Come on, Dr. Wu

"Director Wu, there may be a patient who needs your help."

When Wu Xiaofu just stepped into Meldor Hospital, he saw Meldor Hospital's director Mela standing there waiting for him.

Hearing Meila's voice, Wu Xiaofu couldn't help but feel surprised. What on earth was going on? You know, this hospital clearly stipulates that patients infected with the Ebola virus will not be admitted! Could it be that this time they are not going to see this kind of patient? Or did the hospital make an exception?

However, no matter which possibility it was, Wu Xiaofu did not hesitate at all. He nodded decisively to show his agreement. Then, without saying anything, he followed Mela's footsteps closely. Due to time constraints, Wu Xiaofu did not have the opportunity to ask about the specific situation until the two of them were walking on the road: "What exactly is going on?"

Meila slowed down her pace, turned her head and said to Wu Xiaofu, "It's like this, Teacher Wu. There is a child who has been receiving treatment in the gastroenterology department of our hospital. However, after two weeks of treatment, his condition has not improved but has become more serious.

At present, the gastroenterologists are a little uncertain and hesitant about the child's condition. I just learned that you are in the hospital today, so I thought of inviting you to come and have a consultation together."

After hearing what Mela said, Wu Xiaofu thought to himself: So that's what happened! If so, this case must be very interesting. After all, Meldor Hospital is one of the largest hospitals in Country F, with many experts and professors gathered here, and the overall medical level should not be underestimated.

However, even these experienced medical staff were at a loss as to how to treat this child's condition, which showed how complicated it was! Thinking of this, Wu Xiaofu was full of expectations for the next consultation.

When Wu Xiaofu stepped into the gastroenterology ward, he was immediately attracted by the scene in front of him. The ward was crowded with people, forming a tight circle around the bed.

These people have different skin colors and come from different countries. Some have blond hair and blue eyes, some have dark skin, and some have yellow skin and black eyes. They are either discussing the illness in whispers or concentrating on observing the little girl on the bed.

Zheng Hua was also among them. He was tall and strong, and stood out in the crowd. Strangely enough, there were a total of 24 people in the exchange team. After arriving in Country F, most of them were either trying to adjust to the time difference or struggling with acclimatization.

However, Wu Xiaofu seemed completely unaffected and was in high spirits. Apart from that, Zheng Hua was the one who adapted the fastest. This guy usually paid attention to exercise and had excellent physical fitness, which really came in handy at the critical moment.

Since arriving at Meldor Hospital, Zheng Hua has keenly realized that this is a rare opportunity to learn. Just now, Mela came to look for Wu Xiaofu, but unfortunately, Wu Xiaofu happened to be out and had not returned.

Therefore, Meila had to ask Zheng Hua about Wu Xiaofu's whereabouts. After learning about this, Zheng Hua rushed to the ward without hesitation after learning the details of the relevant case.

"Boss!" Zheng Hua hurried forward when he saw Wu Xiaofu walking into the ward. He lowered his voice and quietly introduced the case to Wu Xiaofu: "It's a six-year-old girl, a local..."

While listening to Zheng Hua's words, Wu Xiaofu looked at the child on the hospital bed. His belly was so big.

This is not uncommon in the vast land of F State. Walking on the busy streets, you can often see some children wearing only shorts wherever you look.

These children were thin and pale, and clearly showed signs of malnutrition, but surprisingly, their shriveled bodies were covered with round, swollen bellies that looked like balls. From a distance, this strange sight looked like those of patients with liver cirrhosis and ascites.

However, although the symptoms of ascites are clear, it is not necessarily the case that these children have cirrhosis of the liver.

In fact, this unique appearance has become a unique "landscape" in the area. The reason why many children in Africa have big bellies is that they have suffered from hunger for a long time.

The extremely poor living conditions make it impossible for them to obtain sufficient and balanced nutrients. Over time, the protein content in their blood is greatly reduced.

When the osmotic pressure in the plasma decreases, the flow of water loses its original regularity and restraint and becomes extremely random. Because the abdominal cavity is relatively low, a large amount of water gathers here like rivers flowing into the sea, eventually forming ascites, which makes the children's stomachs look particularly large.

Another possibility is that parasitic infection may also cause this kind of big belly. The sanitary conditions in some parts of Europe are poor, and children are susceptible to parasitic infections such as roundworms and hookworms.

These parasites can multiply in a child's intestines, causing the abdomen to swell.

Parasitic infections can also cause digestive system diseases such as diarrhea and constipation. In severe cases, they may also cause health problems such as anemia and malnutrition.

Then there are some other factors, such as genetic factors, lifestyle habits, etc. But the impact of these factors is relatively small.

In fact, it is not only in F Africa, but also existed in ancient China. It’s just that people’s lives are better now, so there are fewer of them.

A very typical practice in ancient China was to eat Guanyin soil during famine, which made their stomachs bloated like balls. No one knew how many people had their stomachs burst.

Patients like this here are generally treated in the gastroenterology department, but this case should not be one of them, because it is a regional characteristic. The gastroenterology department of Meldor Hospital is still very good, especially in treating this kind of disease.

Now that it doesn't work, it seems there is still a problem.

"Two weeks ago, the child had abdominal discomfort without obvious cause, accompanied by abdominal distension, without vomiting, poor appetite or other symptoms, but with repeated fever, the highest temperature reached 2℃. At that time, they first went to a lower hospital for treatment. After seeing the condition of the child, the local hospital did not do any more tests and sent the child here with ascites."

George, the child's attending physician, began to describe the child's condition. Wu Xiaofu nodded and said, "Can't the hospital below treat this ascites?"

You know, the ascites in Continent F is different from that in other places. There is no troublesome primary disease such as cirrhosis. Ascites caused by hunger and malnutrition is actually very easy to treat.

Strengthen nutrition, replenish fluids and enhance circulation treatment. If there is a lot of ascites, fluid extraction treatment is actually enough.

This shouldn't be difficult for lower-level hospitals, so why send them here? Hearing Wu Xiaofu's question, the patient's attending doctor was a little embarrassed. Meila took over the conversation, "Teacher Wu, you don't know, there are some reasons for this. This child doesn't have much money for treatment. The lower-level hospitals are unwilling to advance the payment, so they push it to us. Our hospital has some public welfare subsidies, so many children like this are sent here."

That's it!

Wu Xiaofu understood immediately and came to the child. Normally, a six-year-old girl should weigh at least 15 to 30 kilograms and be about 1.1 meters tall. However, the child lying on the bed was probably only about 80 meters tall and weighed only 10 kilograms.

You know, in China, some well-nourished babies weigh five kilograms when they are born.

The child's abdomen was obviously bulging, with the abdominal wall veins exposed, but there was no rash or anything. A hard mass could be felt in the right upper abdomen with unclear boundaries and no obvious tenderness. There was no tenderness or rebound pain in the entire abdomen. The liver was felt 3 cm below the ribs, but the spleen was not felt below the ribs. There was a solid percussion sound in the liver area with slight percussion pain, no percussion pain in the kidney area, negative shifting dullness, and bowel sounds were auscultated 4 times/min.

“How come these are the only things I checked?”

After the physical examination, Wu Xiaofu took over the child's examination from George, but found that the examinations were pitifully few. It couldn't be that they didn't do a complete examination because they had no money, right?

It shouldn't be. Since she has collected it, Mela should not save it. What's more, if she really cared about it, she probably wouldn't have asked him to come and take a look.

In terms of blood tests, ten liver function tests were done, which was necessary. After all, even if it was a local characteristic, the possibility of cirrhosis had to be ruled out.

Among the ten liver function tests, the child's total protein and albumin were reduced, which is normal, after all, he is malnourished.

Glutamyl transpeptidase is slightly elevated, which depends on the specific condition.

Everything else is basically normal, including alpha-fetoprotein. Alpha-fetoprotein is an indicator for screening liver tumors. Of course, it can only be used as a screening option, and it cannot be used for diagnosis. High alpha-fetoprotein does not necessarily mean there is a liver tumor, and low alpha-fetoprotein does not necessarily mean there is no liver tumor.

So, many people have always had opinions on this, but it is definitely meaningful. At the very least, if your alpha-fetoprotein is high, there is a chance that you have a liver tumor and further diagnosis is required.

"Teacher Wu, we have no other options. Our area is a bit complicated, and there are many local customs. For example, this child's parents don't want to have an X-ray taken. They think it's a taboo and are very resistant. We have communicated with them many times. After all, we treated her for ascites before, but the effect was not good."

This!
Wu Xiaofu suddenly felt that the medical environment in China was not that bad. Not only was Mela talking about it, but other doctors nearby were also muttering about it.

One doctor even said that because he had not taken the wishes of patients and their families into consideration and violated their taboos, some doctors were retaliated against and almost killed.

This was really unexpected for Wu Xiaofu and the others. In China, at least for filming something like this, there was no need to sign a consent form, and basically no one resisted this.

However, without imaging examinations, diagnosis is quite difficult.

"Do you have any ideas?"

George and the others have been watching for so long, they can’t be without any ideas.

George nodded when he heard this. "We treated the patient for ascites, but the effect was not good. The patient's condition even got worse. At present, it seems that this is not simply starvation ascites. There are many sources of ascites, but the most likely source is the liver. The patient's liver indicators are also somewhat abnormal. We are considering whether it could be cirrhosis or a liver tumor!"

He nodded, and the patient's physical examination also showed that the patient did not seem to be feeling well.

Meila turned her eyes to Wu Xiaofu and said with a smile: "Teacher Wu, you are a famous Chinese medicine expert! I have always been very interested in our profound Chinese medicine and have spent a lot of time studying and researching it.

It is said that Chinese medicine can accurately determine what disease a patient has just by taking his pulse. Now this little patient is very averse to undergoing imaging examinations for some reason, so we thought of asking you to come out and help take his pulse to see if you can find out what the problem is. "

Hearing this, Wu Xiaofu suddenly understood and thought to himself, "So that's what's going on! At first, I was wondering what kind of difficult and complicated disease it was that needed me to come in for treatment. Now it seems that this case is indeed special. However, the special thing may not be how complicated the disease itself is, but that it is more difficult to diagnose."

After thinking it through, Wu Xiaofu nodded slightly to show his agreement, then stretched out his right hand and gently placed it on the child's slender wrist.

Although the child was physically unwell, his consciousness was not affected much. At this moment, the little guy was blinking his big watery eyes and staring at Wu Xiaofu. In addition to the obvious curiosity, there seemed to be a hint of fear and other indescribable emotions in his eyes.

Facing the child's innocent yet slightly nervous gaze, Wu Xiaofu tried to appear amiable and asked softly, "Little boy, tell uncle where you feel uncomfortable?"

Then, he began to carefully inquire about the child's symptoms, onset time, etc. After all, the information about the condition that others asked about belonged to them, and since he took over the diagnosis and treatment, he naturally had to establish a detailed medical record that belonged entirely to him.

By the way, this method can also relieve the mood of the sick child.

However, when Wu Xiaofu began to feel the child's pulse, his originally calm expression gradually changed. His brows knitted tightly together, as if he had encountered an extremely difficult problem. Because through this brief touch of the pulse, he realized that the pulse was not optimistic and showed obvious signs of stagnation.

This symptom is usually associated with a mass or tumor. As an experienced doctor, Wu Xiaofu has treated countless patients with liver tumors and is very familiar with this type of disease. Basically, as long as he feels the pulse, he can roughly determine whether it is a liver tumor, and the accuracy rate is as high as 80% to 90%. The pulse characteristics of the child in front of him at this moment are very similar to those of a liver tumor.

If we only consider the pulse condition, there may still be some errors. However, when Wu Xiaofu further analyzed other conditions of the child, such as skin condition, he had a clearer answer in his mind. (End of this chapter)