Chapter 954: 934 Only Winter in Life (Alliance Leader Zhong Kui's Alt Account Bonus Chapter 3)

Zheng Ren felt very tired after seeing the strange image data.

His body was tired, and his heart even more so.

How great would it be if nobody fell ill.

By then I'd have nothing to do, I could stroll the streets every day with Xiao Yi Ren, even riding a roller coaster would be fine.

But that was just a dream; he immediately dismissed the unrealistic thought and focused on examining the images.

The office was dead silent.

The patient's condition was very special; at first glance it looked like a dozen spleens growing simultaneously in the abdomen. But in Zheng Ren's eyes, these spleens resembled grapes on a vine, amounting to a massive spleen.

In terms of area, the spleen occupied about 40-50% of the abdominal cavity's volume, with the intestines, stomach, and even kidneys showing varying degrees of displacement.

This...

"The possibility of Gaucher's disease is higher; are there any related tests?" Zheng Ren asked.

Professor Yang clapped his hands excitedly upon hearing this and said, "I told you it was Gaucher's disease!"

"Has the glucocerebrosidase activity assay been done?" Zheng Ren asked, looking at the images.

"It's been sent for testing." Professor Yang said with a smile: "For such a rare disease, if it didn't come from your mouth, I'd feel like I'm missing something."

"There isn't." Zheng Ren said flatly, without a hint of relief.

"You're worried about the surgery, aren't you?" Professor Yang asked.

Zheng Ren nodded.

Gaucher's disease occurs less frequently in Asians than in Caucasians; nationwide, fewer than five hundred people are estimated to have it.

The patient before him had a spleen occupying half the abdominal cavity; although Zheng Ren hadn't seen the patient, he estimated the patient appeared thin and withered, yet had a large belly.

Like someone who ate guanyin soil during famine in old society; perhaps due to low platelets, the body would show patches of blue and purple.

Often, patients also suffer pathological fractures; fractures usually occur at the femoral neck.

Based solely on his knowledge of Gaucher's disease, Zheng Ren had already sketched a mental image of the patient.

As for the surgery, it was even more difficult.

The spleen is an organ that stores blood and is part of the immune system. Normally it stores 40–50 mL of blood; in patients with cirrhosis and splenomegaly, it can store up to 1000 mL or more.

As for this patient, saying that the huge spleen stores 3000 mL of blood is an understatement.

Half, or even more, of the body's blood resides in the spleen and does not circulate; if the patient were healthy, that would be unheard of.

The key to the surgery is not removal, but how much blood returns appropriately; too much, and the patient will surely develop cardiac failure and other complications; too little, and recovery will be affected.

Moreover, whether to preserve the spleen is also a question; given the patient's condition, removing the spleen entirely would reduce postoperative immunity to a horrifying degree.

Patients with Gaucher's disease are absolutely different from those with ordinary trauma or splenic rupture.

Another tricky case, huh.

Zheng Ren stared at the images, took a deep breath, and his mind began to conjure the grim picture of experimental subjects dying miserably after countless failed surgical trainings.

What about the patient? Let me take a look. Zheng Ren said.

"He's gone for auxiliary tests; I'll go up and have a look; if I come back I'll message you." Professor Yang said, then hurried back.

"Zheng Ren, can you perform this surgery?" Director Kong said, looking at the belly full of spleen, his head swelling.

"I'll try." Zheng Ren said, "Actually I want to see if transarterial embolization could work. But with such a huge spleen, at least ten to twenty embolizations would be needed; whether the patient's family can afford it is a major issue."

Director Kong thought for a moment; what Zheng Ren considered was indeed the case.

Splenic hyperfunction due to cirrhosis makes transarterial embolization an option; however, postoperative splenic necrosis can cause high fever and other symptoms.

Embolization can be done, but even ten to twenty sessions might not cure such a large spleen.

"In a bit go see the patient; don't forget to come down early." Director Kong laughed, "Tonight I'll host a dinner to welcome Old Pei."

"Sure, I'll be back soon." Zheng Ren readily agreed.

"Remember to bring your girlfriend; since you have no time to accompany her during the day, don't forget to bring her to dinner tonight, or she might complain." Director Kong, speaking from experience, reminded Zheng Ren.

"Uh..." Zheng Ren wasn't unwilling to bring Xiao Yi Ren; he hesitated because of Director Kong's words.

Professor Pei laughed and said, "I heard you now have your own instrument nurse? Was that the busy little girl when I visited Hai Cheng last time?"

Zheng Ren blushed slightly and nodded.

"Using what's at hand, you're practically eating the grass beside your own nest," Professor Pei joked, a rare remark.

"It's just dumb luck," Su Yun said.

"I'll go see the patient, then come down later to eat." Zheng Ren made this joke in a crowded setting, something he wasn't used to.

Even though he was a grown man, Zheng Ren still wasn't accustomed to this way of interacting.

In the ward, a thin, withered little boy wrapped in a down jacket lay on the bed.

Although the outdoor temperature had risen to several degrees above zero, many people had switched to short sleeves, and even young girls were eagerly showing off their pale thighs to boost their appeal; but for this little boy, life was only winter.

His mother sat beside the bed, watching the various people in the ward, and finally a stone settled in her heart.

The child had been frail and sickly since infancy, but who would check him for no reason? When he grew a bit older, he often came home with blue and purple marks; at first they thought he was just being mischievous and had bumped into something.

But as he aged, his condition grew worse.

Three years ago, after a checkup at the local facility, the entire CT room was in an uproar.

She saw one doctor after another in white coats rushing to the CT room, and knew it must be a serious illness.

The first thought was leukemia...

But when the doctors explained the condition to her, they said it wasn't.

They merely said the child's belly was full of spleen, a disease that couldn't be treated locally, and that she should take him to a higher-level hospital.

Her husband had died five years earlier; her in-laws, because the child was constantly ill, consulted a fortune-teller who said the child bore the heavenly curse and would kill relatives—until all kin were gone.

Otherwise, how could such strange things grow?

The parents-in-law believed it and quickly began to distance themselves from this mother and son. Her natal family urged her to leave the child with the grandparents so she could remarry.

After all, it's very difficult to remarry while bringing a child.

But as a mother, how could she bear to abandon the child? Moreover, she knew that given her parents-in-law's temperament, the child wouldn't even get a proper meal there, let alone medical treatment.

Thus, the mother and son embarked on a long journey to seek medical help.

But this illness was too strange; the local doctors couldn't treat it. Going to Sheng Cheng, they visited three or four hospitals, yet still received notices that surgery was impossible.

I don't know when it started, but she began to think of dying together with the child to end it all.

……

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I'm rushing to finish the manuscript, striving to add two extra days of updates at month's end. If I don't add more, Zao Lao tou zi will have no face to post a standalone chapter; in the end I'll mutter a bit, asking for monthly votes~