episode_0161

Episode 161. I can’t see (3)

****

I looked over Mr. Ethan’s medical records.

We need to find something that can cause a clot.

Although they prescribed some aspirin as an anticoagulant, it wasn’t a perfect solution. In any case, the cause of the illness had to be identified.

“Istina. Is there anything unusual in the patient’s medical records? Like a sick family member? Or a person who has been to the hospital before because they were sick?”

“I asked several times, but I didn’t hear anything suspicious. There’s nothing like that.”

It is not a good idea to rely on the patient’s memory, because the patient may not remember properly and may not know what is important.

The medical records weren’t that detailed, either. This patient isn’t obese. Even if there was a family history, there’s a high chance that he wouldn’t remember it. Should we end it here?

“Wait a minute. I didn’t check that.”

“What?”

I didn’t ask if he was still taking his medication.

It’s not a question I ask every patient, since medicine isn’t common in this world. But for now, I’ve pretty much eliminated other possibilities.

“I didn’t ask if you were taking any medicine.”

“Hey, of course I said that.”

When a patient is lying in a hospital bed, nothing is natural. It’s not natural for them to suddenly lose their eyesight for no reason, right?

“Let’s go ask.”

I went back to the sickroom while I was thinking about it. The patient was looking around with the blindfold in his hand. No, I told you to let your eyes rest.

“He, he’s wearing a blindfold.”

“I think I can see a little now… … . I’ll wear a blindfold. Sorry.”

The patient scratched his head awkwardly and put the blindfold back on. I just waited.

“Patient, are you taking any medication?”

“Does that have anything to do with the eyes?”

Look. If it wasn’t there, I would have said it wasn’t there.

“Please explain.”

“I bought some medicine in the neighborhood a few days ago. They said it was good for men, so I bought a few bottles and was taking them. Could that be why I’m taking them?”

I sighed inwardly.

This is an ironic reality. Many people believe that herbal medicine or traditional medicine is ineffective, but this is a misunderstanding. It is not ineffective.

Basically, isn’t there a lot of quantity?

When taking something like a herbal medicine, if you drink the medicinal ingredients in a cup, it is clear that this kind of traditional medicine is a much more daring treatment than Western medicine. It also has risks.

“It depends on what kind of medicine it is.”

“Brown liquid.”

What the heck. When you say brown liquid, you expect me to know what it is. There should be one or two brown liquids.

“You don’t know what goes in there?”

“Yes.”

I sighed.

Well, it’s a shame, but… …. It’s fortunate that we’ve found a strong suspect for the thrombosis.

What kind of drug is it? I thought it was probably some kind of plant-derived steroid.

“What… … . Did it work?”

“A little?”

The patient looked at his pants, then raised his head awkwardly and looked at me again. I just waited for the patient to speak.

“Okay, it worked.”

Steroids and sex hormone drugs, if abused, increase the risk of blood clots. The most important example to be aware of is oral contraceptives.

Well, I don’t know what this patient ate. It was a brown liquid, I think. It was probably a mixture of several substances, including the active ingredient.

We don’t know how those ingredients react or interact with each other.

Since it was effective, I can only guess that it contains steroid-based active ingredients.

“That… … . Patient, please do not take any supplements. It may be bad for your health.”

“I was just trying to buy some good eye medicine.”

That’s crazy talk.

I shook my head.

Aren’t you going through all this trouble because of that strange drug? There’s no reason to increase the dose.

If you take multiple medications at once, you may experience liver or kidney toxicity. What’s more, the ingredients of that brown liquid are not even known.

“If nothing happened, I would eat that too, and I wouldn’t have interfered. But it’s already caused serious side effects, right?”

“I never thought of that.”

It may also increase the risk of drug interactions. You should not take it indiscriminately.

“For the time being, you must not take any other medicine other than the one I am giving you. I don’t know what risks the medicine may have.”

“Okay.”

The patient nodded.

“I’m telling you this out of concern. That unknown drug could have caused the patient to go blind. So I’m telling you to be careful.”

Once you get sick, you get sick twice. It may not be the case for other people. These patients are considered high-risk and should be treated with special care.

“Can you see the eyes?”

“I’m back. Will I be completely better?”

“I don’t know.”

Because the ischemic state in some parts of the retina has persisted for more than a day, no one knows how much of the retinal cells that have stopped functioning will return.

Completely dead retinal cells won’t come back. It’s completely unknown how many dead cells there will be, and how much functional difference the patient will feel. I shook my head.

“It seems difficult to come back completely.”

“I see… … .”

“Can you still see the other eye?”

“The other side is visible.”

“With just a little practice, you’ll be able to get back to your daily life in no time. It’s not like your job requires a very sophisticated sense of distance, is it?”

“No.”

“Then, thank you for your hard work.”

“Teacher too.”

I left the patient and went out of the room.

If that was to be completely cured, I should have come within 3 hours, but I was late. I don’t even know if I had the means to get to the hospital within 3 hours.

It was a shame that the function eventually deteriorated. Although treatment was given, complete restoration of the patient’s original state was not possible.

I think it would be better to end it here.

****

I left the patient to rest and went back to the lab. I had to organize the medical records and think about using anticoagulants.

I thought this was a case that needed to be documented. Wouldn’t it be good to let people know what kind of disease diabetes is and what symptoms it causes?

I took a pen and paper and pondered.

“Professor! We have a new patient!”

This time, Amy burst into the lab door. Another patient? We’re busy today.

“Who is it?”

“They say it’s a cat. They say it came in lying down with serious injuries. If it weren’t for the professor, I think this person would die.”

A seriously injured cat. It might take some time… … Amy looked at me with an impatient expression. As if telling me to hurry.

I put on my black gown and headed back to the ward. If I were a cat, would I be much different from a human? Or would I be similar?

We’ll have to see to know.

“Can’t you guarantee it? If they’re cats, they’re definitely different from humans. Wouldn’t their physiological characteristics be different?”

“I just went to take a look. First of all, he seems to be a bit smaller than the average person.”

“I guess so.”

Amy muttered for a moment.

“Has a tail. Has cat ears between its hair. Has fangs. And has vertical pupils.”

“Is there any helpful information?”

“Uh… … . I checked and their body temperature is a bit higher than a person’s. Their breathing is also faster than a person’s.”

“Isn’t that because you’re sick?”

“Because it’s a trauma. I don’t know about that.”

The calculations get much more complicated.

It is difficult to jump to a conclusion when you don’t even know the basics, such as what a cat’s normal heartbeat is, or what its normal body temperature is.

Let’s see the patient, first.

****

The patient’s name is Daisy.

Not an academy cadet, but a female student from a nearby school. A cat person. Her vital signs are stable by cat person standards.

maybe.

In fact, there was no way to be sure.

As I said before, we don’t know the baseline vital signs of a healthy cat. It’s not even written down anywhere.

I opened the door to the sickroom and went in.

Today’s patient, the cat Suin, was lying on the hospital bed bleeding. How many times do I have to tell you that if you keep doing that, you’re in big trouble.

“Hey, patient, wake up!”

If I had come a little later, I almost killed someone.

The patient was bleeding from his left side. There was an arrow in the patient’s left side. Judging by the location, it must have gone into the lung.

“Get up! Sit down.”

I sat Amy and the patient up. The patient screamed in pain, but there was nothing I could do. If I lay down now, I would die.

“Sit down. You can’t lie down right now, you might get blood in your lungs. Can you breathe? Hey, bring me a face mask and a blanket.”

I ran straight to the patient.

The patient was grimacing in pain. His complexion was not good. If I pull out the arrow now, the patient’s bleeding will get worse.

“Don’t touch the arrows.”

I ran over and made Daisy sit down, tilting her slightly to the left so that the blood could pool. Amy ran up next to me.

“Hold on tight.”

Amy did as I said. Blood dripped from her wound, staining the hospital bed red.

Daisy didn’t seem to be in a condition to answer questions. Could I ask her some questions?

First, let’s calm down. If you talk and the pneumothorax gets bigger, it’s a big problem.

We need to decide how to treat it.