially good attitudes.

Scrolling further up…… it was still various chicken soups from the child's hospital stays and everyday home life.

"Here, boss." Su Yun shook the phone in her hand.

"Don't move, I'm thinking. Your shaking made my vestibular nerve start showing abnormal electrical reflexes." Zheng Ren said.

"Impressive!"

"Yun Ge'er, what's wrong? I think the child's mother is quite reasonable. Besides, she cares about the child—at the very least, there has never been a case of illness where she didn't seek treatment." Zhou Litao said.

"Manager Zhou, you can't forget your position just because she praises the hospital, praises the doctors and nurses." Su Yun looked at Zhou Litao, the corner of her mouth curling in a sneering smile, "People like you aren't our goal—our purpose is to treat disease and save people."

"But..."

"Let's wait for the gastroscopy report—does the child need to wait a long time for a gastroscopy?" Zheng Ren asked.

"I called the endoscopy room; if done as an emergency, it should be quick." Zhou Litao said.

"Then let's wait." Zheng Ren looked away, Su Yun scrolled up two more times, then returned the phone to Zhou Litao.

"Zheng Lao Ban, Yun Ge'er, what on earth is going on?" Zhou Litao asked doubtfully.

"The boss and I suspect the child isn't actually ill, but the child's mother has factitious disorder imposed on another (Munchausen syndrome by proxy)." Su Yun said.

"..." Zhou Litao froze.

He knew about factitious disorder imposed on another, but had only ever understood it as gossip.

At the very least, encountering such a situation nearby is not easy.

"How did you determine that?"

"The child often gets sick... put it this way: our 912 Pediatrics may not be as specialized as the Women and Children's Hospital, but its standard is absolutely not bad—you admit that, right?" Su Yun asked.

Zhou Litao nodded.

"We've checked many times, found nothing wrong, yet the child keeps relapsing. How do you account for that?" Su Yun asked.

"I think it's a problem with the child's own immune function."

"No." Su Yun said: "Just like today's vomiting—the vomit contained feces, yet the child had no intestinal obstruction, and no bile residue was found in the vomit. Unless it's some extremely rare congenital disease, but the abdominal X-ray shows the anatomy is completely intact, with nothing wrong."

"But..."

"Let me give you an example." Su Yun said: "In 2014, a five-year-old boy in the United States was hospitalized for acute kidney failure."

"Before that, this boy had been hospitalized 23 times and undergone seven surgeries. He had suffered ear infections, strokes, cardiac premature beats, digestive system diseases, bacterial enteritis, back spasms, and other complex conditions."

"..." Zhou Litao was speechless: "Can a five-year-old boy really get so many illnesses?"

"Later the child was admitted to Nyack Hospital in New York; after two days of treatment, the child's condition worsened further. Because the situation was urgent, a helicopter was used to rush the child to the intensive care unit of Maria Fareri Children's Hospital for emergency rescue."

"But the child's condition was too severe; three days later, Maria Fareri Children's Hospital declared him clinically dead."

Zhou Litao listened silently; he now understood what Zheng Lao Ban and Yun Ge'er were thinking.

"The forensic examiner, after blood tests, found that the child's body contained a lethal dose of salt. At the same time, the fluid food feeding bag discovered at home was also found by police to contain a salt concentration far above normal."

"Finally, the forensic examiner determined that the mother used the feeding bag, inserting the catheter directly into the child's esophagus, causing the child to ingest a lethal dose of salt."

"Is it that she doesn't want to take care of the child, is it a hassle, or some other reason?" Zhou Litao muttered.

"Even tigers don't eat their own young—killing one's own child... this is unimaginable no matter how you think about it," Zhou Litao mused, falling into a dazed confusion.

"No." Zheng Ren shook his head and said: "Later, the police and forensic examiner's gathered evidence determined that this mother had an abnormal desire to attract others' attention. From early on, after she posted a photo of herself encouraging the child after he fell, which got lots of attention on Facebook, the child began to fall ill repeatedly."

"That sounds just like the situation before us." Su Yun said, "So there's no further explanation for the child vomiting feces."

"Then..." Zhou Litao felt a chill, and asked softly.

"Consider that the child's mother fed the child feces, causing the child to show symptoms of acute gastroenteritis." Zheng Ren said, "Because she overdid it, the most recent fecal feeding was vomited back up—exactly the symptom we just saw."

Zhou Litao felt his hands go stiff.

"Ingesting a large amount of fresh feces containing live bacteria—E. coli and its metabolic products will cause diarrhea in the consumer. This is the same principle as when E. coli or other microbes are fully fermented." Su Yun said, "All explanations are reasonable; the boss still wants to wait for the gastroscopy, Manager Zhou, you say whether he has an illness."

"Mm-hmm." Zhou Litao first nodded instinctively, only then hearing the latter part of Su Yun's words.

He quickly shook his head: "Doing more tests is appropriate; better safe than sorry. Moreover, this kind of determination... cannot be made without sufficient evidence."

"Coward, people like her should be confronted head‑on." Su Yun said.

"Well, when there's nothing else, I'll go and speak to the patient's family." Zheng Ren said.

"Have you figured out what to say?"

"Go on—let's tidy up the sterile gloves and cotton swabs we just used, then say we have enough evidence." Zheng Ren said, "I'll call Lin Ge."