Chapter 449: 441 Helplessly Giving Up (Silver Alliance 37 Inter Entertainment Li Yifei Bonus Chapter 12)

The young man heard Zheng Ren's words, his gaze scattering instantly. His face turned pallid, a sorrowful feeling suffusing his whole body.

Zheng Ren also didn't know what to say.

Paraquat, as the name suggests, is a herbicide.

It is extremely toxic to humans, with a super-high mortality rate, and there is no specific effective drug.

After ingesting a certain dose of paraquat, the patient will show poisoning symptoms.

Among systemic poisoning symptoms, lung damage is most prominent, its histopathological changes resembling oxygen toxicity.

If the patient ingests a large amount of paraquat, they will likely develop acute respiratory distress syndrome within 1-2 days, followed by delayed pulmonary fibrosis, progressive dyspnea, and ultimately die from respiratory failure.

For most other pesticides ingested, measures such as gastric lavage can be used for treatment.

But for paraquat ingestion, there are no measures.

The damnedest thing is, after ingesting paraquat, the patient basically feels no discomfort, face flushed, looking even healthier than before.

A minority of patients develop acute symptoms, but most will develop pulmonary fibrosis within three days to three months.

The specific timing depends on the ingested dose.

Pulmonary fibrosis is irreversible, and in patients who have ingested paraquat, the lung tissue fibrosis continues to progress until death.

This is an untreatable poison that does not take effect immediately.

The young man stared blankly for nearly a minute, his gaze empty.

Zheng Ren felt uneasy watching him, wanting to advise the young man but not knowing where to start.

After a silence of nearly a minute, the young man suddenly placed his canvas bag in front of him and began pulling out money from inside.

"Doctor, this is the money my parents left me after they passed away." He said while tearing up, tears dripping onto the fresh RMB, splashing a few droplets, "My grandfather had a hard life, my aunt gambled away and ran off owing hundreds of thousands. My aunt divorced him a few months ago, then he was diagnosed with liver cancer. I have money here, all my money, Doctor, please save him. My grandfather raised me, it wasn't easy, really not easy."

The amount isn't large, just tens of thousands, but it's all the young man's savings, his college tuition, and his reliance for future life.

Now he has taken it all out and placed it before Zheng Ren.

The bright red color is so glaring.

"Doctor, I've looked up the information, I know that even a sip means no hope." The young man looked at Zheng Ren with tear-filled eyes, voice choking, "But that was data from a few years ago; is there now a drug that can treat it?"

Seeing the young man's eyes full of expectation, Zheng Ren knew this was a self‑suggestion of someone who had reached the extreme of despair.

How should I say it?

There's no way to say it.

Zheng Ren's gaze dimmed, and he lightly shook his head.

In the young man's heart, the faint hope that had just risen was, unsurprisingly, extinguished.

"I knew…… I knew……" the young man muttered, head lowered.

"You still have a few days; stay with your grandfather properly." Zheng Ren said softly.

The young man fell silent, his eyes fixed lifelessly on the somewhat yellowed wall.

"Young man, you're still young. Some things, you do your best and leave the rest to fate. You've already done all you can, but there's nothing else to do." Zheng Ren could only try to soothe the young man's emotions as best he could.

Outside, a few patients wanted to come in, but seeing the young man in the consultation room standing there like a zombie, and noticing the stacks of red bills on the table, they knew something was up; under the persuasion of Fan Tian Shui and others, they either sat outside waiting or went to the surgical consultation room first.

Zheng Ren patted the young man's shoulder; after hearing the words of advice for a long while, the young man finally regained his composure.

With a "wah," he burst into tears.

Only then did Zheng Ren feel relieved.

Being able to cry shows he's all right; the fear is if he couldn't cry, like the family of that patient whose heart was stabbed that night.

Zheng Ren exhaled; though his mood was a bit down, having seen much, he had become somewhat indifferent.

He put the stacks of money on the table back into the young man's canvas bag and zipped it up.

Indifference is also a form of self‑protection.

In the hospital, every bed has seen a patient die; if we weren't a little indifferent, we probably couldn't last long before all the doctors ended up hospitalized.

After sending the young man away, Su Yun had already finished gastric lavage for the patient on his side.

The patient sat quietly in the chair, devoid of joy, anger, sorrow, or fear, having already let go of everything.

Seeing the young man come out, the patient rose, gave him a slight smile, then bowed to Su Yun and Zheng Ren, and led the young man out of the hospital.

"Let's go." Su Yun, seeing Zheng Ren's expression wooden, pulled him to the side door again.

At this point, a cigarette is needed to clear the head.

Su Yun rarely smokes, but this time he made an exception, pulling a Zi Yun pack from Zheng Ren's pocket; his facial muscles twitched, as if he wanted to spray Zheng Ren, but he held back in the end.

He lit a cigarette and handed it to Zheng Ren.

"Life and death, there's nothing we can do." Su Yun said.

"Mm." Zheng Ren took a deep drag, the smoke swirling in his lungs before exhaling, after which the world in the haze felt a bit more vivid.

This was not the first paraquat‑ingestion patient Zheng Ren had encountered, nor the most tragic.

Many years ago, during Zheng Ren's university internship between classes, he encountered a paraquat‑ingestion case in the emergency department.

A newlywed couple, having just married, started arguing over a trivial matter; the woman, to scare him, took the paraquat and pretended to drink a small sip.

The man, unaware of how dangerous paraquat was, grabbed it and said, "Let's die together," then took a big gulp from the bottle.

Then, the two who had drunk the pesticide were moved by themselves or each other, and they reconciled.

What to do after drinking pesticide? Go to the hospital for gastric lavage; it's no big deal.

After arriving at the hospital, following gastric lavage, Zheng Ren's supervising teacher and the patient's mother explained the condition, saying that ingesting paraquat meant certain death.

If the family had money, they could go to the ICU and use a ventilator to assist breathing, possibly extending life by about three months; but that is a huge expense, so whether to continue treatment depends on the family's circumstances.

The patient's mother cried at once; after the patient came to inquire about the situation, he gave Zheng Ren's supervising teacher a good scolding.

They spent money on gastric lavage for everything, and still wanted more money; nowadays hospitals and doctors have truly black hearts.

He couldn't remember many of such remarks.

Then, the couple who had drunk pesticide left the hospital.

As they walked, they were loving and affectionate, but the medical staff present knew that their days were not many.

Half a month later, the two were sent back again.

The man had drunk more paraquat than the woman, so his condition was especially poor, already showing respiratory failure; although the woman's condition was a bit better, it was not much better.

In the emergency resuscitation room, a blue curtain was drawn, and each of them lay on a hospital bed receiving rescue treatment.

As before, Zheng Ren's supervising teacher and the patient's mother explained the condition; from the very beginning, the final outcome had already been predetermined, leaving the doctor feeling especially helpless.

In the end, Zheng Ren's supervising teacher advised the family not to attempt resuscitation.

Fate is predetermined; no matter what one does, it is meaningless.

At this moment, the young couple seemed to realize their own fate.

At the man's final moment, he exerted all his strength to reach his hand toward the woman; yet, an action usually so simple now seemed extraordinarily difficult.

In the end, he still could not grasp the woman's hand.

When he had extended his hand halfway, he breathed his last breath.

Although the woman's condition was only slightly better, it was not much better.

At this moment, she too had reached her final moment.

She exerted her last strength, wanting to grasp the man's hand.

Between their fingers, passing through the blue curtain, touching fingertips, she reached the end of her life.

Zheng Ren remembers this scene very clearly.

Life is full of various helplessness.

It is only that pair of fingers finally touching each other that leaves Zheng Ren with a vivid memory.

He sighed, composing his emotions.

People, after all, must still look forward.

He stubbed out his cigarette, Zheng Ren glanced at Su Yun and asked, "Professor and Gao..."

"Gao Shaojie." Su Yun gave Zheng Ren a disdainful glance, "They're both sitting in the office. Let me tell you, you need to quickly drive away the chief of the Fu Yuan Hospital, Gao, because Chang Yue has already raised objections."

"Huh? What opinions?"

"There are too many people in the office; she can't stand it."

"Sweat... this also counts as a reason."

"Mainly, Professor Gao keeps using Wi‑Fi to transfer related image data, hogging the bandwidth; I even get disconnected when I play games in the afternoon."

"……"

However, Zheng Ren immediately recalled the third‑stage task: the matter of performing 100 TIPS surgeries.

Hai Cheng has a small population, so the radiation range is even smaller.

It seems the responsibility will ultimately fall on Chief Gao.