Krafft's Anomaly Notes

Chapter 369 Intracranial Hypertension
No one likes to be interrupted when they are concentrating on something, and Kraft is no exception.

His rising status as a result of his fame had given him the right to be willful and to refuse meaningless uses of his time without regard to the consequences, as others would automatically interpret this as the inhumanity and academic obsession common among ivory tower scholars.

The stereotypical medical school professor should spend six and a half days a week in the lab fiddling with bloody or weird things, and the remaining half day squatting outside the cemetery with a shovel and a sack. It is understandable that he doesn't want to see people.

There are many people who want to change this impression, but they will certainly find helplessly that some of their peers and themselves do behave in this way, and finally accept the small conveniences brought by the stereotype.

Unfortunately, after taking over the monastery, Kraft lost this right. Official business does not come according to stereotypes, and he has not lost the last bit of conscience before leaving all the trivial matters to his subordinates.

When Kupp pushed open the laboratory door, he had just finished fiddling with the pile of bone fragments that had been preliminarily sorted. After thoroughly washing and changing his clothes, he reluctantly sat down to look through the documents.

It was mainly about reimbursement of monastery renovation expenses. God knows how many urgent safety issues this building has accumulated in the past twenty years, and how many hidden dangers are hidden in the dark and have not been discovered.

The building material reserves of Priel County have all been exchanged for coins in the baron's treasury. Anyway, there is no need to keep these things in the wooden wall fort. If something happens, you can go to the mountain to take refuge. There is no doubt that the monastery has the obligation to generously shelter the believers of the Father - after they pay generous donations.

Reading and memorizing the monetary data was not difficult, but the review speed was still very slow. My mind was still stuck on the strange structure of those bone fragments, processing the text and calculations with the scraps of my thinking.

Judging from its appearance, the bone fragment does come from the human body and has a recognizable bone structure. Even Kupp can find the obvious femoral neck and expanded ilium, which can only belong to a creature that walks upright on two legs.

Some things that may be clavicles, mandibular bones, and even surviving molars further prove that the upper body of the remains also has normal human structure.

At least Kraft can say conservatively: excluding unnatural factors, there is an 80% probability that it is a person, and an adult.

However, the problem is that the internal structure of these bones is not reasonable.

Their bone cortex is so thin that it gives the illusion of being fragile, and is so transparent that it is almost like jade. When placed under sunlight, the outlines of the pigmentation spots on the back can be seen.

Although careful testing has revealed that its strength before death may be no less than that of normal bone, its insufficient thickness greatly reduces its toughness and energy absorption, making it more likely to cause bone fractures in the long run. At the same time, its function of protecting internal structures is relatively limited, which may be bad news for soft tissues such as bone marrow and cancellous bone.

In response to this harsh environment, the cancellous bone did not undergo compensatory proliferation; instead, it seemed to try to cope with it through structural optimization rather than stacking.

Compared with the conventional form between honeycomb and foam, it presents a honeycomb-like three-dimensional structure with larger and more regular holes, a geometric beauty rarely seen in living organisms.

It uses less bone to achieve similar functions, has outstanding technology, and is extremely cost-effective. It has a kind of beauty that "two kidneys are too many, so it's better to optimize one and save some blood flow."

[Bro thought he was playing a bridge engineer? ]

Every bit of money saved is a bit saved. This idea is only suitable for simulation games where the purpose is to pass levels, and is not suitable for real-world projects.

The structure has no redundancy and is very ingenious, but it does more harm than good in the long run.

Overall, it has little significance except for saving materials. If we have to say something, it is that it reduces weight, which may give people the illusion of being "as light as a swallow".

If it is to be called an abnormal phenomenon, it is a bit embarrassing compared to the various exaggerated deformities and mutations we have seen before.

If the location of its appearance wasn't so coincidental, it might be more reasonable to explain it as a rare congenital bone developmental abnormality.

He didn't understand the purpose of this change, and it would be useless to continue pondering it, so he might as well do some clerical work.

But now it seems that there is no chance to process the paperwork.

"Mr. Kraft..." Coop rushed into the laboratory without even knocking.

Kraft tilted his head and stared at him, waiting for trial, hoping that it would not be a troublesome matter that would take up too much time.

This obviously put a lot of pressure on him, who knew very well that what he was about to say would completely ruin the professor's schedule, but he knew even better what he should say at this time.

"There's a patient."

"Okay." is not necessarily a bad thing. At least it provides an excuse to devote yourself to your job instead of being trapped in official documents.

Kraft quickly jumped up from behind the table and trotted towards the reception room, dragging Coop with him, as if he would be dragged back by the expense reports on the table and stuck to the back of the chair if he was a little slower.

The patient's identity was both expected and a little unexpected.

One was the overturned monk, the one who looked more honest among the two. If I remember correctly, his name was Dominic. He was tied up tightly, with traces of vomiting at the corners of his mouth, and his mental state was a little fuzzy.

Field held him down, but didn't dare to use too much force, so he could only let him struggle from time to time.

The other one was a bit unfamiliar, a teenager who was still in adolescence, guarded by a middle-aged man with a similar facial features.

He seemed to be in much better condition than Dominic, but his eyes were still vague, as if he was attracted by something and was wandering around.

"What's going on?" Kraft glanced at the two men's faces and breathing, and took their pulses. Their vital signs were slightly abnormal, but not immediately fatal. "Don't panic. The time for the gates of heaven to open to them has not yet arrived."

"Sorry, we..."

"Let's talk about business. We'll talk about the rest later." It can be guessed that during the few days when the work report was interrupted, the two of them definitely did not stay in the manor honestly.

But he didn't want to hear about confessions or rich psychological processes; he wanted to hear about the course of the illness.

"It's a long story..."

"Pick the key points. The others go out, Coop, you stay."

Perhaps because he had just struggled and vomited, Dominic's breathing was rapid and irregular, but his pulse did not seem that fast, at least not matching the state after strenuous activity.

There were traces of repeated drying of gastric juice around the mouth, collar and chest, and a sour smell came to the nose.

Kraft frowned, perhaps this expression was understood as impatience and disgust. Field and the middle-aged man looked like they didn't know where to start. They opened their mouths but didn't say anything in sync, and looked at each other.

"He was vomiting violently? I mean the kind that was clearly abnormal, like a floodgate opening, and there was no warning. Is that right?"

The young man was fine, but Dominic's condition gave people a feeling that a storm was coming, and the situation could take a turn for the worse at any time.

"And a severe headache?"

After turning over the messy and tangled hair, there were only a few scratches on the scalp and no signs of serious impact, so external injuries were ruled out.

Kraft was relieved but unfortunate to see the two men nod in unison, with a hint of trust in the middle-aged man's eyes.

He just felt his eyes go dark, and he guessed right. Headache, severe vomiting, slow pulse, abnormal breathing.

I picked up the hand that was used to feel the pulse and saw that something was wrong with the fingers. Several of them were broken, but compared to the key problem, it was not a big deal.

Intracranial hypertension

It is not caused by traumatic hematoma. If it can still be seen after so many days, it is not like a surgical emergency. That is why it is more troublesome. It cannot be solved by risking craniotomy to clear the hematoma.

Brain edema? Or some other space-occupying lesion?
Kraft suddenly lost the courage to use his spiritual senses to peek, and waved his hands tiredly, transitioning from the emergency rescue stage to the family conversation stage, and motioned for the two to sit down.

The gates of heaven have indeed not yet opened, but Dominic's transfer application has probably been delivered to the throne of God. All it needs is a stroke of the pen and a complication approved so that he can report directly.

"Let's start from the beginning."

Since there is no other solution, why not listen to what happened? Maybe you can get some ideas?